What the *#$@ happened??


I'll keep this short, just hoping someone can let me know what's going on. I changed out the platform my TT was on to a much denser wood, and I'm not really happy with the results. The good, I can hear more detail in the music, subtle nuances are more prevalent, better instrument separation, especially in complex arrangements. The bad, the whole stage moved back and got flatter, it lost depth. And the 3 dimensional characteristics of the singers voice also lost luster, became flatter as it were. It almost seems like I'm listening to a stereo now instead of a live performance. I thought the heavier wood would improve the sound, not degrade it. 
Anyone know why this happened?
128x128shawnlh
Could you tell us which woods you are taling about? Also, what table is that?
Generally speaking, it is not simple with woods. Maple is the most popular, I never heard anyone use ebony or ironwood, as an example.
You probably got a lot of vibration energy reflected back into your analog rig, among other possible factors.
Wood is 3" maple, TT is a ClearAudio Concept. Previous wood was just laminated pb, hence my surprise with the depletion of stage depth.
I am surprised too. I have 3" maple block under my Nottingham Spacedeck and everything is fine.
All vibration control devices are "tuning" devices--the fact that they alter the sound means that they can alter the sound for worse result.  Some people think that more vibration absorption or dissipation is inherently superior to less, but, I have found that that is not necessarily the case.  I heard a CD player placed on various Symposium shelves.  As one moved up the range to the thicker shelves that did more to attenuate vibration, the worse the sound became--even the sales representative from Symposium agreed that this particular CD player was not suited to such treatment.  I have heard the same result with some turntables that become a bit "drier" and more analytical sounding when thin plinths are replaced with multi-layer alternatives that do a better job of attenuation/isolation.

In the realm of vibration control, it really is a matter of experimentation.