DIY Shelves

Hi Donnie,

All single materials when used on their own will resonate or ring and add artificial artifacts to the signal the system is reproducing. Natural wood or acrylic have strong resonances, stone and other rigid materials will store mechanical energy and release it over time (ringing) which results in contamination.

The most effective method would be to combine layers of specific materials so that the entire shelf will mitigate the individual resonance of each material and be self-damping.

Best Regards,

Barry Kohan

Disclaimer: I am a manufacturer of vibration control products.
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As an adjunct to what Bright Star Audio offered be cautious about the ideas of heavy dampening as opposed to lightweight rigid isolation. I am truly no expert, yet there are many threads here to suggest that some gear seems to like decoupling and some likes coupling. I have found through experimentation at home my power amps seem to like heavy dampening, my source a suspension TT and a CD deck seem to favor lightweight rigid isolation with cones, the pre and phono amp work well with lightweight rigid isolation and decoupling footers, and my speakers truly sound right with coupling spikes into the hard wood floor. Ouch! The one truth in all of this is that there seems to be no hard and fast rules... experiment! All IMHO. Cheers!

Here is what I have in mind for a DIY project.Buy foam at 1 inch thick or 1 and a quarter thick from an upholstery shop.Have them cut the foam to specific sizes.Say 17 by 14 or something.Then go to a metal shop and buy aluminum panels of same size,again the metal shop will have to cut to size.Then spray adhesive on both sides of foam and panels and glue them together making "a sandwich of panel-foam-panel".You can also spray paint the edge of the foam with black suitable paint,and of course use black aluminum panels to match. Then place them on the shelves and rest various components on them.There are commercial versions of the above concept.
Best
George

Drilling holes of different sizes in a shelf will definitely alter it´s sonic properties. I intend to use different materials layered and randomly placed holes drilled in each layer. May fill some cavities with sand and leave others empty.