Shelf Material

Sorry Craig (Garfish) - slip of the tongue. I have indeed come across and experimented with the single spike idea as Theta have used it in their transports, and I have owned a few of those. I have found that the best footer for an application is very dependent on the shelf used. With something like MDF you can be best to use damped cones like BDR, but spike and soft footers together is also good as you say. But I still don't rate MDF highly. Since my last post I have persevered with the suspending of Corian shelves from a steel rack using thick nylon wire, and tried various footers. (The biggest pain is designing a means of levelling the shelves without introducing vibrations.) The best (after trying several different types) is to use a very hard rubber footer, and Vibrapods work quite well too. Cones are too hard with the Corian, and spikes are definitely out of the question. The use of either (including up-pointed spikes under the shelf) result in a severe resonance adding grain and edge to the midband. The results I am getting are now very very good indeed and much better than MDF or the particle board I had been using which was only a bit better than MDF. While I am very happy with the results, I will not be able to rest until I have tried some of the other ideas posted here, especially the Neuance shelf and the maple butchers block. Ernie (Subaruguru), I am sure there must be microdisplacement, but in any vibrating system there will be microdisplacement. In a suspended system the displacement is larger, but slower moving - whether this is better or worse is for the ears to decide. I hear suspension as sounding very different from the bladder products. To put it in a nut-shell. A shelf sitting on a rack tends to add resonant peaks to the music, damage harmonic structure and reduce depth. Using different compounds just moves the resonance around and some are better than others, but none that I have heard reduce the resonances down even close to inaudibility. Placing a bladder product between shelf and component tends to fix each of these problems pretty well, but adds a new one in that it tends to cause a suck-out somewhere, usually in the mid-bass or upper-bass, destroying rhythm. Suspending a shelf can have various results depending on the wire used, but with thick nylon wire resonances are much reduced compared with sitting the shelf on the rack, with none of the suck-out problems of bladder products. Resonance is not totally eliminated and you can still hear the differences between shelves and footers. In addition to this I have discovered that Corian shelves, used with soft footers, can give terrific results, particularly if you want more power (and I mean a lot more) and articulation in the bass.

To all the speculation about suspending shelves and the effect on sound, Arcici Suspense Rack uses air bladders in combination with suspended shelves, $2000+ many good reviews but price is high. I would recommend reading some reviews to understand how this appraoch works. For more info on what a shelf does, and the theory behind proper construction go to Symposium site http://www.symposiumusa.com/index.html My approach which preserves visual integrety and financial sanity is to purchase a reasonable priced rack system like Target, Polycrystal and use stock shelves and fine tune with cheap isolation tweaks, cones...vibrapods....bladders etc. Isolation tweaks have more effect than shelf thickness and what type of wood/plastic you use.

Sam: What have you used sussecfully under the "X" components? Have you found a way to get around the stock integral feet, or do you use the stock feet in your formula? I am just playing with the amp(s) for now but may pick up the X-Ray (used) and later add a DAC as you suggested.

Dekay I set X series amps directly on shelf no isolation. X series preamp I would put 4 #2 vibrapods directly under body, there is enough height to clear stock feet, I would try this also for X-A1 integrated. For X-ray CDP definitely go with 4 vibrapods, needs a fuller, richer sound IMO. With full size components I prefer partially inflated inner tube to vibrapods if you want a fuller, richer sound. For leaner more detail go with cone solution, for nuetral more detail go with Aurios MIB or Rollerblock.

Thanks Sam: I did not realize that the Pods would raise the X gear enough. I have a set here (right under my nose) and yes they work like a charm. I guess that the SS preamp section is then more succeptable to vibration than the SS power amp. I use wheelbarrow tubes under our two box mini system and the improvement is startling. It makes a cheap little system very listenable in the main bedroom. All that I have ever done to the mini system other than the tubes is to use Kimber 4VS cable and upgrade the speakers to Polk RT15's ($90.00 a pair on closeout). I will always keep it around (due to it's tape decks) to listen to old Disco tapes as well as Bio-feedback tapes that I use.