I wonder which gabbro complex they got it from, Skaergaard, Bushveld, Muskox, Duluth?
Improving a stone rack
Hi all, I have a large stone rack for my system, in beautiful granite, which works great for stability, but maybe not so good for other aspects of the sound. I wonder if it contributes to some treble ringing and harshness. I want to improve the sound, thinking of felt damping on the wall behind the rack, some form of cloth to cover the reflective surfaces of the shelves, and adhesive rubber type mats on the bottom of the stone shelves. Is this the way to go? Experience based advice is very welcome. My rack weighs a ton. It is not easy to compare to a wood or composite rack. I need advice on how to counter the sound problems of stone or similar polished surface shelf racks. I want to try this, before I consider a new rack or shelf arrangement.
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@o_holter Are you assuming the shelves are ringing or reflecting the sound waves coming from the speakers, and adding a hardness? While that is valid, it’s not a major contributing factor. I’ve always thought of the challenge being more to do with the relationship between the supporting material and the component itself. It’s at that interface where the support-related sound quality is generated. Vibrations generated by an undamped extremely stiff material coupled by spikes, cones, or footers to the component causes that hardness. The corollary is that soft materials like cork or pine damp the vibrations and soften the sound. I’m not sure why exactly this is the case. However, assuming it is the case, the best way to ameliorate the effect is to decouple the component from the surface. I use Nobsound springs ($29 for set of 4 on Amazon) Not only does it fix the hardness, it adds dimension and speed to the music with blacker backgrounds. Edit: It's worth an experiment and a lot less expensive than the Townshend solution mentioned above in the time I took to write this! |
I don’t think it’s quarried from those bodies, but sounds like you are a geologist! This might be a good guess: https://wap.stonecontact.com/africa-black-granite/s2563 South African Precambrian gabbro, it certainly looks like the rock of his speakers
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Yes, I was, my first career. Lots of folks from the department went to Skaergaard. This was in the mid 70s when they were just unraveling the sedimentary features of the crystals inside the chamber. Crystal turbidities and the chemical differentiation / substitution inside the Felspars, olivine, and melt etc.. I was at the U of O where lots of this research was going on.
But the first gabbro complex I used to climb around on was the Duluth Gabbro Complex. You just never forget your first gabbro complex. I was fascinated by peridotite. And then, of course, serpentine exposures around the world. So my countertops are all serpentinized peridotite now. |
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