Isolation of the motor vibration

Sometimes, the vibration generated by the motor may be transmitted to cartridge and cause noise.

There are many factors that may decrease or increase the problem: the motor itself (wear and/or misalignment of the bearings), the rubber bushings (deterioration of rubber), plinth (structure, material), armboard (material of wood, tightness of fixing screws), tonearm (structure, length, rigidity, fixing method to armboard, etc.) and cartridge.

A handy solution to reduce the noise is to remove the rubber "mushrooms" and mount the turntable directly on the plinth. This allows some of the vibration transmits to the plinth instead of armboard and may bring improvement.

Also, fabricating mushrooms with some hard material, such as wood, may be effective, too.

Of course, there might be a side effect of doing without the rubber mushrooms.

Thorens found the idea of doubling the rubber bushing and adapted it to TD 124 Mk-II.

The posts that hang the motor from the chassis are extended and the rubber bushings can be doubled.

Another solution I found is using a bushing of high-tech material, called "GEL Bush".

It is made of a gelatin-like material and isolates vibrations quite effectively.

Two types of the same size with different compliance are available.
This is the type "A-2". "A-1" is not suitable, which is too soft.

Doubled GEL Bush.

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