MK Stands Isolation over feet review (5)
mark Settle·
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REVIEW: MK Stands Turntable Isolator Over Feet

LINK: MK Stands  |  PRICE: £80 (introductory — £99 normally)

Feedback… no, not the act of offering constructive advice — the other one that sees a low hum turn into an absolute howl from turntables when the volume is turned up. I’m certain you’ve heard it, and probably made it happen yourself. And while turntable manufacturers do their best to eliminate it, they can’t cater for every environment.

Let’s try to explain how this happens — it’s all about vibration in the cartridge. If you can imagine that the cantilever inside the cartridge is moving with the groove. Now in an ideal environment, everything is just fine. But if external vibration is introduced i.e. from speakers sat too close or just too loud, then that will feed back through the turntable feet to the chassis, right into the tonearm and thus the cantilever, and that will turn into a big annoying feedback loop.

And that loop can appear out of nowhere too. One minute, everything is peachy, but then a different track or even part of the playing track suddenly reacts badly to the environment and creates some wayward resonance that turns your set into a deafening drone.

So all manner of user hacks have been devised, including sitting turntables on tennis and squash balls, inflatable cushions, and concrete slabs. Obviously, some are easier to transport than others, and some methods are more effective too. But along comes MK Stands with a simple solution that completely isolates your turntables from the outside world. And by turntables I mean Technics at this time. Their feet are smaller than other decks, and these rubber feet are a snug fit.

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First Impressions

Heavy, squidgy, and a little sticky. These feet are individually moulded from something called MK Ultra Rubber (hence heavy and squidgy), and appear to have some sort of semi-sticky coating that when fitted to the feet stops the turntable from moving on just about any flat surface. The stickiness isn’t like glue, just more like enough to stop your Technics from moving if pushed, and doesn’t leave a residue on your hands either.

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Spec wise, they’re 40mm deep with an 18mm deep recess, and are 100mm diameter. This gives them an effective height of 22mm, so it’s worth taking that into account if you’re particularly picky about ergonomics.

As mentioned previously, these are designed specifically for Technics feet. It makes sense as the 1200 is ubiquitous. It’s a little annoying for everyone else though because Technics have small feet, thus no other turntable will fit. And sitting them on top of them isn’t the best plan at all.

So that’s what they are — big rubber feet designed to stop feedback. But can they do that? There’s only one way to find out.

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If you’re going to test isolating feet, make the environment as harsh as possible. That’s a 1200 on a sub, being played room-shakingly loud.

In Use

Given that we need to induce feedback, setting up a nightclub that’s properly treated so that feedback doesn’t happen isn’t a good idea. So we set about making sure that feedback absolutely would happen. And the best way that we could think of was to sit a Technics right on top of a sub.

In this extreme environment, it really didn’t take that much to make feedback fill The Worxlab. It was all heavy hum without the music very quickly. So having established that we had the ideal environment for testing isolator feet, we duly fitted them.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNHZiVHgpfX/

See also

We turned the master… and turned… and turned… and while everything not nailed down shook across the The Worxlab building, and the elderly tourists visiting Haworth were subjected to the classy boom bap beats of Mr Brown, it took some unrealistic volume levels to induce feedback. And importantly, the 1200 didn’t move either.

So there will still be feedback if you’re working in the most extreme of circumstances (e.g. turntables on a sub turned up ear bleedingly loud). But it’s my belief that for the vast majority of DJs and audiophiles alike, the MK Stands isolator feet will reduce and most probably eliminate feedback.

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Summing Up

There’s not much more to say about these isolator feet. The first port of call should be to fix the environment where feedback is occurring. But if that’s not possible, it’s a great idea to have a couple of sets of these at hand to help you deal with unfavourable circumstances.

As ever to price, Normally £99, a set of four MK feet is being launched at £8o. That’s not an inconsiderable amount, but you’re paying for peace of mind.

Bottom line — if I played out anymore, I’d definitely have some MK feet in my setup.

Gallery

The MK Stands feet have a simple but important task, one which they do very well indeed. If you suffer from feedback, and own Technics, these are for you.
Features
9
Ease of use
10
Quality
9
Value for money
8.5
PROS
Utter simplicity of design
Has but one job, and does it very well
CONS
Not cheap if you're outside of Europe
9.1
RUBBERY

15 Comments

    1. Hi,
      I had this idear back in the early 90s when I uses to go to all the free party like spiral tribe,bedlam parties Big sound systems.But in them days you did not have rubber Technology like you do now.When I designed the feet It was for scratch DJs and free party Poeple.With Isonoe feet there are 3 ballbearings at the bass of the feet.So when your playing you can still move your decks which is not good if your trying to scratch or doing a free party when Poeple are bumping in to you tables.So with these feet you decks will move and fill solid as a rock when your playing.
      MKStands

      1. Played a booth equipped in Isonoe feet and they used the add-on sorbothane cushions underneath. The decks would NOT budge with those on – in fact, I had to give up on leveling the decks and moving them a little bit apart from the other gear before going on. The bearings were digging into the sorbothane from all the pressure and it required too much work to handle properly in a jiffy.
        There was a slight wobble of the entire deck inherent to the construction of the suspension in the feet, though ; definitely more than with stock feet but not a problem for mixing at all. Nothing like the brain-dead orange air cushions :) but I can see how it could cause some issues for turntablists.

        So this effect you mentioned can be canceled out with extra parts but it racks up the Isonoe bill even further. From what I can see, the decks would be steadier and more adjustable with the MK Stands.

  2. One potential problem i see, is these feet making the turntable sit higher than the mixer.

    That’s about the only problem I see. Seem’s to be a wonderful product

  4. Recently I stumbled over this turntable comparison video and cough my attention, because it really shown why Technics is still unbeaten:

    https://youtu.be/mNzMcH2ZbtU?t=22m30s

    Is there a possibility for an article with similar comparison of new DJ TTs coming out this year to see if we are finally getting that “Technics killer”? Sad truth is that spare parts are running out and there will be need for a replacement soon or later.

    Those new Denon VL12 look promising, but if they are bullshit like Pioneer PLX1000, then no, thank you. Unfortunately the knowledge about TT has declined a lot, so the reviews are focusing more on bells and whistles, but do not mention important factors like in aforementioned video. I really pity people buying those Pioneers for big bucks to find out they are useless in club environment.

    1. We got the “Technics killer” – it’s the new Technics 1200 GR. No one will bring you quality for the price of Hanpin, if that’s what you hope for.

      1. I see, but 1200 GR is still insanely expensive and does not bring any DJ friendly features (e.g adjst. pitch ranges) and Technics themselves have stated they don’t care about Djs. New Denon V12 should be designed from ground up and its not Hanpin super OEM, so I would be interested how it stands against the legend in a practical test similar to above.

  5. It just seems so obvious when you look at this product. I can’t help but wonder why none of the newly released turntables have made the decks feet using this principle or similar? This might sound like a stupid question, but what is that on the spindle / on top of the record? Does that also held with feedback by any chance?