No Disc

For what it's worth the bass in the Cornwall can be tightened up quite a bit with a few tweaks. While I don't have Belles here to compare, Chris Robinson felt the bass put out by my modified Cornwalls was on par with the Belle in terms of tightness. I think the Belles in general looks nicer though even if they are harder to move around. No Disc

There is a ebay aucion for some vinyl I'm interested in, trouble is, it's for local pickup only. It's for a several (400+) hundred LPs that I would need boxed up and shipped to me via media mail. I would cover shipping and costs for your effort. Let me know if anyone could possibly help out. No Disc - aka Tim Babb

LOL ---------------- On 3/17/2005 8:59:26 PM jazman wrote: Great work Jeff! I'll be darned if you don't look like you've got at least one more Pantheon in you. Hint.. Hint..plead...plead... Congratulations on the upcoming addition to your family. Klipsch out. ----------------

Cabinet resonance in Cornwall speakers has ben verified by the Belgian Audiophile School and published on the web. Resonance indicates movement. http://www.belgaudio.com/kcmeasurements4.htm No Disc

Two reasons: One, the footers are sold in sets of 3, and two, with 3 feet instead of 4, there is more coupling pressure per footer and so there better coupling. There are not attatched to the wood base just pressure coupled. The triple points are very sharp and provide a very small contact patch. This is the idea behind using as small contact area as possible, to get more psi in the coupling. Large flat areas just don't have the coupling of smaller sharp points. There are some small tradeoffs. With this there are some very small indents in the bottoms of my Corwalls. You can elect to go with a hemisherical contact patch rather than a sharp point at a sacrifice in sound quality. No Disc ---------------- On 3/15/2005 9:30:37 AM jwcullison wrote: No Disc, Why did you choose the 3 foot option as opposed to 4 foot. Also, are the feet "attached" to the wood base or just sitting on it? jc ----------------

GRB, When a speaker is ultra-rigidly coupled to the floor, the floor becomes a sound-radiating surface. This is only the case if it is flexible. Concrete is inflexible. No Disc

Depends... what's under the carpet? If wood, then yes, sharp carpet piercing spikes would be good, if cement, then you would have to go a similar approach to mine. Coupling a speaker to cement would be bad. Cement is a bass killer. No Disc ---------------- On 3/14/2005 7:47:10 PM m00n wrote: I have carpet so spikes would be my best bet then, as I understand it. ----------------

I just realized that there is an explanation about how conepoints improve speakers in my Brass Footers owners manual. Here is the text verbatim. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conepoints Improve Speakers Nothing hurts the sound of a speaker more than mounting it unrigidly on a carpet, on rubber feet, on damping pads, on flimsy stands or on shaky shelves. Flexible mounting less the speaker rock back as the cone moves forward. That means boomy bass with weakened attack and dynamic punch. Similarly, freely vibrating speaker enclosure panels muddy the midrange and treble. To make a speaker sound its best you must stop it from rocking and you must drain panel vibration efficiently. The requires coupling the speaker, via massive brass footers, directly to the floor or directly to an ultra-ridged stand. You can't get good sound just by placing the speaker's flat bottom on the floor or on a stand. because of the large area, low-pressure contact, must of the cabinet's vibrational energy is reflected back instead of being drained efficiently and cleanly down into the floor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Danny, Both MapleshadeRecords.com or timbernation.com can make solid maple risers. I got mine from Chris at Timbernation. I just gave Chris the size, thickness and finish I wanted and he did the rest. The brass spiked cones are from mapleshade. If your going to experiment more I would also suggest you call Pierre at mapleshade before going further. No Disc (Tim)

Moon, I'm not a scientist and don't have a full understanding of the physics involved. I only know it works. If your truly insterested in knowing why this works, contact Pierre Sprey at Mapleshade and can explain the hows and whys. He's a scientist and is a huge advocate of this approach. Email tweaks@mapleshaderecords.com or call 301-627-7922. Also I don't feel just getting the speaker off the floor is the key, but rather coupling the speaker to the floor. In this case the mechanical grounding provides resonance control. It drains the vibrational energy out of the speakers enclosure and into the stand, or floor below. The better the coupling the more energy that is removed and less muddy the sonics will be. This is dependant on what type of flooring you have. No Disc

A beautiful table. I bet your a proud owner. - No Disc

The ring clamp has a few purposes. One it helps to mate the vinyl with the platter surface and also it helps dampen the vibrational energy. It also adds mass and inertia to the effect. No Disc

That should work. Please post pics and after mod impressions on the sonic improvment. Glad I could help. I think you will like the result. - No Disc

Jordan, I considered the Ginko platform but elected not to go that route. Ultimately I felt the biggest sonic benifit could be gained from isolating the motor from the table itself, something I didn't think would be easy to do with the Ginko setup. With my setup the motor is isolated from the table and plinth while at the same time being de-coupled from external vibrations. Below is a picture of what I did with my Scout before I sold it. I have a similar setup for the Scoutmaster. Note the motor does not rest on the same surface as the table. Motor vibration is removed from the sonic mix so the background sound is much blacker and more music can be heard. This was a huge tweak. Motor isolation is what I feel sets apart the Super ScoutMaster and HRX from the lower tables. Vibrapods separate the two wood sheets which provides the decoupling of the table from external sources and also decoupling the motor from the table. Works very well. No Disc

If thats the case then yes it works the same although the coupling methods are somewhat different. The pictures you sent me showed strips of felt or cushion material on top of the riser you made. You had said this was to protect the bottoms of the cornwalls from being damaged. My understanding is that any soft material between the risers and Cornwalls would act as a de-coupler instead of a coupler. If you have changed that configuration great, would be an improvement in my opinion. Although the bottoms of the Cornwalls might suffer slightly, it would be offset by the sonic improvement. ---------------- On 3/11/2005 8:54:52 PM Allan Songer wrote: NOPE! There is nothing between my Conrwalls and their risers. I have no carpeting under mine and they sit on hardwood floors on a raised foundation. My risers are mass loaded to the floor with spikes and the Cornwall sits on the riser. I'll bet my system works pretty much the same as yours. ----------------

Allan you sent me pictures of your setup a while back when I first started thinking about this. The difference in your setup that I can tell is that your using a soft cushion between the cornwall bottom and the riser. My setup is different in that I am hard coupling the cornwall to the maple riser. I believe your approach is more of de-coupling than coupling. A improvement over stock for sure. In my opinion, coupling is better still, at least for my floor setup which is carpet over cement. No Disc ---------------- On 3/11/2005 8:13:02 PM Allan Songer wrote: I've been doing this for the last 6-7 years. It works. The only difference with my set up is that I use sand-filled walnut and steel risers that mimic the factory risers. ----------------

jpm - you have mail.

Rick, I think your table is better looking than the Scoutmaster, very sexy indeed. I honestly didn't consider any other tables before making my move. I like the Scout and already knew my cartridge mated well with my tonearm and phono preamp. It was a no-brainer for me. No Disc ---------------- On 3/11/2005 7:44:26 PM 3dzapper wrote: Nice! Very nice!! Did the make you do it? The Scoutmaster is what I was looking at before I went for that sexy Italian. Rick ----------------

It's listed in my sytem config.

For some time now I've been experimenting with riser replacements and surfaces to place my Cornwalls on. Before I started this quest I felt the stock Cornwall bass was a bit sloppy and the presentation lacked a bit of focus. (my opinion). Based on a a simple suggestion from Mobile Homeless I began to experiment with different methods of getting the Cornwall off the floor (de-coupling). First with tennis balls cut in half and then with vibrapods. Each time the sound improved so I knew I was on the right track. Each of those tweaks improved the bass so that it was better controlled and less muddy. After researching further I discovered that coupling, not de-coupling was the answer. I ordered a custom maple 3" thick stand from Timbernation to act as the riser and coupling point. I also ordered brass triplepoint footers from Mapleshade records to couple the Cornwalls to the maple riser. The results were just what I was hoping. Everything came into focus. Gone was the muddy bass, and each instrument was clear and distinct in the soundstage. The improvment was so drastic that I was was awestruck. I believe the improvement is due the vibrational energy and cabinet resonance that without coupling, have no where to dissapate thus blurring the sound. Coupling the Cornwall to a solid foundation allows the resonance to dissapate into the foundation. This may be too radical a idea for some of you, but for me, it was just the ticket to sonic bliss. I'm never going to put my stock risers back on, I know that for sure. No Disc

Upgraded from the VPI Scout to the Scoutmaster with Ring Clamp and Stainless Steel center clamp. Big upgrade over the Scout. Improvement in all areas. Most notable are more authoritative presentation, lower noise floor, more soundstage - huge in fact, very defined instruments, huge slam factor. I'm in analog heaven. No Disc

I considered going to the Super Scout Master, but I already have an SDS speed controller and have done my own modifications to isolate my motor from the table itself. I doubt the SSM has very much over my table configuration aside from the flywheel effect and perhaps less motor vibration traveling through the belt. The VPI ring clamp not only mates the vinyl to the platter and removes most warp in most lps, it has alot of mass to it which adds to the ineria of the platter. The net result for me is a feeling like I am no longer listening to a recording of the event but more like the actual event itself. Some would argue that having to independant motors driving a single flywheel could lead to minor speed flucuations because of the motors not being perfectly synced to each other. I have not first hand experience with the setup, so this is just conjecture on my part. Would like to hear a SSM though. No Disc ---------------- Scoutmaster - another really good table - the super version just won turntable of the year in TAS. An Outer ring clamp - or something similar is on my shopping list (another one with SWMBO issues). Just never ends this hobby does it.... ----------------

Rick, Congrats on the new table. If it sounds as good as it looks your in for a treat. I've recently upgraded from a VPI Scout to a Scoutmaster with Outer ring clamp and I'm in analog heaven. My digital rig hardly gets used at this stage. No Disc

The Scout remains a 300rpm motor. It is standard on the Scoutmaster. Yes the upgrade is $120 (new motor and spindle, user installable) Spinning at 300 rpm vs 600 rpm gives you less noise from the motor. You hear more of the music and less of the noise. Take off the belt once and put a stethoscope on the plinth or platter and hear what I mean. No Disc

My VPI Scout cost $1400 new from Elusive Disc. The newer Scout with the JMW-9 tonearm has a Dropped Counterweight. You can get one from VPI for $50-60. No Disc