as weird as it sounds, I cut drywall squares and secured them with sticky wood veneer.
the best anti-vibration solution.
the best anti-vibration solution.
Best building material for vibration free shelving
I am building some built into the wall shelves for my VPI Classic 2 SE turntable, amp, preamp, CD player, and old Burwen TNE 7000A transient noise eliminator (that’s one for you old-timers to remember), as well as my DISH Network receiver box. The shelves must match in appearance the typical looking built-in wood bookshelves already in the room. The shelves will be located directly under my 45" wide flat screen television. They will be wide enough to hold two components side by side, other than the VPI turntable which will have the top shelve to itself due to its extra width. I will be building the shelves high and deep to allow for plenty of air circulation around the components. They will be painted.
My question is, what materials might you suggest building the shelves with to minimize vibration? If they were for books I’d normally build the sides, and top out of 3/4" birch sided plywood, the back out of 1/4 inch luan plywood, and the shelves out of oak to deal with the weight of the books without bending. I will be adding vibration damping feet under each component and am not looking for suggestions along those lines, only material and perhaps design recommendations to reduce vibration.
I was researching this last night online and on site, and saw recommendations to use four thicknesses of 3/4 inch High Density (HD) MDF, also to use granite or marble under the turntable, among other recommendations. I was wondering how birch veneered plywood would work too, as it’s ply’s, I believe, have their grains running in opposite directions. Maybe there’s some way to isolate the uprights from the horizontal shelves to reduce vibration transmission.
What would you think would work best for these built-ins. I’d appreciate any recommendations you have or your experience on this subject. Thank you for any ideas.
Mike
My question is, what materials might you suggest building the shelves with to minimize vibration? If they were for books I’d normally build the sides, and top out of 3/4" birch sided plywood, the back out of 1/4 inch luan plywood, and the shelves out of oak to deal with the weight of the books without bending. I will be adding vibration damping feet under each component and am not looking for suggestions along those lines, only material and perhaps design recommendations to reduce vibration.
I was researching this last night online and on site, and saw recommendations to use four thicknesses of 3/4 inch High Density (HD) MDF, also to use granite or marble under the turntable, among other recommendations. I was wondering how birch veneered plywood would work too, as it’s ply’s, I believe, have their grains running in opposite directions. Maybe there’s some way to isolate the uprights from the horizontal shelves to reduce vibration transmission.
What would you think would work best for these built-ins. I’d appreciate any recommendations you have or your experience on this subject. Thank you for any ideas.
Mike
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- 129 posts total
@skyscraper - I use... for amp and turntable - 3/4" MDF shelf - 1/2" 18" x 14" granite tile (cut to tat size) - with tool drawer liner in between them Tool drawere liner like this product https://www.banggood.com/3x0_3m-Drawer-Padded-Shelf-Foam-Black-Box-Liner-Non-Slip-Lining-Grip-Rubber... I buy it from the dollar store - very cheap :-) For smaller components (phono and Bluesound Node 2) I use 3/8" MDF and 3/8" granite tile with the same drawer liner between them Each shelf has sorbothane between the shlf and the Rack;’s metal frame My TT plinth is also made from 3 sheets of 3/4" MDF glued and clamped. It is very dense and does not vibrate - I would have to believe 2 sheets glued would make a very good shelf. Each component is currently supported by 3 wooden feet like this... https://www.hificollective.co.uk/catalog/glasshouse-large-wooden-cone-feet-p-9728.html The Amp and TT has the large feet, the phono stage has the medium feet and the Node 2 has the small feet The wooden feet made a noticeble improvement in the size and precision iof the mage. I have heard good things about Mapleshade product and their web site may contain some useful info for a DIY person Hope that helps - Steve |
You can get various forms of sorbothane on Amazon. It can be expensive. I'm not a fan of MDF for long horizontal load bearing pieces, like a shelf. MDF doesn't compress much and it has a lot of strength when standing vertically, which is good. But in the long axis it breaks fairly easily...think long shelf with something heavy in the middle. williewonka, I made some feet for my preamp out of walnut that I had lying around. The rubber feet of the pre-amp sit in the little divots on top, the wood blocks sit on 1/4" sorbothane pads. Does any of this make any difference? I have no idea. Kind of doubt it, but total cost was about $12. https://images.nikonians.org/galleries/data/3564/IMG_10421.JPG |
@n80, not a good idea to use the preamp’s rubber feet coupling into a hardwood footer. You can’t rely on the stock rubber feet to provide any isolation; also, rubber will colour the sound and the feet are not secure since they are either glued or screwed into the preamp chassis. For transparent isolation, footers should sit under the component itself. This way any vibration will travel from the underside of the chassis to the footer. There are two methods of isolating a component, either drain vibration to a platform or plinth, or decouple the component from the shelf. There are many threads on this subject in the archives. Geoffkait has provided very good advice regarding acoustic isolation. Your walnut footers look like a good design for draining vibration and also for isolating acoustic/ mechanical vibration from the shelf. What you are missing is a set of cones where the flat end sits under the preamp and the point sits in the dimple of the walnut footer. |
- 129 posts total