Garrard chassis / plinth washers

[Tony L]

Seems to be a fair bit of debate out there on t'internet as to whether the four thick rubber washers should be used when bolting the deck to the plinth or not. I'm curious as to what people have found works with different plinth types. I'll run this as a poll, but it needs explanation too, i.e. what type of plinth you have.

Tony.

 

[Gerry]

Tony

My plinth is a vague copy of your first one. It is 4 layers of 18mm Baltic Birch ply glued together which sit on squash balls and these sit on another layer of 18mm birch ply to which the Hard wood surround is attached. If that makes sense!!!
Basically the top plate is 72mm thick instead of a single layer.

Sounds very good...in fact I'm using it more than the other TTs at the moment. Treble is not quite there, but the bass ...lovely.

I have a TD124 too which is mounted on a similar plinth. The rubber mushrooms are in poor condition, so I tried without...much better too.

How is your slate plinth coming on...I'd be interested to know?

 

[Tony L]

How is your slate plinth coming on...I'd be interested to know?

The plinth is now finished...

...though it will be a good while until I get to hear it as all my kit is currently in storage whilst some building work is done on my home. The plinth is very wet with linseed oil in the pic, it's now a nice stealthy matt sheen that I prefer. I'll probably start off by using the rubber washers, as much as anything due to my being worried about scratching the plinth or 301, but I may well try without them later. I used the rubber washers on my previous Loricraft clone plinth, I never tried it without. Terry at Loricraft considers the washers pretty much essential so I just left it alone.

My 124/II is in a German Stereo Lab hollow plywood plinth (a copy of the 50s Ortofon plinth) and uses mushrooms from the same company, again I've never tried it without, the plinth is probably too lightweight to want to rigidly couple the motor board to.

Tony.

 

[Patrick Dixon]

I use the washers - never tried it without.

I use squash balls under mine too - didn't like the spikes.

I think even one slab of slate is too lightweight to kill all the microphonics on it's own.

 

[GWM]

I use a 5 layer 18mm marine ply plinth on a wall stand with roller bearings underneath.Tried with and without washers it was worse with, the whole sound was vager if you understand my meaning.I also found overtightening to the plinth made it worse,may due to distoring the top plate so I have it just tight enough so it won't move.
Going to try the squash balls how many and what version?
Geoff

 

[JimKempton]

I prefer with but it's not that big a difference TBH.

I use a very lightweight and stiff (low Q) Torlyte plinth custom made for the 401. I have tried heavy and damped; heavy and stiff and much prefer the Torlyte.

It's on a light and rigid wall shelf. It actually sounds better on a floor stand but my floor is suspended and too bouncy so I get footfall problems.

I've just Ebayed a vgc L75 so I'm going to go through the whole light or heavy thing again to see if it's any different for the Lencos - I'm betting not

JK