Maple or Granite

For information and to avoid unnecessary frustrations.

In August this year Ken Lyon of Neuance posted the following on VA:

"Unfortunately, early this year the business was forced to shut down for repairs after encurring storm damage to the shop and my home.
Once those repairs were in place, my efforts were soley concentrated to ensure all pending orders were filled in as timely a fashion as possible and that my existing clients were attended to for their service,warranty and consulation matters.
During this closure, it has been my intent to restructure the operation for better efficiency/shorter leadtimes and to use a portion of the downtime for personal leave as I'd not taken any time off for myself for many years.
In the interim, some recurring health issues have cropped up which have caused me to reconsider my return to full time operations.
As of this moment, I am as yet undecided as to Neuance's future and I have not been taking in any new business.

Best Regards,
Ken Lyon
GraterRanges/Neuance "

Regards

Tom

I agree with Cmk's take on granite and the dependency on the component, 'table or other, that sits on it.

I'm offering up my experiences here not to counter what others have posted, but rather to share what I tried and what did not work in my case. I would encourage everyone to experiment for themselves to see what really works for them and their system.

I also tried blocks of maple between my table and the granite. I still was not happy with the sound but others may find this works very well for them. So far, I prefer my Galibier's sound when directly on the granite. Just to clarify a bit more, I use a granite slab as well as 3, 4" square blocks of granite that are about 7/16" thick under the table as well to keep the ground wire from being pinched.

But this thread has brought to mind an idea I have not explored, in addition to the aluminum. I should try cocobolo blocks under the table. This wood is much, much more dense than maple and may do better. As with most things, I won't know until I try it.

Maple is normally superior with most components, And or speakers in my experience, and yes I have purchased fancy full sized blocks of both these materials, is this really necessary to explain why maple over a ringing rock is normally a safer bet? Then again I don't see too many guitars or other instruments made out of granite, but maple makes some of the best ones, so I guess you will just have to experiment :0)

The point is, nothing is written in stone. :)

Has anyone tried as an alternative to maple, (laminated) bamboo like say, cutting board products? They are starting to show up in the U.S. market place and bamboo is about 18% harder than maple in a lamination. I have no idea where that puts the resonant frequency yet it may have possibilities.

Happy Listening!