Thanks for the compliment, Suttlaw. And thanks to Joe for getting that link to Chris's Tube Heaven up.
I completely agree with Salectric's comments about trial and error when it comes to shelves, stands and racks. I have had commercial products and they were fine, but they seem to always be expensive so if there is a short coming it really nags at me. I did some investigation before deciding on what to build and came to the conclusion that if I used the sandbox approach that I would gain most if not all of the improvements without having to look into other materials and products later. Some posters on the Asylum stated that they had used 3 to 5 inches of sand for boxes supporting heavy, high powered amplifiers and we all agreed that this was probably overkill for preamps and sources, so I settled on 1 to 2 inches and I think in practice that I can very close to an inch and a half.
Now on to the shelves. I like maple because it is fairly dense, cost effective, machines easily and the grain is nice and close so you can get a really smooth finish. Other choices may be birch, except it moves more with changes in humidity, cherry, sycamore (very pretty edge grain and when quatersawn), etc. I settled on making the two lower shelves 1 inch thick for heavier components and 3/4 inch for lighter stuff up high. I don't know why I made them thinner, but I do think that when the shelf is sittin on the sand it doesn't really matter much how thick is. My turntable sits on top but I really didn't notice much difference placing it there. I did hear an improvement when I moved the components to the sandboxes. Joe probably has some very good ideas on shelve material. I've seen the red coconut on his arm board and I can't wait to see the stand.
Again, I think your table will probably sound wonderful no matter what it sits on. The SDS may very well benefit from some dampening. There is a high probability that what I built is not the absolute best solution sonically, but I bet it is pretty close. IMO, this is one area where the law of dimishing returns really kicks in.
Oh, I made the shelves so that there is a 1/4" gap between the side of the shelve and the box. I then used 7/16 weather stripping, but the next thickness down would have worked just as well and would probably have been easier to slide in.
I completely agree with Salectric's comments about trial and error when it comes to shelves, stands and racks. I have had commercial products and they were fine, but they seem to always be expensive so if there is a short coming it really nags at me. I did some investigation before deciding on what to build and came to the conclusion that if I used the sandbox approach that I would gain most if not all of the improvements without having to look into other materials and products later. Some posters on the Asylum stated that they had used 3 to 5 inches of sand for boxes supporting heavy, high powered amplifiers and we all agreed that this was probably overkill for preamps and sources, so I settled on 1 to 2 inches and I think in practice that I can very close to an inch and a half.
Now on to the shelves. I like maple because it is fairly dense, cost effective, machines easily and the grain is nice and close so you can get a really smooth finish. Other choices may be birch, except it moves more with changes in humidity, cherry, sycamore (very pretty edge grain and when quatersawn), etc. I settled on making the two lower shelves 1 inch thick for heavier components and 3/4 inch for lighter stuff up high. I don't know why I made them thinner, but I do think that when the shelf is sittin on the sand it doesn't really matter much how thick is. My turntable sits on top but I really didn't notice much difference placing it there. I did hear an improvement when I moved the components to the sandboxes. Joe probably has some very good ideas on shelve material. I've seen the red coconut on his arm board and I can't wait to see the stand.
Again, I think your table will probably sound wonderful no matter what it sits on. The SDS may very well benefit from some dampening. There is a high probability that what I built is not the absolute best solution sonically, but I bet it is pretty close. IMO, this is one area where the law of dimishing returns really kicks in.
Oh, I made the shelves so that there is a 1/4" gap between the side of the shelve and the box. I then used 7/16 weather stripping, but the next thickness down would have worked just as well and would probably have been easier to slide in.