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Does anyone use wood for vibration control?

What kind of wood have you found to be best?
bksherm
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Michael, my offer to send a team of professional deprogrammers still stands. Although you’ve been using mass-on-spring isolation all this time it hasn’t sunk in yet, we’re on the same team. Hel-loo! Michael Green - unintentional isolationist. Geez, you’d think someone told you there was a horse thief in your ancestral tree. Welcome aboard, sailor! Now you need to learn the secret handshake 🤝
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
1,019 posts
 

"wood is too random and has unavoidable colorations"

But I also think it’s a starting place for those experimenting. A lot of my clients start off DIYing their wood pieces which I think is cool. Then when they get the real thing and comment on why does the authentic MGA wood sound so much better. The products I do sound better because it is born with a purpose, it’s not random but specifically chosen and voiced. My curing shop resembles an instrument builders space.

I shipped 65 8’ long pieces last week to one client and when the shipper was loading he picked up a piece and went "d***". Then I played the piece of wood for him and he freaked out.

But again everyone needs to start somewhere and many times the first DIY approaches get the wheels turning so I try to encourage playing around with different tones. Ultimately though getting the real thing is much easier to tune with. Plus buying the real thing is a lot less expensive than the learning curve of voicing.

Michael Green

glupson
7,842 posts
 
This time both may be right.

Tuning the way michaelgreen does certainly seems time-consuming and, at least in the long beginning, "hit or miss". Inefficient from time and effort perspective.

At the same time, many people like doing things and figuring them out, perfecting their skills. They end up with good results after a while. Much less of "hit or miss" and much more predictable. That may be where michaelgreen is now. I doubt even he would say it was all smooth in the beginning.

Heck, some people spend days trying to get a golf ball in a hole somewhere far. No real use for it, but they have fun along the way. I would walk there and put it in by hand, but that is not what drives them. They love the feeling they got so good that they can do it from the distance in a very inconvenient way. No harm done.
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
1,019 posts
 

Hi Glupson

Now that we have developed the tools of tuning it’s pretty easy to do. The more difficult thing was the timing aspect. In the 70’s and 80’s most products, by design or mistake, were made of materials and applications that were more organic to the audio signal. When the 90’s got here designs changed dramatically and the products were more locked into their sound and became harder to mate to other components. Right then things should have stopped and the problem looked at. Instead HEA created it’s own little world of plug & play, not taking into account chassis, PC boards and a bunch of problems they were giving birth to not knowing what the end results would end up doing to the industry.

HEA created a very impractical monster and then built a marketing scam around it. Once the reviewers put this to motion the progress stopped. Now that HEA has been in decline it’s time once again to push Tuning in a more practical sense.

But tuning itself? Tuning itself is an easy discipline to learn and follow. I would say this though. It’s much easier for a person to use tuning right off the bat than it is for the person who has been HEA-ishly trained. To quote Jim Bookhard "you can’t tune a rock".

let me give an example

Remember when power cords started to be plugged into receptacles on the back of components? This was done so HEA could market power cords. Fact is a direct connection without using the extra plug sounds much better. Banana plugs, same issue. HEA built a plug & play world that made sound generally worse but it fit into a marketing play that worked beautifully. Problem now is things have been made so messed up for so long the general HEA public thinks these impractical moves are common place, even more high end, when in reality they were some huge steps backward.

MG

glupson
7,842 posts
 
michaelgreen,

I get the idea of tuning as an ongoing project, but I doubt that things you mentioned about High End Audio were that deliberate and wise product of a big conspiracy. More likely that someone jumped on the opportunity. Take your example of power cords that became detached. How many of the manufacturers of "boxes" started marketing their aftermarket power cords at that time? I am not sure that even today, decades later, there is a flood of power cords from manufacturers of amplifiers.

What you seem to neglect in your approach is that many people do have more concerns than sound and windmills. Making a perfect room, stands, springs, whatever, is all fine but people have jobs, children to take to ballet classes, and dogs roaming the living room. For them, convenience accounts for lot. If they can change the sound by buying new piece of equipment instead of rearranging a living space and that over a long time, they are willing to accept a trade off. They have no time and energy to move things around a few times a day, or ever. And they do not feel scammed. Price is sometimes smaller factor that it seems at first.

Those who enjoy their world of tuning must be a happy bunch. Nothing wrong with doing it and I am sure results may be great. It is just that it is not for everyone.

Banana plugs are, for some of us, wonderful invention. Neat, convenient, perfect. Maybe there is some loss of audio quality for those who do not mind wires sticking out, but for the rest of us banana plugs are just fine. Whoever invented them does deserve whatever money she/he made with it. Theoretical discussions about why they are bad are great and may lead to improvement, but in practice, many people prefer them. Not because they got fooled by HEA industry.
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