WAF Alert: McCormack DNA .5 on Vandersteen 2W sub?

I would have two concerns: vibration and magnetic field interaction. Put your hand on the sub and on the McCormack during a loud bass passage. If you feel significant vibration, that's not good. Most 'philes would agree vibration of an amplifier is undesireabler. For magnetic field, see if the sub is magnetically shielded. If not, the magnetic field from a large speaker magnet could affect the McCormack's signal and eventually magnetize its iron-based components.

One way to have your cake and eat it too would be to put a large space between the two components -- raise the McCormack. For example, you could straddle the sub with a small, two shelf bookshelf or a rack and put the McCormack on top of that. Good luck.

Hi,

Try a Symposium "platform" for your amp. It should take care of any ill effect from it's new location. Try it before you buy it from your local dealer!

Cheers,
Mike

You shouldn't be too influenced by what Marco has done with his sandbox. He isn't really using it in his audio system. He just needed an excuse to build one so he could play in it. He can also hide a lot of things in there too, like playing cards with naked ladies on them.

I bet the McCormack does look good on the Vandie sub! James brings up good points. Maybe you can have a nice solid maple platform built that shares the same dimensions of the Vandersteen and place the DNA on that. Or how about a piece of granite? Also, I think you'll need to protect the sub from whatever platform you choose. Instead of using things like rubber pucks or Blu-Tack which can mar beautiful surfaces, I use gray artist kneaded erasers which can be shaped like Play-Doh, stay soft, and never discolor or harm the solid surfaces they contact.

Good luck!

Thanks for the feedback guys. Wow, I never considered the magnetic field issues-what would Enid Lumely think(anybody remember her?)-the apparently "out-there" writer from Absolute Sound who has in restrospect proven herself way ahead of her time..I can recall that she described elevating her speaker cables on 2x4 blocks to get them off the carpet....now you can buy some manufactured tweak device to accomplish that.) As far as the vibrations for example when I crank up" Dafos" or the "Train Song" from Holly Cole's Temptation album (thanks Marco..) I do in fact feel subtle vibration on the top of the sub, but alarmingly I feel more vibration in the top of the amp case. Could this perhaps be airborn?!!! and the case is resonating? Steve McCormack once demonstarted for me his system years ago in the back of his shop-mind blowing, no-make that chest crunching surfable bass waves coming from his Vandys..Steve are you out there? As far as Marco(code name jax2, a good 'ol friend of mine..) perhaps I can use the naked lady card info as blackmail..of course Marco photographs naked ladies on a regular basis and digging in the sand may be akin to searching for WMD?