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wall rack and different shelf materials under TT

Yesterday I swapped a 3/4"x16"x16" walnut cutting board (very nicely custom made and priced from ebay memeber hardwood-lumber-co, not affiliated) under my Pro-ject Xpression III table with an Ortofon MC-3 turbo, speedbox and tube phono box II. The natural unoiled walnut matches my rack better than maple, even though the maple can run more dense, but just a bit more. I used to have a 1/4"x15"x15" porcelain tile piece under my table and the first impressions follow:

- walnut: more relaxed and little warmer sound, bass a little more subdued like when you put a pillow in a bass drum in the drum kit.

- porcelain: more accurate, a little brighter and a touch more bass slam.

I am going to do further listening with both to see which one wins out. There are the factory isolation cones under my turntable and the wall rack is steel bolted to the house studs. I also just got some Electro-Harmonix golds that I am going to roll into the tube phono box II.

Will keep everyone posted...

BTW, I got a 3/4"x10"x16" maple and cherry cutting board for the kitchen and total was $57 including shipping.
sbrownnw
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stanwal's avatar
stanwal
3,147 posts
 
The Linn is a special case;I have a Star Sound Sistrum rack that is very heavy but the Linn sounds better sitting on a very old Russ Andrews Torlite stand which sits on top of another stand. Rube Goldberg but it works well. Linn advises that a lightweight stand works best and my experience supports this. The VPI, on the other hand , does very well on the Star Sound as does the Basis 2001. I was a Star Sound dealer but the rack is no longer made so this is not a commercial for it.
mechans
3,048 posts
 
My concern with Butcher Block which I use under a couple of different components has a lot of glue or boding agent in them. Therefore it is difficult to compare these manyfactured boards like my amps stand which have 3 and 1/2 inched of bonded Maple as the primary shelving material. All I can say is that they seem to work really well. Better than the fake slate the stands came with but thats all I can say. I also like the look of thick wooden boards natural or bonded.FWIW!
sbrownnw OP
706 posts
 
So, after some more listening this weekend, I think I am going to go back to the porcelain shelf. One thing I notice is that with the volume all the way down the tonearm seems to be doing more (more / louder pickup) with the porcelain shelf. Why is this / what is actually happening here?

I also plan a hybrid eval with some ebony wood disks between the turntable factory isolation cones / feet and the porcelain shelf.

Anyone need a 3/4x16x16 walnut board? If not, I'll use it for a nice cheese board.
sbrownnw OP
706 posts
 
Porcelain back, table leveled and tacking weight double-checked but this time tried some thin weaved leather coasters between the shelf and table. Nice and lively keeping the bass slam but reduced the brightness a little. Looking forward to trying the solid ebony disks next. Cheap tuning is fun, especially when I customized my cabinet rack with a pass through for the DIY wall turntable rack I made. :)
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