Shelf Material

Where do you purchase Corian? If it is readily available and stiff enough for a 24" stretch between supports I may want to try it for my second amp/preamp shelf. I do not mean to drive anyone crazier, but the best sound for my CD player so far has been Vibrapods resting on the "Persimmon" wood that my cabinet is made of.

Dekay, DuPont Corian is a readily available material used for countertop installations and can be ordered thru most home improvement centers.You should have no troubles spanning 24 inches.

Thank you Caterham for not calling me dim. I have seen Corian on "This Old House" but did not make the connection. It is much easier to source than Persimmon.

I have played around with the hard rubber footers and Vibrapods a bit more now and my vote is now with the Vibrapods. The hard rubber footers are a bit dark sounding, and may explain Recres not liking Corian. Corian is definitely not perfect - there are probably better shelves, such as from Neuance or the Maple butchers block. I am just saying that if decoupled from the rack (in my case by nylon fishing line) and if decoupled from the component with Vibrapods, I get a good result. The most positive aspect of Corian is a thumping and deep bass, that is fast and agile, but the tendency to mid-range grain rules out spikes or cones.

I don't know much about youngs nautilus or caterham's, but i do know kevin from muse is pretty smart and his post reminds me of what we joiner's, (that's cabinetmakers to you) call the torsion box. To create a dead flat work surface, you take 2 layers ofsheet goods, mdf, ply, osb, etc and join them with accurately cut strips of the material. Pin and glue the strips to both layers so you wind up with a "shelf that's as thick as the two layers plus the width of the joining material. I'm thinking of 2 pieces of mdf, 3/4 X 30 X18 with 3/4 mdf cut very accurately to 18 X 2. 6 pieces spaced 6" apart would be good and the voids between them could be filled with sand or marmalade or whatever damping material you like prior to glue-up. The resulting box would be 30 X 18 X 3 1/2, incredibly stiff, and dead flat. You could trim it out with your sitka spruce, kevin. Remember coming to my place in florida, giving up on grounding and sheilding away the hum in my muse one pre-amp and sending me another with a whole new internal grounding system? You are the man!