@lowrider57 , @geoffkait ,
OK, this is a rare moment in time where we can agree.
OK, this is a rare moment in time where we can agree.
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 was in a similar position not long ago when I bought my heavy new Transrotor turntable and had to modify my existing flimsy rack to accommodate it and create an isolation base. Reading the many threads and forums, and soliciting info from other audiophiles was enough to make me start tearing my hair out because you encounter so many different views and advice. I took some of the info, and then the rest in to my own hands, bought tons of isolation materials and footers, and tried them out, especially measuring with seismometer apps on my ipad/iphone. FWIW, here’s what I ended up with: I re-enforced the top (thin) mdf shelf of my Lovan rack with 1/8" steel. It’s quite remarkable how much solidity that steel creates when bonded to the mdf (I used a product called "wall damp" used to damp vibrations in walls, as the bond). Isolation base: 2 1/2" Maple block 1/8" steel sheet MDF layer of 3/4" and 1/2" sheet, bonded by wall damping sitting on Townshend Isolation Pods (spring based pods) (Actually, I also threw in some thin sound-damped steel discs that I had ordered to test, between the pods and the MDF, mostly because I had them to use). As far as reducing external vibrations reaching the isolation base/turntable, nothing - sorbothane sheets, footers etc - came close to the performance of the spring-based Townshend pods. You can see in seismometer measurements, and feel, huge reductions in vibration getting through to whatever they are holding up. If I put the seismometer/ipad on top of one of my other av rack shelves and stomp the wood floor around the base, it registers huge ringing spikes on the read-out. Place it on the isolation base held up by the pods, and almost nothing at all registers stomping hard around the base, and almost nothing at all is felt with a hand on the base. All the rest of the material below the Maple block is just there to add thickness, weight, more reduction of isolation through combining various materials, and to provide the right weight for the springs to work optimally. I have to emphasize again btw how much bang for the buck stiffness you get just throwing in even a 1/8" sheet of steel in the mix. It even made the whole base layer obviously more solid, no matter where I through it in within the layering. Don’t ask me if all this had benefits on the sound as I don’t know. There was no practical way to do a before and after. But in terms of a peace-of-mind project, and knowing how much vibrations were reduced, I’m quite happy with the results. Cheers. |
I don't think of Daedalus as a tweaky company, but he does purvey these. https://www.daedalusaudio.com/accessories The wood insert sits on 3 ball bearings inside. |
Prof, thanks for you suggestions. It is confusing when you try figuring out what to do when you’re researching online. So much contradictory advice, all well meaning, but difficult to sort out. I got a estimate on some wall damping material just the other day. It turned out to be prohibitively expensive $400+ for just a small quantity of one inch squares. I do like your idea of using a layer of sheet steel, Do you have the sheets steel connected to one the other materials with anything but the stickiness of the wall damp material? I’m trying making a sandwich of two pieces of solid Baltic Birch 3/4" plywood with some better quality shelf liner in between as damping. These shelves will be for the CD player, amp, and power conditioner. The bottom piece of Baltic Birch will be screwed into dadoed (slotted) uprights, next the shelf liner, then the upper piece of Baltic Birch will float on the on top of the liner, not in contact with anything else. Next Isopods and cones. Well see if that works. This evening I’ll look up the Townsend Isolation Pods, as you’ve gotten good , measurable results with them. Thanks for passing on your ideas and how they’ve worked out. I was wondering if I screwed some sheet steel like yours to the underside of the floating piece of Baltic Birch, rather than letting the sheet steel also float, whether that would dampen that shelf it in any way. Mike |
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