A reappearance of Black Diamond Racing?


I received an email from Music Direct a couple weeks ago offering the BDR shelves again. Anyone else notice this? I use them extensively in my system and actually use carbon fiber sheets in DIY projects. I'm a big fan of CF's usefulness in audio.
128x128slaw
@millercarbon,

I've thought about doing the same thing (using one of my circular SFTS platforms for my tt project' plinth.
Well if you are building a plinth, I really don't think you can do any better than a BDR Source Shelf. Even the thinner Shelf would be better than pretty much anything else you could find. I built a few and nothing came even close to the Source Shelf. The stuff is just so damn stiff and dense and highly damped- perfect for a plinth!

Don't be put off by it being carbon fiber. There is really only one layer of carbon fiber on each side. As far as cutting, shaping, machining, sanding, polishing, it works just like wood. Very, very hard wood. Not as hard as aluminum. But I have some very dense hardwood in my shop that is actually harder to cut and sand. Very doable.

Mine was cut first on a band saw, then hand sanded. Other parts were routered, drilled, and cut and threaded just like any other material. 

If you decide to try it first wrap the whole Shelf in blue painters tape. Leave the tape in place all the way to the end. That way only the areas you work get exposed and you wind up with a perfect blemish-free finish.




I just unpacked a couple of Torlyte shelves I bought back in the 80's or early-90's. I'm going to try one under my Townshend Rock Elite table, to see if Torlyte is still a contender. VERY low mass, high stiffness-to-mass ratio, but made of wood (fabricated into a honeycomb structure). Torlyte was popular when the Linn Sondek ruled the world.
I still have a couple of Torlyte products from back in the day.

Russ Andrews is a...interesting gentleman.

Torlyte was the talk of the town 30 years ago.  You don't hear much about it now?