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Lonely piece of marble: where should it go?

Greetings. Through some strange providence, I have assembled a decent entry-leveler. Consists of a Music Hall MMF 7.1 tt, Exposure 2010s integrated + power amps (one driving bass, the other treble), and nice, ugly Vandersteen 3a sigs. Good times! So, the sidewalk outside my Vermont home (circa 1865) is made of marble slabs. These get prised up and sometimes break when the sidewalk plows come through in the winter. I'm sure the town fathers hate this sidewalk and would not object to the fact that I STOLE one of the pieces of marble, because I'm sure they want to get rid of the crud anyway. Should I put it under my TT or halve it for the speakers?
mr_stain
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
Put the marble on top of your subwoofer.
frank_sm
111 posts
 
If you like the appearance of Granite and wish to use it you should damp it. EAR Isodamp material is available in large enough sheets to do the job. Michael Percy sells it if you're interested. A simple effective approach would be to use an MDF/Isodamp/Granite sandwich. This won't stop sound waves bouncing off the granite surface but it will effectively stop ringing.
rf_gumby
54 posts
 
You will, as Frank pointed out, want to damp the entire surface of the bottom side with a quality dampening material. Only that will make the "ringing" stone slab
not be counter-productive for these purposes. You're basically creating a constrained layer base is all, and
in that instance the mass will be beneficial.
mr_stain OP
10 posts
 
Thanks folks. It is indeed marble, not granite (marble is plentiful in VT). I had searched the archives a bit before my first post, and while some warned of this mysterious "ringing", others have praised its sonic qualities for isolating tt's. Incidentally, I am in the process of chiseling the bottom so that it is completely flat (I am not afraid of using my hands since I am a visual artist, and marble is fun to work with). However, if the piece is not machined, would a lack of absolute uniformity in thickness matter?
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Mr_stain, make some art out of the marble. Forty years ago, may put marble on racket balls with slits in them. I still have the piece of marble on which we make bread. It was terrible for isolation. I would not recommend maple either; it robs music of its dynamics. I piece of thick granite sitting in sand is about the only way to use rock for isolation.
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