Maple platforms

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.

I can't help asking: why is maple so prevalent in audio racks and platforms? The common answer is: because it is a tonewood, which has been used for hundreds of years for making the best string instruments in the world. This is certainly true, but in a somewhat restrictive way. Maple has been used and is being used for contstructing the base plate of violins, violas, cellos and various guitars. . . but so has poplar, and cypress. Maple is more exclusively used for making bridges on string instruments. Yet the tonally crucial top plate is never made from maple, but is made mostly from hard spruce, usually felled from the northern side of Alpine hills. Bow sticks are made from Brazilian pernambuco, Brazilian Rosewood, Ironwood or even snakewood, while tailpieces are from Ebony, Rosewood or even Zebrawood. And the preferred tonewood for woodwind instruments is African Blackwood (or Mpingo) by far. Just try two otherwise identical recorders, one made from maple and one from Mpingo. . . I already know which one you will choose. . . the maple one will stay in the store. So, in the end. . . why only maple in equipment racks and platform? Are audiophile being blindsided by oversimplifications of historical mythologies? Or have all these other wonderful tonewoods already been thoroughly tested. . . and found to be sorely wanting? Or is it just a simple matter of price and availability in North America?