Isolation vs. Absorbtion

Dan: I have tried what you are describing with Pods (instead of EAR's) and Maple on top of MDF and it worked fine. You have to start somewhere, and work yourself up, which is in your case an MDF shelf.

Thanks DeKay. Good to know that I will not have to replace my MDF with other material. So did you spike the maple directly into the MDF or did you use a plate of some kind to keep the spikes from embedding themselves? - Dan

Hi Dan: I used soft footers (Vibrapods) between the MDF (shelf) and the Maple platform and then brass cones between the Maple and the CD player. So, from bottom to top it was: MDF/Pods/Maple/cones/player. Red Kiwi has been having good results with the EAR soft footers which I would also like to try out under the Maple. Since that setup I killed my MDF shelf and have the player resting on my cabinet itself which is constructed out of Persimmon wood. Both setups sound pretty much the same to me so I guess that the soft footers are doing their job well. Different soft footers will sound, well, different. The Vibrapods are $24.00 for a set of four and the E.A.R's are $3.25 each from what I can discern from the Parts Connection catalog on line. If you happen to have a Maple cutting board handy (even if it is only 3/4") you can get started for not a lot of money. I am using the least expensive Mapleshade brass cones which are $38.00 for a set of three and their most expensive set of cones is $110.00 per set. I will eventually try the $110.00 set (which another member is having good results with) on my player. I am using the cones on my DAC right now as well. Even if you only start out with soft footers and a platform on which your player rests on it's stock feet you will still here a nice improvement in the sound much like as if you have upgraded your player, which you have just done in a way. The first time I placed my player on a Vibrapod/MDF platform, I was hooked and the subsituted Maple platform sounded even better prior to adding cones to the equation.

PS: Many people would aslo just place the Pods or the EAR's directly between the shelf and the player for starters if they do not want to use cones. If the stock feet have a higher profile than the soft footers then they will need to be removed, if not, then just leave them on and place the footers next to the stock feet though not touching them. The stock feet of my CAL were higher than the Pods so I just rested the CAL on a sheet of MDF (with the Pods underneath) and left the stock feet on the player. Lot's of ways to do it if you are not going to use cones as well at the start and it's kind of fun to listen as the sandwich grows.

Great advice Dakay. Thanks a bunch. - Dan