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Dealing with an unstable, vibrating wood floor...

Hi everyone, as some of you know, I've been substantially upgrading my hi-fi lately. Currently a CJ amp, just got a Michell Gyro SE, and a JJ 243 pre on the way. I'm admittedly a newbie to audiophilia. Now I need to worry about stablizing the equipment rack. Here's the deal.

I have my rig on a four-shelf rack, a welded steel Sanus on spikes with 3/4" MDF shelves. I live in a 130 year old bulding on the third floor. The hardwood floors have seen better days--some loose slats, and the floor is VERY loose and prone to vibration. I can't even walk across the floor without making the turntable bobble on its suspension a little--the floor flexes slightly under my feet and takes the rack with it. I really, really need to work on stabilizing the rack! I've found that vibration is a significant cause of poor sound from my vinyl rig--pops and ticks, lack of clarity and detail, etc. and forget using a subwoofer, the low frequency waves render my vinyl rig far, far worse than my ho-hum Marantz CD5000!

Some problems--I know I'd be better off with a wall shelf for the Gyro, but you'd be right to guess that my walls about as good as my floor. They can't hold a spice rack much less a shelf with a turntable sitting on it. So I'm stuck with the 'table on top of the rack. I also can't afford to get a Neuance shelf or some such.

I'm wondering if sheer mass would do the trick. Could I put the whole rack on top of, say, a couple inches thick cement flat, then level the rack on it? Or could I have a cement or sand-filled shelf in place of the standard 3/4" MDF shelf my Gyro currently sits on? My main problem is the whole rack is unstable, so that's another reason why I hesitate on a massive shelf for my 'table. Would it pay to put the whole rack on something solid, of great mass?

I don't have a ton of money to work with, but my current situation is unacceptable! If anyone could steer me in the right direction or give me some DIY tips, this newb would be very greatful!

P.S. I have scoured archives, and found some interesting points, but I haven't found a discussion of isolating the rack from a loose floor.
dirtyragamuffin
sdcampbell
2,136 posts
 
My suggestion is going to sound a little bizarre, but many years ago, when I was an undergrad student, I lived in a place similar to the one you describe. There weren't any good, cost-effective solutions to the wobbly floor, so I devised an equipment rack system that was suspended at three points from the floor joists in the ceiling above, and secured to three points on the equipment rack. This triangular setup, while not terribly attractive, is quite stable, and you could use rope or chain to suspend the equipment rack.

The wall shelf will probably work best for the turntable, but the wall mount will need some reinforcing. You could try nailing some 2X6 boards to the wall studs, and then mount the turntable shelf to the 2x6's.
tobias
1,534 posts
 
Very good answers above. My house is century-old wood box (3-inch thick planks all over) on shallow stone foundation, and every piece is connected to every other piece so that an upstairs door slams and the whole house trembles for a second. But wall shelf on outside wall, in my experience, works perfectly. Problem is siting the rest of the equipment!

Mass under rack may not tame seismic vibration from footfalls and door slams. I worked in a store with a low brick wall as a TT demo shelf. The whole wall oscillated at maybe 2 Hz if we danced, and sprung suspensions hated that.
caterham1700
271 posts
 
Wall mounting your deck to a load bearing structural wall would be your best option.
Think of your upper story floor to be a diaphragm attached at the edges of the load bearing walls.When the floor is disturbed, there will be more vertical movement at the unsupported center of the floor and less at the supported edges near the wall.
Footfalls,etc will thus cause a floor mounted stand to sway/rock(lateral) as well as bounce (vertical).The taller the stand,the more exaggerated the swaying/rocking motion will be.
Any turntable (and particularly suspended designs like your Gyrodeck) will react quite negatively to any lateral movement.Tho obviously having no motion at all is better, your Michell's long travel suspension is designed to deal with vertically oriented movement/vibrations fairly effectively.
Increasing the mass will only change the rate of the floor's motion but will not do anything to stabilize the flooring & stand.In addition,the increased mass will store more energy in the floor, resulting in a longer duration for the energy to dissipate.
A wall mounted support should provide you with the least vertical and lateral movement as well as storing the smallest amount of vibrational energies as you'd only be supporting the mass of the turntable and shelf.
If wall mounting is unacceptable or a monetary concern, you could move your present rack very close to a load bearing wall and improvise a bracket to solidly affix the stand to the wall(attach it near the top of the rack), thus mimicking a majority of a wall support's benefits.
You could alternately place the turntable on a low stand as close as possible to the wall to minimise the swaying effect. The inexpensive IKEA Lack sidetable(~$15) makes a very good performing low mass, cost effective dedicated low stand option.

Good luck.
Best,

Ken
GreaterRanges/Neuance
wellfed's avatar
wellfed
690 posts
 
Dirtyragamuffin, I didn't factor in the suspension of your TT. It probably would not be a good match with the Promethean Base.
herman
2,259 posts
 
If your walls aren't strong enough to hold a spice rack then you need to move.
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