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Rega: is a rigid wall mount so important ?

All turntables will sound better on a decent support. How decent is down to your personal circumstances. I now run wall mounted supports, but have had my turntables sitting on standard IKEA shelving in the past so close to the speaker that I had limited volume from vinyl until a feedback loop from speaker into cartridge started impacting SQ.

Just put it on the best support you can - no other deck will deal with shitty support issues any better
 
Well, if you cannot have a wall mount, then put it on top of a normal rack.

If your floor is really solid and any steps or even dancing nearby the rack will not get through to the deck and needle, fine.

If yes, you can choose a compromise by buying some kitchenplate 2,8cm thick from the quality brands Thermopal or Duropal.
Any design you like, have the cut sides laminated in the same (wood?) design,
place it on thick felt feet and put your rack onto that then.
(or 2 racks however many you have, the more weigth on it the better)

Thermopal or Duropal plate is also cheap and absolutely flat to place your deck onto
and a bit of an underestimated quality product.
The density of the material is high under the surface & looser in the mid region, hence it's vibration absorbing capability is quite good. also e.g.if you place something on spikes onto it.

A freshly unpacked Rega P3 I wsn' able to level out the chassis bc the level gauge showed different readings in every corner I tried,
suggesting the Rega is not, or rather said, the one we unpacked was not as even and level in quality as a Thermopal plate.

In this case, Rega or not a spirit level that can be placed onto the spindle is helpful,
so at least the platter is level so the centre bearing can work as it's supposed to ,and then the TA head should be level /in the water.
Spindle spirit should be available for about 17.- online.

Consider Sorbothane underneath only if you have massive bass waves around.

Are you from Switzerland, Daniele ?
 
No: Italy

Ah, ok.
In or near territory of light seismic activity I'd probably choose a Thermopal board placed on 4 sandfilled cushions

and no direct coupling to the ground via mass (slate) or spikes.

No Lack table, too.
The Lack table is not that bad and the cheapest way to get ie an LP12 running at all, but not THAT great either.
There's better material and solutions, esp in stability.
And having the surface not any bigger than the deck that's to be placed on it gives bass waves less surface to shake on.
Dedicated Thermopal plate cut to size and placed on any feet/spike/material you fancy due your individual problematic resonances in your room.

My impression is, you're looking for a simple 'one size fits all' answer Danielle.
All you'll probably get w/o anybody having an idea if your floor is suspened laminate or concrete is a pretty long thread.. :)
 
Out of interest in what way did it transform the sound?

It was a bit like a junior version of what happens to an LP12 when it has a properly set up Mana Ref table under it - bags of mid band energy, etc. To this day I don't think I've ever heard the first Ramones album sound quite as good.

Mind you, in reality it was quite possibly all mechanically induced distortion of some kind :D

Playing around with TT support - especially in DIY way - is great fun and pays serious dividends IME. Especially for Regas.
 
I've owned a Planar 3 and a P9 and certainly found them sensitive to siting, though all turntables are IME. I actually found my P9 sounded best on a simple chopping block on the floor, that sounded better than Mana or Quadraspire Ref to me. It was the point I abandoned audiophile furniture. I didn't have the option of a wall shelf in that location, but I bet that would have been better again.

The new ultra-low mass Rega designs are very interesting. That direction has happened since I last heard a Rega deck. I guess it was just starting to emerge with the Mk I P9 I had, but there is a world of difference between that and the foam laminate plinth of the modern equivalent. How do they sound? I liked the P9; very fast, agile, and good pitch etc, but ultimately a bit lightweight for me so I went back to an LP12 and now decades later I'm in vintage idler world! I guess a TD-124 is somewhere between low and high mass; nothing compared to a NAS Dais, Kuzma etc, but a lot more than a Rega!
 
I've owned a Planar 3 and a P9 and certainly found them sensitive to siting, though all turntables are IME. I actually found my P9 sounded best on a simple chopping block on the floor, that sounded better than Mana or Quadraspire Ref to me. It was the point I abandoned audiophile furniture.

The new ultra-low mass Rega designs are very interesting. That direction has happened since I last heard a Rega deck. I guess it was just starting to emerge with the Mk I P9 I had, but there is a world of difference between that and the foam laminate plinth of the modern equivalent. How do they sound? I liked the P9; very fast, agile, and good pitch etc, but ultimately a bit lightweight for me so I went back to an LP12 and now decades later I'm in vintage idler world! I guess a TD-124 is somewhere between low and high mass; nothing compared to a NAS Dais, Kuzma etc, but a lot more than a Rega!

It's interesting to look at the core beneath the phenolic skin on the older decks. You can see that even the older decks including the 2/3 were built along the low mass/stiff philosophy. In the case of the earlier decks it was a soft low density particle board core, milled away in part and left intact where stiffness was important - between bearing and arm mount and motor. The shape beneath the surface of the skin is very similar to the current 8/10 but of course they take the concept further.

I have a recording out there somewhere of a P9 placed on a floor stand about 10cm away from a loudspeaker with the volume way up. Stylus sitting on a stationary record with music fed vis CD. The TT/arm/cart is effectively the microphone.
The recording is interesting as you got a pretty clean version of the sound with rolled off highs!
Do the same with most decks and you get a smeared, ringing quality which is far more destructive to audio quality IMO.

This is the inside of the old P25 plinth, and I think the 9 was the same:

P9Plinth_zps9ac40cf8
 
I have just watched all episodes of the factory tour.

Rega test all their Decks on extremely heavy mass jigs on special concrete re-inforced sub structures to get the best measured performance.

Kind of makes me think this kind of siting would benefit the Tables more than light and rigid.

One quite often finds the combination of materials, densities etc provide an effective platform.
 


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