Shelf Material

Redkiwi, Try checking out products that meet exactly the rigid/low mass/fast dissipation isolation philosophies you are looking for at www.neuanceaudio.com(my company) or www.cetech.co.uk(a respected competitor)as well as the RATA/Torlyte of Russ Andrews,UK(the man that wrote the book on low mass supports).Each has an unique manner in which resonant energies are controlled but all do so very effectively without destroying pace, rhythm and timing.Bladder devices have the disadvantage of poor location in space on a microscopic level and thus present new problems for turntables and digital reading mechanisms such as transports and cdp's. Cetech uses a carbon graphite/aluminum honeycomb composite for fast evacuation, while Torlyte is of low energy storage and internally damped.Neuance is a low mass decoupled monocoque of via constrained layer principles with a high ceramic content and internally damped.I firmly believe that any one of these products will satisfy your needs and tastes. Best, Ken Lyon GreaterRanges/Neuance

Wow, those last two posts sound on the right track to me - I will check them out. Many thanks to all that posted.

My comment that some resonance may improve the sound quality was based on the assumption that many products have been "voiced" when under the influence of a certain amount of resonance. To remove all or more realistically much/most of the resonance may in fact degrade the sound. This is hypothetical.

redwiki: you've already received some excellent advice, which i have no intention of undercutting or disparaging. in my younger days, i, as you, had a compulsion to create for myself bits of my audio system that seemed within my means, ability and understanding to produce. among these were shelves and racks for my equipment. as i've grown older and, unexpectantly, have less leisure time than i did in my younger days, i've relied less on my own abilities and more on those i judge as "experts" in whatever field is necessary to my ends at that juncture. hence, i've looked toward commercial developers of racks and the shelves that go with them. the company i've come to trust in for this aspect of my audio system is zoethecus. their shelves are top-notch and manifest the qualities your last 2 posters recommend. they are not, however, what i would call lightweight (actually, not figuretively). you can, tho, come close to replicating them. as with others, they comprise a "sandwich" of several materials. the idea is to use different "dead" materials of varying intrinsic resonances, all of very low hz., to cancel out the resonace of any single layer. i do not know the actual formulation used by zoethecus in their "z-slabs," but suspect that they include alternating layers of mdf-like pieces and absortive layers resembling sorbothane. these layers, topped off with a metallic uppermost platform that can withstand the weight of heavy "spiked" equipment, are wrapped with what i expect is a heat-activated edging that makes a tidy, handsome package. you can find these shelves alone on audiogon every so often. you might wish to buy one (or "borrow" a copy from your nz dealer) to investigate their properties. i've found nothing better for all equipment, from tt's to amps (my main amp weighs in at > 150#). in any event, i wish you good hunting. your posts are invariably among the most useful, interesting and polite among all of the "regulars" on audiogon. i hope someday to visit your island that, in my mind's eye, must be a heaven on earth. cheers.

Thanks for your kind words and advice Cornfedboy. The sad reality is that the only racks/shelves that reach these shores are of the basic variety, with the exceptions being Mana Acoustics and Townshend (and I own examples of each - most of which are in "the closet"). There are importers of cones from BDR and Polycrystal, but noone brings in the shelves. And noone brings in Zoethecus so far as I know. For example, I wanted two amp stands for my monoblocks and called around all of the better dealers in New Zealand - or at least that was what I intended, but truthfully I gave up after the first six because I was sick of explaining what an amp stand was... if you get the picture. In the end I did what every other audiofile does here - got them made. I would indeed prefer to just try and buy, but I am much less keen on importing one, only for it to end up in "the closet" - I am sure we all have one of those. Having come to this point with shelves (ie. needing to splash out and hope), I posted here hoping optimistically that there might be a concensus as to the best shelf material/product so that the chances of success could be improved. I think Albert Porter has done a lot of experimenting with vibration control, but his posts indicate he agrees pretty much with Dekay ie. that there is no universal answer. Perhaps I am being too optimistic. Anyway, I will investigate Zoethecus from here, and perhaps that is what I may end up trying. I hope you do get to New Zealand one day. I have known many Americans who have come here - some stay, some get homesick and go back. The ones that stay are adamant there is no place better. Personally I don't think it is a place to spend all one's life, but it is a wonderful place when you are a kid, when you have kids, and when you want to live a quieter life later on. In between, most of us Kiwis travel a lot and I have been forunate to visit your lucky country a number of times - picking up audio gear every time of course.