A Tombstone in the Living room????

I have used granite, marble, glass, maple, MDF and lead. My experience with lead and MDF was not good. Granite at first can sound exciting, fast and detailed. After time I notice a hardness or slight glare. I can't seem to damp out all the ringing from the granite. Of all these DIY shelves or platforms I preferred the maple. The maple has many of the positive qualities as the granite without the hardness. The maple will slightly blunt the leading edge. There is an ease to the sound from maple that I do not get from the harder surfaced materials. I have been using brass cones (Triplepoints) under all components. Now I will be playing with different footers. Experiment and have fun.

What about SLATE? I just ordered a special table designed for my Simon Yorke turntable, and the material the designer uses is a 3cm thick piece of slate. The slate platform is attached to four spiked legs via some airline-industry (Lufthansa?) resonance-dampening material. The turntable is screwed into the slate slab with a a large screw that enters te turntable from below through its graphite bottom surface. There is also some resonance-damping material in this area as well. I will let you know about the results of this setup once it arrives in a few weeks. As it is, because of the lack of suspension in the turntable, I can only achieve optimum results from the Simon Yorke in the dead of night, when no cars are on the road, and nobody is walking in the building. (Too bad that this is the time when headphones are required.) BTW, Simon Yorke recommends (facetiously) a square meter of concrete as the optimum surface for his turntable. As far as tombstones in the living room, my wife pointed that the JMLAB utopia speakers are just the right size for my coffin. She offered to bury me in them when I die, with the rest of my equipment inside. I am a little worried about graverobbers.

Funny Slawney, I joke to my wife all the time, that when I die, put me between my Dunlavy-V's,with my Classe CA-400 as my Pillow! I guess this post helps me out to add my granite stones be used as Tombstones.

Be careful out there! Granite (stone in general), rubber products (Sorbathane's, etc.), lead, sand, glass all are from the group known as absorbants.

I am not a reviewer nor do I ever plan to be. This message is a bit winded, but the results I now enjoy are absolutely LIVE !

This journey I recently embarked on, was a new discovery for me and I urge all of you to try this mechanical approach to improving "dramatically" your systems musical performance.

For years this industry has stated to treat resonance properly - absorb or isolate it. My questions are 1. How does one isolate air-borne resonance since it is constantly moving generating various frequencies and volumes attaching themselves to any metallic surface? 2. Absorbants are a way to treat resonance, however I noticed when using absorbants, we also absorb dynamics as well. The material can not determine the difference between resonance and dynamics.

Equipment’s racking shelves are a tremendous problem in general. Woods vibrate creating multiple resonance forming multiple frequencies (very audible or we would not hear the difference between MDF and maple) thus combing with the equipment’s (i/e instruments) sound qualities produce a different harmonic or signature in the process. It is like combining two instruments yielding a different sound result from that of the original.

Acrylic shelves – do they absorb or do they reflect resonance or both? Do they add too the vibrations reactions (audible and inaudible) on the equipment? Do they really have a place in music or do they more serve the cosmetic approach (which we see a lot of in this hobby)?

For years we are told, from leading Industry experts - to deaden the shelves and deaden the listening room - yet we strive to create the dynamic reproduction of the Live-Performance. Dead to Live or Live to Dead ? Something is very wrong with the basic physics and understanding surrounding these formulas.

Understanding materials and how they vibrate and/or control resonance has always been approached with what I call these status-quo methods. Absorb or isolate? There has to be another modern day approach to this "little known" portion of our audio reproduction technology.

Recently I stumbled upon a web-site (www.audiopoints.com) and reviewed some of the information Star Sound Technologies had to offer. I was intrigued enough to telephone the company and really investigate their approach to my on going dilemma.

Using their unique understanding of resonance and how it effects all components, including loudspeakers, made logical sense to me. They stated that permitting resonance to form on equipment then immediately directing energy (vibration) away from the components and transferring it to earth's ground (a basic physics approach) using raw materials that "conduct" resonance permits the DYNAMICS to remain within the system.

They further went on to say that brass, steel (cold rolled) and aluminum are materials that will conduct resonance. Some work faster than others do.

When I asked about the granites of the world they went on to state that rock's principle material is earth itself. It fools the resonance into thinking there is a true earth's ground. When applying this type of material with acoustical and electronic products try to maintain a good distance between your components chassis plane and these elements, because earth too will absorb energies along with precious dynamics as well.

As not to steal their thunder, I recommend anyone who wants to improve their equipment's performance, telephone these people and be prepared to discover a newfound method of dealing with this age-old problem.

They call it "The Science of Resonance Energy Transfer" and all I can state is it works! I purchased one of their newest products entitled Sistrum Platforms.

Imagine this - their amp stands (two sizes that adjust to fit all equipment types) additionally serve as component stands (replacing cones) on existing equipment racks. In addition reading the information and product reviews they sent me stated that the same amp stand is being heralded as the finest of floor-loudspeaker stands on the market. One equipment stands serving multiple purpose - thus the statement of "form follows function" - rules.

These guys (original Audio Points folks) speak with authority and I do not blame them. Their equipment racks are the first I have ever encountered that increase the performance of not only equipment’s sonic capability, but also my soundstage jumped three feet higher and four feet wider – how? All I did was place my components on one of their multi-shelf racks. My system sounds many thousands of dollars better and who would have ever thought an 'equipment rack' could make all the difference in the World!

My new Sistrum speaker stands (or amp stand, etc.) are due to arrive here sometime this week. I can't wait! They state that loudspeakers are the largest of resonance problems (see their Audio Points White Paper). If their multi-shelf equipment stand is any indication of what the “single shelf Platform” will do for my loudspeakers, my investment decision will be compared to and realized as critical as the speaker and electronics decisions, themselves.

I will probably start a thread on this topic at that time. As far as I am concerned, this technique and well-researched approach has instilled all the emotional difference between my listening to the LIVE-PERFORMANCE and dead.

Plane Old JOE

Hey Joe, how come your only five posts here in the Audiogon forums are pushing (selling) Sistrum stuff? Marketing is no problem if you at least speak in the first pt van like the guy from Neuance does.