Best isolating feet for turntable plinth?

[montesquieu]

Sorry - late to this as was away for a week on hols.

I'm generally an arch-skeptic in the tweakery department but the improvement for me of the Townshend Seismic pods over sorbothane threaded feet was clearly audible right from the off and I was sold pretty much instantly. This on a TD124 MkII with the Schopper platter and bearing fitted, in one of Russ's layered cherry plinths, a moderately large one 620mm x 480, something like 40-50kg with everything fitted up. I guess much of it depends what's going on in your room and what you have by way of supports already but for me the cleaner lower register actually came as something of a surprise - I was not expecting so obvious an improvement.

[p147]

I bought a pack of these some time ago for my father in law and they work wonders, and for the small outlay certainly worth it.
Vulcanised ice hockey rubber pucks.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pack-Of-5...gAAOSwridaAxPi

[nickbaba]

More votes for the Townshend, looks like a clear winner by this point.

Nari - I don't doubt that you can hear such subtle differences as different spring sizes and what-have-you, I just doubt my own ability to hear such things, having some experience with micro-tweaks on that level I basically can't hear any difference at all e.g. between one type of mains cable and another, one decent interconnect vs another etc etc I'm not saying that those subtle differences don't exist, I'm saying that my room and most likely my ears are not at that level of resolving fine detail that it makes any difference to me. And that sort of concern is way way up the curve of diminishing returns for me anyway, past the point that I would be bothering to spend money on improving things.
I would say I don't consider myself an audiophile in the sense of someone on an obsessive quest for audio perfection, although it's a noble quest and an entertaining hobby and for that reason one never really wants the quest to end, after all that would be no fun. But I am a musician and a recording engineer/producer who is also a music fan, especially on vinyl, and I know when music sounds good to me. I have fun experimenting with my system and always open to change and improvement but mostly I'm happy to paddle about in the shallow end of the audiophile pool, and just enjoy the music.

[Vrajbasi]

More votes for the Townshend, looks like a clear winner by this point.

Nari - I don't doubt that you can hear such subtle differences as different spring sizes and what-have-you, I just doubt my own ability to hear such things, having some experience with micro-tweaks on that level I basically can't hear any difference at all e.g. between one type of mains cable and another, one decent interconnect vs another etc etc I'm not saying that those subtle differences don't exist, I'm saying that my room and most likely my ears are not at that level of resolving fine detail that it makes any difference to me. And that sort of concern is way way up the curve of diminishing returns for me anyway, past the point that I would be bothering to spend money on improving things.
I would say I don't consider myself an audiophile in the sense of someone on an obsessive quest for audio perfection, although it's a noble quest and an entertaining hobby and for that reason one never really wants the quest to end, after all that would be no fun. But I am a musician and a recording engineer/producer who is also a music fan, especially on vinyl, and I know when music sounds good to me. I have fun experimenting with my system and always open to change and improvement but mostly I'm happy to paddle about in the shallow end of the audiophile pool, and just enjoy the music.

Ultimately one can only determine if something makes an audible difference by listening and generally living with it for a while, personally if you can hear the difference between two different turntables than you certainly hear the difference isolation makes. I would certainly vouch for an townshend platform you could even look out for a used Vibraplane which is in another class all together I have seen them pop up from time to time. They are quite heavy mind but boy do they sound amazing.And you start of the thread looking for better feet etc so you are certainly looking for an improvement and you can certainly achieve one. Changing feet etc will not be as dramatic as the Townshend/ vibraplane.

[WESTLOWER]

Ultimately one can only determine if something makes an audible difference by listening and generally living with it for a while, personally if you can hear the difference between two different turntables than you certainly hear the difference isolation makes. I would certainly vouch for an townshend platform you could even look out for a used Vibraplane which is in another class all together I have seen them pop up from time to time. They are quite heavy mind but boy do they sound amazing.And you start of the thread looking for better feet etc so you are certainly looking for an improvement and you can certainly achieve one. Changing feet etc will not be as dramatic as the Townshend/ vibraplane.

Interesting product that Vibraplane..
But Wow! most folk would certainly need a second hand Vibraplane isolation platform as the retail looks something like $5,500....and you have to keep an air compressor unit in the listening room.
This really does sound like DIVORCE territory!!

[nickbaba]

Yes I started the thread asking about feet because I'm having a plinth built right now and wondered what kind/type of feet I should fit to it, thinking that some kind of suspended isolation feet would be enough in and of themselves to do the job. But I see the sense of combining them with a constrained layer platform to further dampen vibration. I've been in touch with Les at Soundeck and he had an 8mm thick 500x400cm plate of constrained layer SDS which I could combine with 4 Townshend feet to make a budget platform for around £500.

[tlscapital]

Townshend feet seem to be an efficient product even if I do find them rather expensive for what they are. Now they recommend them for every other bit of the phono gear as well...

Where it puzzles me some is how such sensitive feet can manage to balance unevenly distributed weight (platter, motor, tonearm...) from a heavy turntable that needs to stay leveled ?

[montesquieu]

Townshend feet seem to be an efficient product even if I do find them rather expensive for what they are. Now they recommend them for every other bit of the phono gear as well...

Where it puzzles me some is how such sensitive feet can manage to balance unevenly distributed weight (platter, motor, tonearm...) from a heavy turntable that needs to stay leveled ?

The height / strength of each spring can be adjusted individually and also something can be achieved by sensible placement - they don’t all have to go in the outside corners. I had no trouble levelling a decidedly asymmetric TD124 setup.

[nickbaba]

Now they recommend them for every other bit of the phono gear as well...

Of course they do..!

[nickbaba]

Where it puzzles me some is how such sensitive feet can manage to balance unevenly distributed weight

There are several different models of feet rated for different weight loads. By combining them you can compensate for uneven weight distribution, as I will have to do with the 401.