In the sand box


I have 2 audio buddies who have built component sandboxes with different types of sand. They claim Beach sand is the most dense and made a huge difference when the turntable and amp were set in them. Has anyone else been down this road? I mean there are several ways to isolate equipment, this is just one of many.

hilroy48

Sure, why not.

I’ve put sand in speaker stands for the same reason, to dampen vibration.

Being a professional woodworker I have designed and built audio racks using custom  designed sand filled isolated shelves. Since silica sand is getting hard to find I like to use a quartz based media blasting sand very similar to the article listed by soma70.  Mineral based sand has all the same properties as silca sand, clean, dry, and uniform grit size.  If you want to eliminate as much vibration as possible its important to have several layers of dampening and let your sand filled isolation shelves float . As we know, when you isolate your components from vibration with a quality rack it helps squeeze the maximum performance from your system components.  One of the benefits of vibration isolation dampening is a very black almost spooky background.

Paul

Sand in the bottom of my Vienna Acoustics Bachs made a difference. Tighter more solid bass. There’s a plug in the bottom and a chamber built for sand. The owner’s manual describes what to, how to load em up. Also loaded up bookshelf speaker stands with sand, works great. You can buy “sterile” beach sand on Amazon designed just for such purposes. 
 

Hey, if it sounds good/better, then it works! 

Here’s a post from 2004 by Barry, of Bright Star Audio.  He started tweaking in 1985.

Since my listening area is on a suspended floor, several of my components are on Bright Star sand boxes - along with aftermarket footers.