A Tombstone in the Living room????

Hi David- I also have a 2" slab of granite sitting under my Basis 1400. What a big difference! The granite is supported by 3 layers of MDF underneath it, each layer has Navcon between them. You got a great price on the granite, never thought about going to a tombstone maker...

I tried granite first but went to a sand stone. I have it sitting on a stone fireplace hearth with my equipment sitting side by side. On another thread, Redkiwi has recommended I abandon the stone and use a steel rack system. This seems to be a major departure of thinking on this site. The rack people say it transfers the vibration quicker from the components, and the stone stores the energy. I have not had any experience with the rack systems, (seems like a good place to loose $500+) Anyway, has anyone tried the two systems independently? I would love to here your experiences.

I'm extremely pleased with my system, I use a number or footer arrangements and use a Black Diamond Racing "shelf" under my amp. I believe the stone provides the most neutral base to build up from, but I'm open to others results.

P.S. If you look in the yellow pages under stone, you will find the supply yards in your area. These are the suppliers to the tombstone, counter top and whatever manufacturers. I've used these people for years in my Architectural practice and have learned to snoop out there yards. They generally have a scrap pile, pieces that broke during fabrication, or a graveyard (sorry) pile with pieces they can't use or sell. Every few years they ship these piles to a stone grinder to be used for road base. I've never paid for my stone, if you want it cut they will for a small fee, as discussed above. Is there a cheaper tweak anywhere than solid stone base? The only down site is my two slabs weigh about 400 lbs each. J.D.

nillthepill-it appears that you paid less than 1/3 the going rate for kitchen countertop INSTALLED for your granite so you didn't do TOO bad.Speaking of which...I'm wondering about taking an 1 1/4" thick slab of granite and tightly surrounding it with 8/4 maple, or perhaps putting sand or even silicone between the wood and the stone. Probably won't have time, anyone want to give it a shot?

I have used granite, marble, glass, maple, MDF and lead. My experience with lead and MDF was not good. Granite at first can sound exciting, fast and detailed. After time I notice a hardness or slight glare. I can't seem to damp out all the ringing from the granite. Of all these DIY shelves or platforms I preferred the maple. The maple has many of the positive qualities as the granite without the hardness. The maple will slightly blunt the leading edge. There is an ease to the sound from maple that I do not get from the harder surfaced materials. I have been using brass cones (Triplepoints) under all components. Now I will be playing with different footers. Experiment and have fun.

What about SLATE? I just ordered a special table designed for my Simon Yorke turntable, and the material the designer uses is a 3cm thick piece of slate. The slate platform is attached to four spiked legs via some airline-industry (Lufthansa?) resonance-dampening material. The turntable is screwed into the slate slab with a a large screw that enters te turntable from below through its graphite bottom surface. There is also some resonance-damping material in this area as well. I will let you know about the results of this setup once it arrives in a few weeks. As it is, because of the lack of suspension in the turntable, I can only achieve optimum results from the Simon Yorke in the dead of night, when no cars are on the road, and nobody is walking in the building. (Too bad that this is the time when headphones are required.) BTW, Simon Yorke recommends (facetiously) a square meter of concrete as the optimum surface for his turntable. As far as tombstones in the living room, my wife pointed that the JMLAB utopia speakers are just the right size for my coffin. She offered to bury me in them when I die, with the rest of my equipment inside. I am a little worried about graverobbers.