Isolating Turntables from Bass

C

cbraver

Audioholic Chief
I have a pair of Sunfire True Signature subwoofers I got at a deal I'm going to use with my pair of Technics 1200s this fall.

I'm expecting to have bass feedback.

There are all kinds of gadgets they sell on the "DJ" market for combating this, but they are all either extremely ugly or have a downside. The most popular are those free floats, but queing on them is aweful and they are extremely UGLY. Cinderblocks are fine in a club, but not in my college apartment. It's just tacky.

I figured I'd ask you guys what isolation techniques I could use? I'm kind of at a loss. I don't want to spend huge money on it, and I don't want to have something that is extremely ugly. A pad or something would be perfect, I just don't know what....

I'm open to ANY suggestions and appreciate any tips in advance!

-Chad
 
C

cbraver

Audioholic Chief
I wouuullldddd.....but, I kinda have to isolate TWO turntables.... and they have to be on a desk ... because my monitors are in front of them.

Not my setup, but, mine is extremely simular:



And on mine there is an LCD screen in the center and such...so, I really need it on a desk.

-Chad
 
R

rschleicher

Audioholic
You might want to try a very soft foam pad. Mouse-pad foam is too dense, and will not provide much damping for very low frequencies. The very cheapest open-cell foam carpet pad is not bad. (Better-quality carpet pad is denser, and therefore probably worse. The cheapest stuff is quite soft and compressible, which will work better for the relatively light weight of most turntables. You don't wan't the weight of the turntable to totally collapse the foam, though.)
 
R

rschleicher

Audioholic
A couple of other comments related to turntable isolation. You basically have two sources of vibration - vibration or shock from people walking/dancing/jumping on the floor, and vibration generated by the music coming out of your speakers.

For floor vibrations, wall-mounting of the turntable is a great cure. The foam pad idea also helps. Further, adding mass to the "suspended" turntable will help the isolation, and will also lower the resonant frequency of the turntable's vibration, ideally to below audibility. Think of the turntable as a mass, connected by a spring to another vibrating mass (the floor, via whatever tables or stands are in between). The pad effectively softens the spring, while adding mass to the turntable makes the mass on the end of the spring higher. Both serve to lower the frequency of vibration, and isolate the turntable from the vibrating floor.

Same basic argument applies to the vibrations from the music, except that these are (or may be) coming via the air. As a result, wall-mounting probably doesn't make a difference, nor does a pad underneath the turntable. But, a more massive turntable still helps. Also, if the low-frequency music vibration is coming through the floor (from a sub-woofer that is standing on the floor, say), then the approaches mentioned above will still help. In any case, you are talking trial and error.
 
C

cbraver

Audioholic Chief
Thanks very much for the responses!

I've seen those "subwoofer pads" ... you know what I'm talking about? Like what people put under their subwoofers? What if I put one of those under each turntable? Who makes those anyways?

-Chad
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
cbraver said:
Thanks very much for the responses!

I've seen those "subwoofer pads" ... you know what I'm talking about? Like what people put under their subwoofers? What if I put one of those under each turntable? Who makes those anyways?

-Chad
That will not solve your problem as the sound of lows will resonate walls, or most anything and vibrate it regardless of the speakers isolation from the floor or not. The most you can do is isolate the TT from surfaces that would feed the vibration into the TT. Airborn sound will be the minimal interference and cannot be isolated except when you remove the TT to another room ;)
 
C

cbraver

Audioholic Chief
No no, I mean put the subwoofer pads under the turntables, not the subwoofers.
 
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