Improving a stone rack

Wool carpet testing - not conclusive. Maybe I prefer the naked shelf. It is not like a big TV screen between the speakers. The rack also acts as a diffusor. I will investigate - some damping of the wall, the shelves, etc. seems ok. And I will experiment with springs (when i get them). But a main impression is that rack damping, footers, and so on, is rather marginal. It works very well by itself. Why? Because the rack is very massive and heavy, and also very stable. Due to the columns I placed in the basement, below the rack. The best low cost investment I ever did.

I am testing  Cerapucs under the maglev feet on the Hanss T-30 record player. An improvement? First test: yes, maybe. Slightly more open, detailed treble, and better timbre? So the pucs stay, for now.     

So far, raising components on footers has worked very mildly positively, in the rack - now trying the Einstein preamp on Walker validpoints and the Hanss player on cerapucs. So far, no dramatic effects, maybe a bit, although subtle. I have some large black ceramic cones to try also (if i find them), and the Nobsound springs when they arrive.

At last, some clear progress. The record player is clearly critical. A combination of better feet (Cerapucs) and better power cord (Gutwire) seems to be what the doctor ordered. My wife agrees. The effect is as if the artist comes closer, I can hear more of the recording. Very promising, and quite unexpected.

With Sidsel Endresen and Bugge Wesseltoft: Try, on their Out here album, 2 x LP at 45 rpm, it is like vocalist Endresen is here in my room. On other less good recordings, like Jefferson Airplane: Wooden ships, from Volunteers, and Doors: Riders on the storm, from LA Woman, again from my best (45 rpm) versions, the same effect is there, so even if I can also hear the recording defects, in fact better than before, in the overall sound, they are reduced.