2. amps-preamps
  3. 1221774466

How thick is the limit?... never heard anyone say?

I have been looking to buy very thick- 3 inch min to 4 inches thick, Amp stands for years. I am not a big "amp stands are the keys" to better sound person. I just think that thick wooden slabs look good, I have no idea why- but I guess it must be a man thing.
Clearly turntables and digital front ends benefit from mass. Amps however, I doubt benefit terribly much. Just being honest, but the amps are tubed monoblocks so the stands may cut down on the non existent microphony. Couldn't hurt ....right?? ...I hope.
I got lucky, knock on wood!, because a buddy is selling amp stands as if I custom ordered them.
My question is- Can the wood be so thick that it makes the amps sound worse?? In this case they are 3+ inch thick edge grain, audiophile finished natural Maple, block.
mechans
magfan
1,583 posts
 
Yes, everything resonates.
The way to avoid that is to have multiple layers of stuff that doesn't share a frequency. Hi or is that low? hysterisis rubber (whichever one doesn't bounce!) is a good layer to add to a resonant system.
Many years ago, I had a Duel 1209TT. The platter was a 2piece affair. 'Ding' it with a finger nail and it was pretty inert. Take it apart, and each piece rang like a bell.

Look up the Tesla stuff of resonance. He once claimed he could topple the Empire State building with 2 (or 20)HP. Quite a feat.
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,491 posts
 
Why not tap the tubes gently with a pencil (top part with the eraser - don't break your tube!) and see you if you can hear anything out the speakers (with the amp on of course) - if you hear nothing then you have saved yourself a lot of worry!
mechans OP
3,048 posts
 
Thanks to all who answered. I am begining to think the mass is not terribly relevant. I have two independeant needs. The shelf to isolate the TT from the floor which will require some serious decoupling and isolation of some type and the Amp stands. The Amp stands are more or less just mass dampening even if it resonates it will take some energy to do so at 4 inches thick. As I said I just wanted to know if there was a real detriment which did recieve the knod from one post. Otherwise these cool looking wood platforms will be ready to grace the dedicateed listening and audio storage facility shortly.
More to discover