Shelf Material

Redkiwi; I love this kind of gritty obsseviness-- makes me feel right at home. But my therapist thinks.......! What kind of shelves/rack do you actually use in your present system? Also what kind of floor do you have, and anything else relavant to the vibration control problem? A couple of years ago I decided to go with "mass" and made a 200+ lb. stereo stand-- concrete in the corner posts, well braced, MDF shelves,spiked to floor, etc-- works good, but can probably be critisized in some areas. Concrete in the corner posts was not the "absolute best" choice, but decisions had to be made if I was going to have music within a reasonable period of time (BTW, Sound Anchors Speaker Stands uses concrete in their stands, which are used by Vandersteen). Many other materials and design decisions had to be made if I was ever going to finish my project. So, I'm really curious as to what you've actually been using. Cheers. Craig.

I just finished a very informative telecon with a manufacturer that feels that hard maple is one of the best platform materials. I will not speak for him in detail and would just like to note his reccomendation in this thread. He sounded very busy with many calls but hopefully he will have the time to visit this site and elaborate. Suspended platforms for home use also got a thumbs up. I will be putting in a MDF shelf poised on spikes for now as my new amp arrives this Friday and our houseguest ,my stepdaughter, the following week. I am really just throwing this together for her benefit (and to show off a little). Otherwise it could have waited at least another week or so. LOL.

Dekay, Since your mdf shelf on spikes is a temporary setup, would you do a little experiment and report back here your findings? Just use your mdf shelf as planned for a while till you get a pretty firm handle on it's qualities.Then cut the 5"-6 "(larger if your mdf is in excess of 3/4" thick) hole as I recommended in the related CDP isolation thread to remove mass.Thanks. Best, Ken

Caterham: Thanks for reminding me, I knew that there was something that I had forgot. I use 3/4" MDF which should still be tuff enough with a 5" hole. The hole is to be random and not on center, is this correct? I have been told that the shielding that I was going to add with an aluminum sheet will deteriorate the sound (resonance wise) more than the shielding will improve it, so a hole is now not a problem. If I still loose sleep over nastiness from my source's power supply bothering my amps it will be easier to place a shield inside the CD player. I own it and it's out of warranty. We are tidying up with a back hoe at this point and I have located my scroll saw and power drill as well as a bubble level. My finishing saw is still under the surface somewhere. The lumber yard cuts to order even on scraps, so this is not a problem and is the easy way to go. I have to pick up my additional Kimber Kable this week (I decided to stick with the 4VS until I can shorten the runs) and the shop should have a supply of spikes to choose from. I would like to try brass if they have them. I am also going to try the "best" cones from the Mapleshade website ($110.00) under the CD player as well. I had less than good results with another cone manufacturer and have been close minded on the subject, now it's time to get over it and try something else other than the Vibrapods. If I have time I will make notes on the various isolators as well as the mass reducing hole.

Dekay, I tried using a very thin steel wire, coated in nylon, with a breaking strain of 90 lbs. I did this roughly first - as per my nylon experiment, and then used it to suspend a shelf properly. The results were fine except for the Transport, which needed a soft footer between it and the shelf or it sounded hideous - and I mean unlistenable. Finally I have found a use for the Vibrapods! I will have to experiment further, but I can tell you there really was a very significant difference between the nylon and the nylon coated steel. There is certainly an advantage in that the steel wire did not stretch at all, so I will try and make it work if I can. Garfield - I have found in the past that a welded steel rack is very important, and so employ one in both my systems. I find thick guage steel like 3mm is better than the flimsy store-bought racks. I also find that if you have a concrete floor (as in my beach house) then filling the stand with sand and lead shot (or something else) is a good thing, but if you have a floppy floor (as I have at home) then leaving the stand empty is preferable. So I have followed both of these in the present. It is in the area of shelves and footers that I don't feel I am getting it right. The best shelf I have come across is a low density board with a very hard veneer. It is very light and rigid and is fast and detailed, but sounds a bit crisp and crunchy - and it is not unlike how I remember the Torlyte shelf I owned many years ago. If using this board, I prefer using cones rather than soft footers, else the sound gets muddy. The other strategy I use is to put bladder products on the same board. This gets rid of the crisp and crunchy sound, but has a suck-out that tends to fall in the bass region somewhere, depending on the mass of the component and the bladder product used. Either way the suck-out tends to take away some of the propulsion that bass instruments provide to non-classical music, and therefore the rhythm suffers. There is also a slight impact on pace - probably due to the mass of the bladder products. Currently I use combinations of the board I refer to, Townshend Seismic Sinks and cones from Walker and BDR. I own soft footers but do not use any of them. Vantage audio, I have tried all kinds of ideas with MDF, including using a thick and hard lacquer, without success. One possibility is that our locally made MDF is just not the same as you use in the US. I once had a pommie rack and its MDF shelves were harder and denser than what is made in NZ. The Corian has finally arrived and I slipped a piece under each of my monoblocks - and I kind of liked it. It will take me a little longer to figure out what it does with the line level components given the gantry it is now all suspended from, but will report back soon. I have a feeling it will work better at the beach house sitting on a damped heavy rack, because this Corian stuff is very heavy indeed and has a ping a bit like marble and is more 'live' than perspex. Garfield - maybe it is the floppy floor at home that has caused me to suffer extreme structure borne vibration, and hence an obsession to deal with it.