Does anyone use wood for vibration control?

Purpleheart and African Padauk are both excellent.  Both about equally hard and dense and heavy which I believe is key.  I have two inch thick bases which also is important.  The thicker the wood the better.  For small components like macmini, modem, power supply, tube traps etc I use even thicker (3 inch thick)  smaller blocks of wood of the needed size that were meant for wood turning or carving from EBay.  

Yeah, right, tried it all. Wood doesn’t control vibration- wood vibrates! Its why musical instruments are built out of it, after all!

The thicker the better works because thicker vibrates less and at a higher frequency. So saying you like thicker better is saying you like the sound of wood- only you would like a little less of it. Which ultimately is why the industry long ago went to MDF- its got all the workability benefits of wood without the characteristic sonic signature of individual wood species.

This is a subject I dove deep into and figured out a very long time ago. Its tough because like I already said there’s a lot of supposedly knowledgeable people recommending pine, birch, coco bolo, whatever. Sounds great until you actually try it. Even worse there’s people spreading outright nonsense, like carbon fiber is soft. Yeah, that’s why they build F1 cars, airplanes and spacecraft out of it, nothing maintains precise geometry like a soft funky frame. Just beyond stupid. No offense to anyone.

Its probably true that wood vibrates.  Some less than others though, and purpleheart perhaps less than others.  And it may be that the resonance of wood is easier to live with than of other materials.  An excellent material for damping is something that Marigo is now fabricating. This is what they use for their IT platforms, i.e., isothermal platforms.  Not super cheap, but under my  upper range open speaker baffles they are extremely effective.  I believe Marigo suggests using this material for components is just as effective.

Check out Mapleshade’s VCS Vibration control systems and racks. I find them very effective. I use their 4" thick maple VCS under my turntable and it made a very big improvement. Also have a 2" under my amp. I’m sold. But it is a system. You need to use the whole system with the brass feet and ISO Blocks to get the full effect. You can use them without the brass feet and it's quite good but better with them. Sure wood vibrates but it also will absorb and dissipate energy when used correctly. And yes it needs to be thick. 3/4 shelving is not thick enough. The thicker the better. Maple seems to be the best. Just try to get a 4" thick slab of maple to resonate like a thin shelf does. Metal, stone and glass ring and do not absorb or really dissipate energy like thick wood, instead they reflect the energy back into the components. Sure nothing is perfect but we have to set our equipment on something.

The entire building is vibrating. So, even if there were a material that didn’t vibrate much the component on the rack or platform would still be vibrating, right long with the entire building. Thus, the theory that wood is no good because it vibrates doesn’t hold water. The trick, gentle readers, is to decouple (isolate) the component from the building AND use very hard cone materials, I.e., not wood or carbon fiber or even brass, underneath both the component and the iso device to allow “residual vibration” to rapidly exit stage left. Cryogenically treated heat tempered steel would be a good place to start.