Maple platforms

3" solid maple butcher blocks cut to 18" X 20" are amazingly good under a table, I use one, its routed with rounded corners with a clear coat of some type.. using my table directly on it with the stock Spikes sticking into the block proves to be the best I have heard, and the block is sitting on a mdf shelf, but not directly it is seperated via rubber feet... I can fire my massive sub's 2 feet from the rack and you cannot even get the stylus to mistrack, jump, skip whatever at outrageous levels, very very solid and yes sounds far warmer and at the same time solid detail with clean image. So for how much you can get these things cut at a local butcher shop(I paid 100.00 totally routed and finished) they are I believe the best value and effectiveness... I would never use any stone under a turntable or digital, horrible results. Also, I use a 1.5" thick solid maple cut the same deal as the 3", and works very well under my tubes and Digital as well. all for around 200.00 total cost 3 shelfs, and everyone thinks they are bought from a hiend manufacture, all I need to do is tack on a little gold emblem or something and could go into business selling these for 4 times the price. Now I want to maybe work on bolting the turntable shelf to the wall directly any suggestions?

john boos 2.25" thick maple cutting boards are readily found, cheap and (in my system) a very effective platform for the table. I cutout a section of mine so that the table and motor are on separate boards, which improved the sound further.

I also purchased a 3" maple butcher block, custom made by tonyswoodshop.com, he did a great job, surprisingly inexpensive, looks really nice, and beefy, and i think it does improve the sound overall, by letting the music come from a
quieter background.

This issue about resonance damping and altering resonance behaviour is very complex. Wood has some sonic properties that you can hear easily in many cases: sound is more warm ("natural") with a wider soundstage. At the same time bass and midbass are somewhat emphasized, sometimes a bit blurred. But this type of sound is not specific for wood. It is probably accentuated by the use of wood. Whether this is an artefact (= coloration) or result of better damping of unwanted resonances, I don't know. The fact is: manufacturers, especially of turntables are aware of the resonance issue and know how to deal with this. Each manufacturer has his own solutions to this problem, so it is certainly not to be expected that wood provide a general solution to the resonance problem, like a panacea.

Chris

I'm having a mapleshade 24x24x4" amp stand made, to set my 143 pound yba passion 1000 power amp on, with mapleshade mega footers. I alos have their Samson II rack with 4" shelves. This is the first rack I've owned that really had an positive effect on the music quality. From design to bill bags racks. You would never think that this rack can make that much of a difference in the quality in the sound of the equipment sitting on it. It really works.