Isolation Feet for Turntable

[poppachubby]

Hey Everyone! I have ordered my Vibrapod type 2 isolation feet for my turntable. Thanks for the reccomendation emaidel!

Anyhow, I was walking through my workshop and saw a large piece of carpet underlay. Like a strike of lightening it came to me. I looked at the piece and thought for a moment. The underlay also looked at me and coyly said "who....me?!?"

I couldn't help myself. I have fashioned some isolation feet using basic carpet underlay. I used a coffee mug to trace the circles, chosen for its ideal diameter. 4 per foot. Wood glue between each layer.

Problem at this point, it looks horrendous. It actually looks like 4 pieces of carpet underlay piled on top of each other. The underlay has a symmetrical square design on it, for ease of cutting and fitting. I decided to cut strips as wide as the feet are tall. I used glue on these as well with a piece of tape at the seam to hold it together until the glue dries.

I put "The Matrix" soundtrack in my CDP and cranked it. I felt the chassis of the TT and it was shaking like an earthquake was happening. I cut a mat from the underlay, and with my new feet, set up the TT. Matrix back on....

Holy MOther!!!!!!! Almost no vibration could be felt!!! I'm not kidding, it was nuts. I had the music at levels far greater than normal. This thing definitely cut out the majority of the vibration.

I have to go out tonight so I can't give it the real test, playback. Anyhow, I will replace these with my Vibrapods when they arrive regardless. Maybe something someone can try if their budget is already blown.

Due to problems with the photo upload tool, each photo will be in its own post.

[poppachubby]

A single completed foot...

[poppachubby]

Mat and feet, final product...

[poppachubby]

Another pic....

[JohnMichael]

I have had fun with feet for my turntable. Currently I am using a rigid cone in the rear to drain motor vibrations and two Rega feet in the front. I have in the past used two rigid cones one in the rear and one on the left side closest to the main bearing. Of course Regas are three footed tables.

[harley .guy07]

Cool deal Poppa. Good DIY thinking. I always like hearing about people saying damn the man and building their own stuff. Accessories are one of the places that DIYing can save you a lot of money. Me I build my own stuff all the time. My AV cabinet is a modified store bought. My speakers are heavily moded. My subwoofer cable and speaker cables that I am using now are diy as far as connectors. And if has saved me a lot of money over just going to buy the high end fixes at the shop. By the way Poppa have you picked a DAC yet. I have been looking at the MUSILAND md-10 dac myself, It upconverts and can handle all of the different inputs from my multidisk player and computer. Let me know

[poppachubby]

Cool deal Poppa. Good DIY thinking. I always like hearing about people saying damn the man and building their own stuff. Accessories are one of the places that DIYing can save you a lot of money. Me I build my own stuff all the time. My AV cabinet is a modified store bought. My speakers are heavily moded. My subwoofer cable and speaker cables that I am using now are diy as far as connectors. And if has saved me a lot of money over just going to buy the high end fixes at the shop. By the way Poppa have you picked a DAC yet. I have been looking at the MUSILAND md-10 dac myself, It upconverts and can handle all of the different inputs from my multidisk player and computer. Let me know

Thanks harley. The only thing about these feet is that I don't really know how much isolation is being provided. They are definitely absorbing a heap of vibration though.

Haven't made a move yet but check out this bit...http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=31968

Find the part where RGA and I start chatting about the dac, I'll check out the Musiland. Where are you buying it from?

[audio amateur]

Nice!
What Hi-Fi mag once recommended cutting squash balls in half as cheap isolation feet.
My problem with that is if the weight in whatever you want to use them with is uneven, it might tip to one side. But then it should work with TTs, their weight is usually well distributed (I think).

[Feanor]

...
Find the part where RGA and I start chatting about the dac, I'll check out the Musiland. Where are you buying it from?

From HERE (http://www.pacificvalve.us/DIYEDENGallery.html), Pacific Valve & Electric. These guys offer great service in my experience.

[poppachubby]

Nice!
What Hi-Fi mag once recommended cutting squash balls in half as cheap isolation feet.
My problem with that is if the weight in whatever you want to use them with is uneven, it might tip to one side. But then it should work with TTs, their weight is usually well distributed (I think).

By luck entirely, when checked with a level, the table was perfectly balanced.

[harley .guy07]

Pacific valve is one of the companies like feanor said that I have seen and read specs on this unit. For one thing it handles all the way up to 192 kh and 24 bit,plus it upconverts all inputs to as high as you want it to upconvert which I don't think the Chiang Sheng does either according to their specs. The Musiland seems to have a good following and there are even upgrade options for it so it can be put to the next level when one is ready. But Ebay has them cheaper but Pacific Valve does back their products better so it could be better to buy from them.

[poppachubby]

Pacific valve is one of the companies like feanor said that I have seen and read specs on this unit. For one thing it handles all the way up to 192 kh and 24 bit,plus it upconverts all inputs to as high as you want it to upconvert which I don't think the Chiang Sheng does either according to their specs. The Musiland seems to have a good following and there are even upgrade options for it so it can be put to the next level when one is ready. But Ebay has them cheaper but Pacific Valve does back their products better so it could be better to buy from them.

Where do you live harley? Man , I wish you were close to me, we could split the cost and audition some stuff. Re-sell if we don't like it. Would be fun but oh well.

I checked out the Musiland and it looks super cool. I am still set on the dac-01. I'm pretty sure I will get it. Did you check out RGA's posts? What do you think harley, Ebay or no...

[poppachubby]

Mission Accomplished!! You may notice the Marantz is different. I used 4 plastic cores from a roll of product at my work. I lined the bottom and top with the underlay. I will now do my Pioneer PL-516 and that's that. This will give me a good comparison point for the Vibrapods. The 516 doesn't suffer much sonic interference as it's hooked up to my comp right now and out of "harms" way. This was a fun, easy and inexpensive little venture. highly recommended

[daviethek]

no hockey pucks? wtf

two of my favorite are 1) hockey pucks split sawed in two with mouse-pad sorbathane or cork in the middle layer and 2) solid wood circles cut using a door lock hole cutting jig. ( thought you'd never use that thing again, huh? ) On the bottom of the wood pucks, I broke down and bought metal points at maybe 10 bucks for the four. I have found that combinations of materials in layers seem to work beter than just one material.

Maximum wifely amusement in both cases. How can I ever be a cheating husband when I am so easily enthralled by audio gear.

[harley .guy07]

yeah I live in Joplin Mo. its on the southwestern part of Missouri so we would be spending most of our audio money in plane tickets to do that but that one hell of an idea though! I read the post from RGA and he sounds reasonable in his thoughts. I do believe that the chinese have come a long way in producing electronics and I think right now they are trying to win the hearts of some of the higher end people out there so they are pricing their stuff at more reasonable levels than American and British companies are. pacific valve is a similar company to Grant in that they are backing a lot of the chinese built dacs and equipment that is the better quality stuff that they make. The only difference is that they don't change the label to their own brand. check out their site, they sell the chiang sheng dac too. Its the same unit as Grants it just has the native name still attached to it. The only thing that makes me more interested in the musiland is two things, It upconverts the incoming signal to as high as you want to convert it to. and it can handle all the way to 192 kh where the Grant piece only goes to 96. not to say that counts the Grant unit completely out I just think the Musiland has more options for the money and might have the edge in sound due to ability. the grant piece does have the ability to choose op amps or tube output though which is interesting and a very good option. hell if I could put the chip sets from the musiland and take the tube output from the Grant(Chiang sheng) I think it would be a piece to recon with. pacific Valve must love the Musiland unit because it even goes so far as to offer modifications to it for both Macintosh compatibility and to better the performance over what it allready is. I just read a review of the musiland from affordable audio and they said that this unit is a very good unit and it can hold its own or beat anything in this class and price category. So right know I got to put the ol thinkin cap on and really find out which one of the units would fit my needs and wants better. I like attributes of both machines and I think a person wouldn't go wrong with either I just want the best I can get for the jack(money). Hell If I had the money I would buy a few of these different units and do a dac shootout and then we would have the data and listening experience to tell which of these units is really the gem in the rough.

[poppachubby]

Maximum wifely amusement in both cases. How can I ever be a cheating husband when I am so easily enthralled by audio gear.

haha, well put. How about some pics?

[poppachubby]

harley, the solution is simple, you buy the Musiland and I'll buy the dac-01. After a month let's trade so we can check em out. You game?

[poppachubby]

Slow night at work. Threw some steel on the lathe and churned out these. 3 lbs. each, really solid. Can't comment on how they work until tommorrow...

[poppachubby]

Technics SL-Q2

[poppachubby]

I made 12 feet total.

[audio amateur]

Ssup Chubbs?

How are those feet (steel ones) going to help?

[usbmusic]

Thanks for the cool tweak. I always wonder how is this type of soft pad compare to the ball bearing type. http://www.diyaudiostore.com/images/xindak/xindak-isolation-feet.jpg

Anyone?