I have a cheap TV stand that my equipment is on. Made of cheap particle board but also the Strata was on the bottom level which has cheap metal support under it which couldn’t have been good for resonance.
Just placed the Stellar P3 and Strata on Ikea Bamboo Cutting boards and I’m liking what I’m hearing. More musical, laid back, more holographic. I’m noticing more robust stage stability outside the sweetspot and a more relaxed presentation. Easier to crank the system and maintain musicality.
Sometimes “non-audiophile” solutions can be fine, and much cheaper!
Giant cork bungs is my go-to isolation solution, but I have looked at breadboards and chopping boards a couple of times.
Did some testing last night with headphones and even there the difference is striking.
I recently have been toying with crossfeed for headphone use; I highly recommend the Goodhertz CanOpener plugin in combination with Audirvana. Goodhertz is not traditional crossfeed, it uses advances spectral mapping and frequency dependent crossfeed amounts.
Long story short with the same settings, previous on Friday night everything was sounding really good but it was bright and electric guitar was very forward in everything I listened too. So much that I would turn up the headphones and then get the sense like I was getting hearing fatigue and I’d turn down. Well last night with same settings, same songs I’m very familiar with, the guitars were not edgy or forward anymore! A good way to describe it is prior to Bamboo, it sounded like the guitar amps had their treble knob jacked to maybe 8/9 and so they are jumping out… with Bamboo it’s more balanced and full sounding with more low/mid and midrange body
Probably a big difference since I went from no isolation to both SP3 and Strata on bamboo. I would describe the sound previously as possibly what some describe as the “Sabre” sound, very precise but trying real hard to impress. Now, it sounds more natural and dynamic.
Curious if main speakers were playing. If just headphones headphones why would isolation be a factor unless unit is being disturbed by sonic or other vibrations?
So every surface/component/object has a resonant frequency and each will have different amplitudes… etc.
In addition the components have resonances inside of them in the boards, power supplies, and the chassis.
The feet on gear are ok but are not completely isolated. So we have a dynamic situation where resonances from the rack surface travel up into the equipment and the the resonances in the equipment can stay inside or go down thru the feet and possibly the rack/board and reflect back up.
I suspect the primary benefit here was getting the Strata off the bottom shelf which has metal framing underneath which is going to have nasty resonance properties. Bamboo is interesting as it’s a randomized structure internally and doesn’t have a uniform resonance frequency. MDF and cheap particle boards have very distinct resonance frequency which is why they are not recommended as platforms. Having a strong singular resonance has the potential to color the sound.
I was looking at those exact boards but they have a channel running through them all the way around. Right about where the feet of a component would rest. So I didn’t buy them. I wonder why yours doesn’t?
Would you also try to put the herbies between the rack and the ikea block? This would isolate the block from the rack, and sink vibrations from the component into the board. Would need to couple to the board though. Maybe remove the feet? I’m waiting on mapleshade brass footers to try this. I have some herbies that I can try later also.
Bamboo is pretty hard and it doesn’t provide damping similar to other hard woods so I’m not sure it’s the best to absorb the resonances.
My plan is to use Tenderfeet under components with grungebusters to decouple from the board. The Tenderfeet are tuned to absorb resonance and control how that energy is reflected back into the component. Eventually I will probably move back into iso acoustics since they float the component.
Then under the boards I will place Grungebusters to isolate from the stand.
It really works for me, center image is much more stable and natural. It used to be a head in vice and now I can move quite a bit and there is more wiggle room. Also sitting at the extremes, I can better hear the far channel.
Overall easier to listen to the system, far more musical.
It’s cheap enough to try. Honestly, I had planned to get some heavy solid wood butcher / counter block or a slab of marble but the BHK arrived before I got around to sourcing that. I wasn’t going to put the thing on the carpet so it ended up being a quick Ikea trip as a “temporary” solution. My “temporary” solution has been serving me well for a few months now. I’ve not found the motivation to source anything else. It fits well enough I may put some vibration / damping feet under it but will probably keep the Ikea board.
I’ve used various “feet” under various components and sometimes there is a subtle difference. Nothing I could A/B accurately. And it’s not consistent as sometimes I hear no difference. I believe the stuff works but in the long line of upgrades evaluated as the $:benefit ratio… these kinds of upgrades are right near the bottom of the list for SS gear. My opinion of course. But, once you’ve got the rest sorted it can give you that little bit more.
