I put my two cents in a speaker stand post, but here, I am wondering about component stands as in TT, Amplifier, CD....ect. Is it not just furniture?
My question is: by building non-resonant, purpose built stands would I be better served on the long run or will an old hutch be just as good. I read many articles on stands but wondered about the science behind it. Does it really bring out the better part of the gear? I built a stand with sandwiched MDF and sand filled groves cut into the layers... They looked good for DIY but as far as the sound diff??? I had Nothing to compare and no testing ever done! So, is there a tried and true DIY stand to support our gear?
kingfisher
My question is: by building non-resonant, purpose built stands would I be better served on the long run or will an old hutch be just as good. I read many articles on stands but wondered about the science behind it. Does it really bring out the better part of the gear? I built a stand with sandwiched MDF and sand filled groves cut into the layers... They looked good for DIY but as far as the sound diff??? I had Nothing to compare and no testing ever done! So, is there a tried and true DIY stand to support our gear?
kingfisher
Try some cork underneath them on the hutch first. Nearby edges or cavities will have some effects, though.
rayma, can you elaborate on this "Nearby edges or cavities will have some effects, though."
Cork thickness?
Cork thickness?
If you sit the speaker on a shelf, the front edge of the speaker should be flush with the shelf edge. The shelf should not protrude past
the bottom edge of the speaker, because reflections and diffraction will affect the sound.
Also, avoid placing the speakers inside a cavity in the hutch, for similar reasons. A sheet of cork at least 1/8" to 1/4" thick makes a
good interface to the surface under the speakers to reduce vibration. Some like blu-tac for this.
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Provided that you get complete isolation from the floor and can find two wall studs - with 24" c t c permitted for interior walls on many construction codes that's not always guaranteed, and even then speaking from personal,observation in combination with suspended designs such as Oracle, Linn LP12, various Thorens etc could still result in skipping from footfalls, door slams.
A sturdy corner mounted steel frame can definitely help - I had one fabricated about 15 years ago by a local welder, and it worked like a charm. If you place the table at 45dg in the corner, the sides if the right triangle should be long enough to catch wall studs in the corner and along each side- mine was fabricated for Rega 3, which is relatively compact, and the frame measures at about 27" along the side walls.
I have concrete walls and floor, so yes the wife put me in the basement! I do not believe some of the problems mentioned apply. But getting back to my question: Does building a non-resonant stand serve me better then a Hutch? The hutch is of good size, fits all of my gear and it has a glass front so remote will work on pre-amp. I do like the shelf on the wall though! My TT could realize better sound isolated from the heavy feet of the main floor ... if I ever get back there!
I built mine out of 2.5" solid aluminum bar, the stand itself weighs in at over 40kilograms.
It is a bare rack - no doors or back, and uses 19mm solid bars that bed through the main supports. Infinitely adjustable and the bottom shelves can take loads up to a ton - really - that makes it perfect for monster amplifiers like the F5 Turbo I am building for it.
I did it after I was tired of creaking and bending MDF racks, which don't hold up well over time or under the 80% humidity in my city. As for sound, I'm not really sure it makes a difference. It should be sturdy enough to hold everything and not transmit vibrations to or from the equipment. In that, this one is superb. Pricey but well worth it IMO. The open format has the nice benefit of being super-accesible for service and wiring changes, equipment addition and removal, etc. WAF is on the lower side due to exposed wiring.
It is a bare rack - no doors or back, and uses 19mm solid bars that bed through the main supports. Infinitely adjustable and the bottom shelves can take loads up to a ton - really - that makes it perfect for monster amplifiers like the F5 Turbo I am building for it.
I did it after I was tired of creaking and bending MDF racks, which don't hold up well over time or under the 80% humidity in my city. As for sound, I'm not really sure it makes a difference. It should be sturdy enough to hold everything and not transmit vibrations to or from the equipment. In that, this one is superb. Pricey but well worth it IMO. The open format has the nice benefit of being super-accesible for service and wiring changes, equipment addition and removal, etc. WAF is on the lower side due to exposed wiring.
IME the difference equipment support makes is dramatic and exceeds that of cables.
Different approaches may give good results. Ultralight/no shelves is my favourite but not always possible or applicable. Solid construction of diverse materials with constrained layer shelving and ball bearing component footers also works well.
I guess if one cannot hear the difference different footers make... building an "audiophile" rack is a waste of time and money
Different approaches may give good results. Ultralight/no shelves is my favourite but not always possible or applicable. Solid construction of diverse materials with constrained layer shelving and ball bearing component footers also works well.
I guess if one cannot hear the difference different footers make... building an "audiophile" rack is a waste of time and money
Yes, my house is very old and has 4"x4" rough-sawn posts on 24" centers in the walls. The place where I wanted to wall-mount my turntable was between a window and a corner, so I could choose between <14" centers on one side or >20" centers on the other -- neither would work with a standard shelf mount. So I got one of those units that screws to a single stud and has two glass shelves. My phono pre goes on the lower shelf, the old Thorens TD-160 on the upper. Huge improvement in isolation. If there was a nearby door I well imagine it would be susceptible to door slams, but no problems with footfalls. The only weakness is that the shelf can rotate a bit around the mount, but I put some material in the gap between the shelf and the wall to stop that.
One of the neatest TT mounts I ever saw (also a Thorens table, back in the late '70s) was a simple pine shelf suspended on 2 loops of string hanging from 2 screws in the wall.The shelf didn't make contact with the wall because the string passed behind the shelf, and the compliance of the string helped isolate the shelf from the wall. Cheap and effective! Of course, nowadays you would use kevlar string and a composite shelf..
I've seen a rack with criss-cross supports suspended from 4 posts and the gear was sitting on footers at the locations where the cross supports went under the component! Aluminum I believe and a design like a treble clef was fashioned as part of the support! Looked cool as hell... but I can only imagine it being costly. Sonic substrates....?
While replying to this post I took some time to look for an image of the aforementioned shelf system, but found this instead...
http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/flexye.html
Answers my question and gives instructions too!
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