Best building material for vibration free shelving


I am building some built into the wall shelves for my VPI Classic 2 SE turntable, amp, preamp, CD player, and old Burwen TNE 7000A transient noise eliminator (that’s one for you old-timers to remember), as well as my DISH Network receiver box. The shelves must match in appearance the typical looking built-in wood bookshelves already in the room. The shelves will be located directly under my 45" wide flat screen television. They will be wide enough to hold two components side by side, other than the VPI turntable which will have the top shelve to itself due to its extra width. I will be building the shelves high and deep to allow for plenty of air circulation around the components. They will be painted.

My question is, what materials might you suggest building the shelves with to minimize vibration? If they were for books I’d normally build the sides, and top out of 3/4" birch sided plywood, the back out of 1/4 inch luan plywood, and the shelves out of oak to deal with the weight of the books without bending. I will be adding vibration damping feet under each component and am not looking for suggestions along those lines, only material and perhaps design recommendations to reduce vibration.

I was researching this last night online and on site, and saw recommendations to use four thicknesses of 3/4 inch High Density (HD) MDF, also to use granite or marble under the turntable, among other recommendations. I was wondering how birch veneered plywood would work too, as it’s ply’s, I believe, have their grains running in opposite directions. Maybe there’s some way to isolate the uprights from the horizontal shelves to reduce vibration transmission.

What would you think would work best for these built-ins. I’d appreciate any recommendations you have or your experience on this subject. Thank you for any ideas.

Mike


skyscraper
@skyscraper---yeah, though very effective, the Townshend Audio Seismic Pods are not cheap. But Geoff Kait's isolation springs ARE. Consider trying a set.
Bdp. I’ll look into them. Were you refererring to the Super Baby Promethean Mini Isolators he wrote up on Stereophile or a variation on those?

Mike.
The Baby Prometheans are rated for moderate weight components. The newer Super Stiff Springs are rated for moderately heavy and very heavy components like Subwoofers, big VPI and Verdier turntables and monster amps like Classe and Lamm. Four Super Stiff Springs will isolate items weighing 75-100 lb. Resonant frequency of iso system circa 2 Hz. For heavier items add one or more springs. For heavy items with high center of gravity you might have to employ a large maple board to obtain a wider footprint for the springs. Four Baby Prometheans are designed to isolate items in range 30-50 lb. For a 60 lb thing add another spring. For small to medium size speakers the Baby Prometheans directly under the speakers should be fine. All springs $12 each. You can now isolate everything in the system for peanuts. 🥜