My apology no dissent meant, I misunderstood what you meant by MDF
Foam MDF, and no I would not consider using foam in any way for isolation or damping
Help! Tweaking My Lovan Rack for new Big A**ed Transrotor Turntable!
Thanks for all of the input. There's a heck of a lot of opinions for me to consider (even worse when I research threads in audiogon and other forums). I'm still set on a nice big hunk-o-wood for the turntable to sit on, then likely the Townsend pods under that, and they would sit on...not sure. But I did put the raw 3/4" MDF sheet I'd picked up at Home Depot, on the top of the Lovan rack, then the thinner Lovan rack on top (also tried underneath). I have to say that just adding the thicker MDF gives me a whole lot more confidence, it feels so much more solid, than just leaving it with the stock, thin MDF top. I went to see a local wood guy who would do the wood block. He's done similar things for stereo gear. I'd first asked about maple or similar hard wood. He had maple, wall-nut, but he pointed me towards a beautiful couple pieces of Siberian Elm, which when stained would be my preference over the other woods. I've seen that Elm, depending on the type, can be in the "soft" or "hardwood" designation. I'm not sure where Siberian Elm lands, but he insisted this was a really hard wood, similar to maple. |
Quick research says that this tree was resistant to Dutch Elm disease, but it does not dry flat if I’m reading this blog correctly. That, and its stability in retaining flatness would be a big issue in its use for a turntable platform as I read it. The durability factor seems to be less of an issue indoors: https://wunderwoods.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/siberian-elm-and-american-elm-leaders-of-the-elm-revolu... The Janka scale rates hardness: http://www.globalspecies.org/ntaxa/838586 It doesn’t seem like a very hard wood, but I’m not sure that’s the sole factor, and you said that your wood guy claimed it was a hardwood. If you look at the ratings of the Janka scale generally, you can see what the particular rating above means in context of other woods. Again, like everything else in this hobby, the measurements or one specification, don’t necessarily tell you how it is going to sound. Add to that the layers of different material and I think it’s even more complex- I would think you’d want something very hard on the surface facing the table bottom, some sort of polymer or deadening material like green glue and other materials from acoustic supply houses, sometimes along with mass loaded vinyl and then, perhaps a different type of wood. Others with more knowledge of acoustic properties of wood, and their combination, may be able to direct you better. Good luck. |
I have used Lovan Classic 1 and 2, many years ago. The top shelves were very tipsy being a tripod design, which did not change with new tops of any kind. I am a woodworker and tried oak, walnut, plys of many kinds, bdr shelves and in the end all were still sitting on a ringing metal stand. Its like a body builder if you put muscle on a weak frame it helps but does not match muscle and a large frame. If you look at many of the stands sold on this site they are 3 inch maple shelves with weak frames or no frames at all. That is why they need to use such thick maple, due to a bad frame. Out of all the wood I have tried in my 40 years in this hobby, and I have tried more than listed, the only wood that sounded better musically was maple. Is it he hardness of maple that makes it sound better, I think not because oak, cherry, teak etc. are hard woods but sound bad. Why? Since money is tight and you are going to keep those frames,(your choice, I sold mine) I would go the route of many on this site and try a very thick slab of maple on a bad frame. |
I was in a similar spot for a while, running a 50 lbs table (Clearaudio Innovation Wood) on a Lovan Sovereign (three tiers of 7" shelves). These stacked modules are not particularly rigid, and the relatively small 3-point footprint doesn’t help on floors like mine. I filled all the tubes with lead shot, but that didn’t help at all with rigidity; it only damped the nasty metallic ringing. The Sovereign was a poor solution for this very nice, mass-loaded table.There were definitely feedback issues, and it was very sensitive to footfalls, etc. The VTI-style stands are even flimsier. I added a Maple butcher block, which helped a bit. But honestly, I was just fighting the nature of things, and my old SOTA Star III was a more natural fit in this scenario (the spring suspension absorbed a lot of these issues). You want something that has a rigid frame, not modules. 4-points and a larger footprint is also better. When I upgraded to the Innovation Master I knew the old Lovan would render this upgrade pointless, so I went crazy and got a Critical Mass Systems rack -- MUCH better, obviously (you can see the massive difference between these racks in my virtual system pics). But there will much better solutions than the Lovan for much less money too. As mentioned previously, some of the active isolation platform makers like Herzan will supposedly make a very nice (and rigid) custom stand for a reasonable price. The Lovan/VTI stands are OK for digital sources and SS components. |