Post your turntable setup...can't get enough of those spinners!

picked em up from SoundSmith yesterday

 

@Hooncake Gorgeous turntable AND Men I trust? Too much good stuff

 

Wow. The table looks sharp as heck. Strain Gauge system, of which I know little, must be fantastic. Schroder arm... Wow.

SoundSmith is selling old 401s now? Or they just had that in shop?

I've been down the analog rabbithole lately. Finally mounted a GrooveMaster 12-J on my 401. Moved my Jelco 850 12" over to my SP10MK2 set-up.

Now trying to sort my phono stage. Have been running a ModWright PH 9.0 for a while. It sounds great on 75% of records--I really like it--but I think I can step up or sideways to something else. Currently messing around with a Nagra BPS, which is pretty great for such a little unit (9V powered!). Especially with this Koetsu Black I got used. Need something different for my SPU Synergy G though.

Also gonna try a EAR 834 and maybe a Luxman EQ-500 or a Musical Fidelity NuVista Vinyl, with a couple of different SUTs.

Complex world....

 

Granted I haven't heard one, but I would consider checking out the Tavish Design Adagio: https://tavishdesign.com/collections/frontpage/products/adagio-vacuum-tube-phono-stage-mm-mc

I just have their budget Vintage pre, but have been incredibly impressed with it's performance, and Scott of Tavish was super helpful to work with through the ordering process. Have enjoyed it so much that the Adagio is definitely my next upgrade.

For your purposes, you have some options for the built-in SUT as well, and can step up the power supply. Lots of flexibility for different carts for sure.

 

Definitely have the Tavish in mind. I'll actually have two arms on the SP-10, so trying to figure out either two different stages or one stage with a bunch of inputs.

Tend to go with equipment that I can demo in-home--as I'm constantly surprised what I do and don't end up liking--and I'm not sure if Scott (who seems great on email) is set up for in-home auditions.

 

Yeah, hard to imagine he would be up for that since everything is built to order. Hope you get to hear it at some point though, would love some impressions in that phono tier as I save for my endgame living room setup.

I would kill for a SBAF loaner tour of the Tavish Minotaur and Adagio. Last I chatted with Scott he is also working on a 40 WPC amp currently as well. Have just been very curious as I want to build living room system around an integrated, and I like a lot of the decisions he made with the minotaur.

 

New Simon Yorke S9 to keep my S10 company, aka a pair of Yorkies...

 

Replaced my Project Debut Carbon with a (used) Clearaudio Concept today. Carried over the Nagaoka MP110 and I'm selling the Concept MM with the Project. I intend to swap the Nag for a MC cart - Denon 103R or so, with a phono upgrade (currently on the Mani). Probably next year, im not sure yet.

Does anyone know if I can use the Project Puck on this thing? It fits of course but the weight difference compared to the Concept platter weight is 3x - 750g vs 250g. I'm wondering if it might be a bit much for the motor or so?

 

Current iteration of Sol:



Add-ons:
Nagaoka MP-500 cart
Music Hall Cruise Control 2.0
George Merrill PolyWeight
Isolation setup is a foam isolation pad on top of my audio rack, then ISOAcoustics pucks, and finally the cutting board that Sol sits on. It's level and it seems to be well-isolated from room and rack feedback, so I'll take it.

 

I found it better for my suspension table to make my rack wider (if possible) and mass loaded near the bottom as much as possible (amp at the bottom) and it worked a lot better than trying to float my table setup since you start getting more weird 2nd order subsonic effects.

 

Honestly I'm not sure I could recognize 2nd order subsonic effects if they were occurring. The only real subsonic consequence I've seen in my own room is woofer pumping, and I've no idea if that's a 2nd order issue or not. Still, that's an interesting point and I appreciate you bringing it up.

My rack is loaded with the most mass (HT AVR) at the bottom, and less heavy items above that (DAC and transport are next rung, then preamp, then phono preamp). I also have the rack sitting on vibration dampening pads to give them some support off a faux wood floor over concrete. That was also so I could level the thing also.

So far, I've not detected any issues. I can't actually use a wall shelf in here - tried that once but I get resonance through the wall and it took me months to figure that out. It's a small room and a small budget to build it, I work with what I can

 

Beautiful setup!

I would not use the heavy Project Puck for your particular table.
Just get the Clearaudio Puck that is made for the table:
https://www.amazon.com/Clearaudio-AC0122-Concept-Record-Clamp/dp/B007RFH5V8

If not that, you can also get an Orsonic DS 250 which I like a lot. It flattens the record without addition of a lot of mass:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ORSONIC-Mo...675121?hash=item3b4e5b4671:g:wJoAAOSwoWFfXhGq

 

If you're on wood over concrete, I would definitely run less isolation and just load mass instead. But if you're happy with the results then just stick with it.

 

I will say this rack is not what I would consider to be a stellar piece of furniture. It's "heavy" but it's still kind of cheap. Eventually I'd like to get a better wood/iron rack, even one of those where it's just threaded rods and butcher blocks for shelves. But I kind of shudder to think of disassembling all that's in there today and putting it back together. Maybe someday

That said, without the isolation measures in place right now, I can get the table to ring pretty good, whereas with the isolation in place it's as dead as I can make it. The sound though, is lively and fast off the table. I have played around with acoustic isolation/suspension under turntables and found it slow and plodding (forgive the simple explanations, I know what I heard but describing it is another matter) and just generally uninteresting. Thankfully the way it all sits today, it doesn't have those issues.

I should mention, just out of frame I have a 2 x 3 "cube shelf" loaded with vinyl. I had this same platform, minus the foam, on that just a couple days ago. I like to use that space as something of a work surface and extra storage so I moved Sol and the platform back to the rack. To my ears, they sound the same. The vinyl shelf has to weigh 2-3x what the rack does.
Appreciate your words - thank you!

 

One idea that's worth considering given wood-over-concrete slab is to try placing the TT directly coupled (i.e. spike footers) to the concrete slab floor. If this sounds "better," then your rack/TT-interface should be as rigid and well-coupled as possible. Nothing low Q, or rubbery - just rigid lightweight (and therefore lossy at high frequencies) coupling interfaces from the floor up to the TT. If coupling the TT directly to the floor sounds "worse," then you're going to want to isolate it using many of the options you're already doing, i.e., decoupling with the pad, and coupling the TT to a higher mass shelf.

 

Thanks, i'll look into them. Is the general idea to add mass or flatten the record? I think for the Project it was mainly adding mass since the platter was much lighter..

 

It's to couple the record to the platter. Some people like to do it weights, some with mats, some just raw dog it.

 

is there then a difference between a weight and a clamp from that perspective? is a clamp only advantageous when you have a warped record?

And why do some turntables have lighter or heavier weights? Is it to balance the line between adding mass and straining the motor?

Having asked all this, I'm REALLY enjoying the Concept. Its a bigger upgrade than I was expecting and I learned a lot about setup because I really had to redo everything when swapping from the Concept MM to the Nagaoka.
I'm now curious where the MC carts and upgraded phono stages take me (but only next year)..

 

I really enjoyed my Concept when I had it. I "upgraded" to a VPI Classic 2 and while some part of why I didn't like it was my fault, ultimately I liked the Concept for more reasons than the VPI.

And with a spate of minor quibbles hitting with my Sol, I was really tempted to go back to a Concept or Performance DC but they've really gone up in price the last few years apparently. Really great tables both to hear and to look at, IMO. What cartridge are you running?

As for weights/clamps - it all depends on the bearing and the design intent of the table. Is it "mass-based" or is it a more lightweight, agile type of thing? Concepts are kinda in the middle on that spectrum, especially with the air bearing arm.

The weight that I use is the Gem Dandy PolyWeight. It's not a ton of mass but it is meant to couple the record to the platter like mentioned above, and to give energy built up in the assembly a place to dissipate from that isn't the cartridge stylus. And on two different tables now, it works wonders. It's not so heavy as to create bearing concerns, but the Delrin material and cork/vinyl filling really do darken the background and tighten up the focus around instruments and imaging. And to me, it's $69 asking price is sane, given how it works.

 

@shaizada was the one who put me on the Concept. According to him, if I was in the US he would have asked me to save up for a VPI but in the EU the Concept is a very very good choice. I listened and I'm happy I did!

Im currently running the Nagaoka MP110 that I was running on my Project Debut Carbon (I had dynamat added to the tonearm on that one to increase mass for matching with the Nag - I think i posted about it here a long while ago). The Concept itself came without a cart, since the guy wanted to carry his cart onto his next turntable. I intend to go in the MC direction when I can again - something like a Denon 103R or so with an aluminium body cap. Not completely sure yet, I havent checked if that model works with the Concept and so on

I'll check out the PolyWeight now! I was actually thinking of getting an ice hockey puck and drilling a hole in it. Would probably end up right around 150g which is lighter than the Clearaudio one (215g), but its 1.5€ vs 100€..