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.

Ag insider logo xs@2xo_holter

@o_holter I use 3 not 4. I found they worked best at 1/3 to 1/2 compression. I also found that they worked best on turntable > tubed phono amps > tube power supply > speakers. Not so much on tube power amps. Try with/without the rubber protectors - i.e. straight-up aluminum. They should touch the chassis NOT the existing feet, and rest on existing surface only.

Yes, good advice. I have them adjusted to a third to half compression. I use three feet under the lighter components (Teac, Hanss) but the Io power supplies need four feet to avoid cabinet stretching I think. I will soon try them under my MA1 amps, three feet should be enough. And yes, of course, directly from the chassis, not below the existing feet. Adjusting feet position to get the best balanced load from the component.

Straight up aluminum - interesting suggestion. Reminds me of how I tried to dampen the 10 kg alu platter on my record player, and found that I preferred "real" to "pleasant" - no damping. So platter mats and DIY platter damping were dropped.

I run my 20mm oversized aluminum platter on my 401 turntables naked. Real over pleasant!

I read somewhere that Duke Lejeune of Audiokinesis wrote about damping - "as little as we can get away with", or similar- in the context of bidirectional speakers, like I have. This type of setup makes the wall behind the speakers even more critical, and the ideal is a well distributed spectral tonality and a proper time delay before the reflected sound from the backfiring drivers. So, damping should be limited, and mixed with diffusion.