Mapleshade boards under speakers

I have been using maple stands in various designs under amps, preamps, CD players, and speakers for a few years now. I have found I preffer maple to a few maunufactured brands including Sistrum.

I just finished building a copy of Mapleshades 4" maple stands for my Gallo ref 3.1 speakers. I did not buy the expensive brass footers, I instead tapped the holes I drilled for the feet to accept the feet that came with the speakers. They thread directly into the maple, no inserts. I also routed in a space to accept the grill which has to sit 1/2" lower than the surface of the stand in order to line up the screw holes in the back of the speakers. They sound better without the grills in place but I have a batch of grandchildren (all toddlers) and so I need to be able to have the grills in place some times. I don't think Mapleshade offers this option, but they should. It only took an hour to make a template for the router.

I set the speakers back up and listened this afternoon. I am very happy with the sound. Much larger and more open detailed soundstage. Imaging and bass have tightened up. A definite improvement across the board. I heard nothing that I felt was a detriment to the sound in my brief listening session.

Something probably could be gained from the addition of the brass footers, More mass and much better coupling to the floor, plus the brass factor certainly is something to consider, but the cost of the footers alone from Mapleshade is $788.00. I have $80.00 and a few hours of time in mine.

Mapleshade (style) stands under speakers, at least Gallo 3.1 speakers are a definite improvement.

I don't think you can automatically make universal claims for each product, good or bad. I think it to be very system dependent. The maple boards didn't work well with a friend's system, in mine they're superb. The Sistrum may have the same effect. Do they offer a return policy?

How does a platform or brass footer "drain vibrations"? Do vibrations act like heat or fluid and flow through materials? Wouldn't footers actually prevent propagation of vibration from an external region (like the floor) to the platform and component in question? Exactly where do these vibrations originate, and what direction are they moving in? Is "isolation" a better way to think about it?

Obviously I am confused about the vibration drainage concept (and a bit skeptical). However, I have heard differences myself, but mostly for spiking speakers to a floor, where the speaker itself is doing the vibrating.

Jrb25,

According to Mapleshade website:

"You can't get good sound just by placing the speaker's flat bottom on the floor or on a stand. Because of the large area, low-pressure contact, much of the cabinet's vibrational energy is reflected back instead of being drained efficiently and cleanly down into the floor."

I find this only marginally satisfactory

A site selling Reference Points products (http://storesonline.com/site/1609406) claims:

"The sharp cone point couples to the shelf, floor or platform and acts as a mechanical diode, channeling vibration out and preventing unwanted ambient (floor) and stand vibrations from entering."

"Mechanical Diode"???

I guess the idea is that a given weight connected through a smaller brass point focuses energy being produced internally into whatever is below it. A massive maple platform is rigid to a point but has the capacity to absorb or dampen at least some of this energy, thus "draining" internal vibration "away" from speaker or equipment cabinets.

In the reverse direction, the thick slab of wood absorbs some of the energy from the floor or shelf and keeps it from entering the gear from the bottom up. The overall thickness and weight of these platforms keeps them from resonating like the back of a violin or guitar, but the resonant properties of the wood work instead to absorb and dissipate energy as wood fibers move slightly adjacent to each other - I assume generating some heat in the process.

06-16-09: Jrb25
How does a platform or brass footer "drain vibrations"? Do vibrations act like heat or fluid and flow through materials? Wouldn't footers actually prevent propagation of vibration from an external region (like the floor) to the platform and component in question? Exactly where do these vibrations originate, and what direction are they moving in? Is "isolation" a better way to think about it?

Obviously I am confused about the vibration drainage concept (and a bit skeptical). However, I have heard differences myself, but mostly for spiking speakers to a floor, where the speaker itself is doing the vibrating.

from my experience sometimes the original speaker feet can do a good job of keeping the floor-borne vibrations from reaching the speaker cabinet. There are a few speaker manuf who carefully select the speaker feet. Most do not perhaps knowing the customer is going to use some after-mkt solution. So, chances are very high that the speaker feet will need to be addressed.

Where do vibrations originate? They originate in the electronics itself. Current flowing thru electronics generates an EMF & that causes components to vibrate which eventually couple into the chassis, CD player drive is mechanically rotating & passes its vibrations into the chassis, power xformers vibrate (& even hum), if the chassis is not isolated well then floor-borne & air-borne vibrations get coupled to it. So, vibrations are everywhere & they can be destructive to audio playback.

How does brass drain vibrations? This is my understanding - Brass is an alloy of copper & zinc & the crystalline structure of this binary pair makes it a very good electrical & thermal conductor. WHen the flat portion of the brass cone is couple/attached to the underside of the chassis the vibrations in the chassis find a low impedance path. These vibrations create heat in the brass structure that is dissipated & the rest is conducted away from the chassis by the metal into the rack shelf (the pointy end of the brass cone is coupled to the rack shelf). Since the pointy end of the brass cone has a very small surface area the vibrations from the rack shelf find it hard to enter the brass cone - it acts like a high impedance point. Hence the analogy to an electronics diode wherein the brass cone is called a mechanical diode as it allows vibrations to drain from the chassis into the rack shelf but does not allow vibrations from the rack shelf into the chassis.
If you read Audiopoints' & Mapleshade's website you'll read that the purity of brass is important i.e. the alloy should be kept binary as far as possible. The reason for this, according to my understanding, is that addition of lead or tin or nickel reduces the thermal & electrical conductivity dramatically making it less effective as a cone. The mechanical strength is increased by the addition of these other metals but it seems that varying the content of zinc alone can yield a strong enough brass for audio use.
(someone correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks.)