Townshend Rock II turntable
For this review of a turntable that has not been in production for a number of years I obtained two Townshend Rock turntables. The first was supplied by Townshend and was a stock Rock II with Excalibur tonearm, with no modifications, save for a repaint in Stratocaster style candy apple red metallic paint. The second was an orange Rock II supplied by the Rockdoc, a Townshend Rock enthusiast who runs a business refurbishing, upgrading and enhancing these lovely turntables. If you are tempted by one of his stunning rebuilds after reading this review, then his contact details are at the end of the article.
Townshend Audio remain in business to this day manufacturing a range of amplifiers, cables and equipment support shelves and isolation solutions, all of which are utterly unique in their design and engineering. Having experienced the impact their seismic supports have on my own turntable, system and loudspeakers, I believe they demolish the established orthodoxy that spikes are isolation devices. Once you try a Townshend Seismic Support you unleash performance from your system that I don’t believe is possible from any of the alternatives. Bass in particular becomes significantly more articulate, you hear more detail in every recording and transparency is dramatically enhanced. This isn’t an upgrade; it’s a revolution in audio engineering best practice.
Townshend Audio has plans to bring a new Townshend Rock turntable to market, indeed the schematics and technical drawings are already completed. The firm has indicated it is feasible a new turntable may arrive in the next couple of years.
The Townshend Rock II is a belt driven turntable first launched in 1985 and remains the most commercially successful variant of the Rock ever made. While you cannot purchase one new in 2025, they remain abundant on the second-hand market and that is significant because they are one of the cheapest ways into elite analogue replay today. Purchasing a 40-year-old turntable obviously involves some risk, but the fundamental engineering is sound, there’s little to go wrong and there’s a vibrant after-market in modernizing, servicing and enhancing these decks. Think of it as being a little like buying a classic car without the money pit factor.
The Rock II is a belt driven turntable housed in a steel framed plinth filled with heavy Plaster of paris (gypsum). The platter shares the same construction, but has a PVC top layer mounted to it to better match the impedance of vinyl. The motor drive is provided by an AC Synchronous Airpax motor driving a stepped motor pulley to provide options for 33 and 45rpm replay. The stepped motor pulley is machined from brass and drives the metal sub-platter via a round section belt.
The Rock II incorporates no sub-chassis or suspension, save for sorbothane sphere feet under the plinth. This is one of the reasons why many owners use a Townshend Seismic Podium under their Rock turntables, which suspends the entire deck on air-damped springs. The Podium has the effect of making the whole turntable look more imposing, modern and attractive, as well as conferring significant performance advantages.
To couple the record to the platter more effectively the Rock incorporates a record clamp which screws down on to the central spindle, although this is one area where the Rock shows its age because it is a flimsy affair in comparison to modern designs from Michell, AVID or SME.
The bearing on the Rock II is a well machined conventional inverted stainless steel bearing in a brass sleeve. Bearing lubrication is enhanced by a spiral groove cut into the shaft to lift the oil to the top where the main contact point sits. The advantage of an inverted bearing is that it lowers the centre of gravity of the rotating mass, indeed a similar inverted bearing is fitted to my own Michell Gyrodec.
The most obvious distinguishing feature of the Townshend Rock is the fluid damping trough which was developed by the Cranfield Institute of Technology. The purpose of the trough is to eliminate vibration in the cartridge but to allow the stylus to track the groove. The silicone fluid in the trough is sufficiently viscous that it permits the arm to track the spiral groove (slow movement) unimpeded, but higher frequency vibrations (faster movement driven by the minute undulations in the groove walls) are damped out.
Without a trough and paddle dipping into it to damp the headshell, a typical turntable relies on the rigidity of the arm tube and hence on a bearing over 20cm away. Townshend argue that locating their trough as close to the cartridge tracking the groove as possible puts the damping in the optimum position.
The trough does of course make playing records slightly more inconvenient. The procedure is to place the record on the platter and screw down the clamp, swing the trough into playing position, cue the arm and drop it into the groove. To change sides cue the arm up, retract it to parked position, swing back the damping trough and remove the record. It sounds more complex than it is and dealing with the trough is a skill which is quickly mastered. During the Rock’s heyday people worried about spilling silicone fluid on their records, but the fluid is so thick it’s gelatinous. In my experience it stays firmly in the trough at all times. The only time I ever really handled it was when I had to pack the deck away for transport and it’s true that pouring the fluid out of the trough and back into the bottle is a laborious and somewhat messy task.
The final element of the red Townshend Audio factory Rock is the aptly named Excalibur tonearm. This was again designed at Cranfield and incorporates a paddle on the headshell which sits in the trough. The Excalibur is an interesting design with some novel features: A key design element was ensuring that all external forces act through a single point coincident with the centre of gravity at the centre point of every arm bearing.
A magnesium headshell incorporating a small outrigger and paddle is bonded to a steel armtube with a scarfed joint chosen to ensure high torsional stiffness. Steel was chosen rather than aluminum for the tube because it conducts energy faster. The arm is built slightly shorter than most other arms to further increase rigidity, while the inside of the arm tube is filled with low density polyurethane foam to damp resonances. The bearings in the arm are high grade ball and roller bearings chosen to achieve maximum coupling between the arm tube and the arm mounting. Yet more silicone damping fluid surrounds the bearings, while the twin counterweights are low-slung to better ride warped records. The arm uses a falling weight design for anti-skating and includes a lift/lower mechanism for easy cueing. My main gripe with the Excalibur is its lack of damping on the cueing lever which means having to very slowly lower the lever in order to avoid dropping the cartridge too suddenly onto the record. SME remain the benchmark here and it’s true to say that the overall level of fit and finish on the Excalibur of this era isn’t up to an SME’s precision machining standards.
Back in the 1980’s this deck was widely regarded as disrupting the established heavyweights like the Linn Sondek, Oracle Delphi and Roksan Xerxes. Time after time if one examines archive reviews, they discuss its extraordinary bass control and accuracy and a sense that it offered a more faithful rendition of the original master recording. An outboard power supply called Merlin was available as an optional extra and this offered the benefit of electronic speed change; however they are rare on the secondhand market nowadays and the factory demo deck shipped without one.
I decided that I wanted to fit a cartridge that would complement this beautiful turntable sonically and visually so there was only one choice really – the Hana Umami Red. Retailing at £3,399 this superb low output moving coil would enable the full potential of the Townshend Rock to be appreciated as well as looking cool as hell when mounted on the Excalibur.
Rockdoc Rock II
The second turntable in this review was supplied by the Rockdoc – his heavily upgraded demonstration Rock II is nicknamed ‘Zesty’ on account of its bright metallic orange respray. Zesty features the full range of customizations offered by the Rockdoc including a new ceramic bearing complete with full bearing refurbishment, shaft and sub-platter re-polish and reset bearing height. In addition the motor pulley was converted to a new flat belt and a brand new motor is fitted. This model also incorporates an entirely new HDPE platter and new record clamp derived from the Rock 7 which is far superior to the original.
The offboard power supply reduces motor vibration, offers electronic speed change as well as fine tuning of RPM. The Excalibur tonearm was fully rebuilt and rewired with Townshend Fractal internal wiring and supplied with a Rockdoc custom silver tonearm cable. Finally the armboard was replaced with a Rockdoc custom acrylic armboard and all bolts and switches changed to match the stunning orange respray. I was very intrigued to pitch these two turntables against each other to see how they would perform and in particular to see how they compare to established reference turntables of today. Zesty came equipped with a Dynavector XX2 MkII moving coil cartridge (£1,400) which is a superb performer at its price point, if not quite occupying the rarified performance strata of the Hana Umami Red.
The listening
Both turntables were placed side by side in my reference system of Naim NAC82 pre-amplifier, HiCap power supply and Naim NAP250 power amplifier driving resident ATC SCM40 loudspeakers. The turntables were both placed on Townshend Seismic isolation supports on top of my Ash Designs Cosmic racks which sit on Townshend Seismic support bars. The Seismic supports are the most effective turntable isolation system I have discovered in over 30 years of audio listening. Both turntables were fed into a PS Audio Stellar phono stage, which offers precise adjustment of gain and loading. They were also tried with my resident Trichord Dino phono stage complete with Never Connected power supply upgrade.
I began with the red factory Rock and Deacon Blue’s latest album The Great Western Road and the track How we remember it. The Rock presented the music with articulate and well controlled bass lines that projected drums and bass guitar into the room in a very emphatic manner. Instruments were well separated and presented in a notably broad and even soundstage. Surface noise was extremely low – in fact as low as any turntable I have used – approaching the level of the AVID Acutus or SME Model 60, while piano was natural with a fine sense of timbre within the limitations of this recording – this is no audiophile record.
Direct comparison of this Deacon Blue’s latest release with an original 1989 pressing of their second album When the World Knows Your Name demonstrated just how far production and pressing quality has declined in the intervening years. The 1989 record sounds considerably more open, highs are more extended and the dynamics are off the scale compared to the 2025 album. I sometimes wonder if bands ever compare their records and wonder why their latest albums sound so disappointing (I doubt it, Ed).
Switching to the Rockdoc Rock II the sound seemed more urgent and faster with greater resolution of fine detail. The fundamental Rock qualities of solid and well timed bass remained intact, but now there was increased presence and detail in the upper registers. Timing was better, notes started and stopped with greater precision from pianos to plucked guitar strings, and the overall presentation was more transparent. The upgraded Rock had a lighter and brighter overall tonal balance than the stock factory deck. It’s worth noting that the upgraded Rock has benefitted from perhaps £5,000 of upgrades courtesy of the Rockdoc, so it isn’t really fair to compare these two turntables, although the factory Rock was running with a significantly more expensive cartridge.
Given that a basic Rock can be picked up for as little as £1,000 secondhand its performance was nothing short of startling, and I can’t think of any other turntable at that price level that comes close.
Roxy Music’s sublime album Avalon demonstrated the impressive ability of the stock factory Rock to create a realistic and wide soundstage extending perhaps a metre beyond the loudspeakers either side. The opening percussive effects were tangible in the room while Bryan Ferry was firmly locked in position centre stage crooning in his inimitable style. Changing to the Rockdoc modified deck demonstrated the same qualities albeit with a sense of more detail and delineation to the sound. The natural attack, sustain and decay of notes was conveyed with greater precision. The stock factory deck did seem to offer more extended bass response though, thanks I suspect to the superior Umami Red cartridge that is capable of digging deeper into the grooves and delivering frequency extremes with more power.
The sense remained however that the Rockdoc Rock sounded faster, so I tested the rotational speed of both decks. The factory Rock was indeed running 1.8% slow at 32.7 RPM, whereas the orange Rock achieved a commendable 33.2 RPM. This may be due to a myriad of factors from a slightly tired old motor to belt stretching and it wasn’t significant enough to bother me sonically too much, although if it was my deck I would send it off to the Rockdoc for some TLC, or at least try a new belt. The power supplies offered as part of the upgrade package for Rockdoc modified Rocks offers fine speed adjustment, so conversion to one of those is another option available.
One of my favourite albums for evaluating turntable performance is Tanita Tikaram’s wonderfully layered debut Ancient Heart. The whole album is gloriously melodic and has lots of detailed percussion. World Outside Your Window demonstrated an excellent taut driving rhythm on both decks with a superb sense of bounce and groove, while Tanita’s husky vocals were rendered with great clarity and transparency especially on the upgraded Rock. Neither deck could match my Gyrodec/SME IV/Lyra Kleos SL combination for sheer transparency at the top end or in terms of dynamics, but that’s a turntable which is approaching £15,000 fully rigged and so is well beyond this price level.
Kenny Burrell’s Midnight Blue is a magnificent slice of blues-jazz recorded in 1963 that really begs the question whether the state of the audio art has improved one jot since the sixties. Chitlins Con Carne demonstrated the Rock’s formidable ability to render the speed, rhythm and groove of Bill English’s percussion, while Stanley Turrentine’s tenor sax was evoked with a marvelously reedy quality. Both Rock’s demonstrated tremendous facility with rhythms and presented a coherent sense of a band playing in the room. The modified Rock offered better rhythmic control of deep bass while the factory unit had more bass extension and warmth in the midband. The modified Rock though again offered more insight into the timbre of instruments as well as a shade more detail in the upper frequencies.
So enjoyable was the command of rhythm on both decks that I found myself playing whole albums, especially ones as well recorded and pressed as this one. The Rock perhaps by virtue of its unique damping trough arrangement offers exemplary reproduction of bass which equals the levels of control usually only found on far more expensive and exotic turntables. Contemporary reviews frequently mentioned CD-like bass, and I can certainly understand why they described it thus. Most turntables from the mid 1980’s were simply incapable of matching the Rock’s taut control in the lower registers, the Rock was a simply unique design, derived by the engineers at Cranfield University from a clean slate to measure the microscopic undulations of a record groove more accurately than anything else available at the time.
Conclusion
The Townshend Rock was at the time of its launch in 1985 quite simply an astonishing bargain. It was without question the closest one could get to the original master tape without spending megabucks on something truly exotic like a Goldmund Reference. Nowadays in stock form it can’t match the best in the sub £20,000 turntable market, 40 years of analogue development means that the competition have caught up and exceeded its abilities. As a secondhand buy though it is an absolutely stellar option for around £1,000-£1,500 because it is the cheapest turntable you can buy that I feel offers a glimpse of high-end sound. It will for example even in stock form comfortably outperform models like the current generation Rega Planar 3 or a secondhand LP12 from the 1980s. Its sublime bass control and articulation means it can hold its own in that specific area against current products priced at around £15,000.
The Rockdoc modified Rock though takes things to a whole new level. The quality of the automotive finish on the plinth is absolutely flawless and elevates the looks to such a degree that it is genuinely one of the most beautiful turntables you can buy at any price. The new bearing, platters, motors, pulleys and power supplies, plus the tonearm re-wiring and careful hand-building and optimization by Matt McNulty, elevate the performance to such an extent that the modified Rock becomes very competitive, even with leading models today under £20,000. I’m pretty certain that had the modified Rock been fitted with the Hana Umami Red it would have given my resident fully loaded and Lyra equipped Gyrodec a serious run for its money.
A full Rockdoc rebuild plus a donor deck will likely cost around £6,000-£7,000 depending on the specification chosen. Throw in a cartridge costing around £2,000-£3,000 like an Audio Technica ART 20, Umami Red or Lyra Kleos and you’ll have a turntable costing under ten grand that can trade blows with some very exotic hardware indeed. This makes it a staggering bargain in high-end terms.
The Townshend Rock then from its very inception became a legend because it offered absolutely top flight sound for the everyman. It was the high-end turntable that nearly everybody with a passion for music could afford. That recipe is as attractive today as it always was, whether you are starting with an unmodified original or splashing out for a fully modified example. It accomplished this by applying radical and unique engineering approaches to extracting information from a record microgroove with minimal interference and degradation.
The big question is whether Townshend Audio will launch a successor and my latest discussions with the firm suggested that development work is commencing soon. It’s a revolutionary approach, but then Townshend Audio has always approached audio design from a unique perspective. Max Townshend left blueprints for three tiers of Rock turntable before he sadly passed, so the design work is done. The biggest barrier is justifying the prototyping and development costs while the industry as a whole is suffering at the hands of global uncertainty – that situation isn’t going to persist forever though. There are legions of Townshend fans all over the world that can’t wait for a new Rock Mk8 turntable to satisfy their vinyl dreams.
Think of the future Rock then as a final tribute to the great Max Townshend, truly one of the greatest audio engineers of the past century. In the meantime I urge you to explore his revolutionary innovations in seismic support, cabling and preamplifiers – the seismic supports in my view are one of the most significant revolutions in audio engineering since Blumlein invented stereo.
Jonathan Gorse
The Rockdoc
T 44 (0)7701 057743
www.therockdoconline.com
Townshend Audio
townshendaudio.com