Amp Stands, Butcher Blocks Etc.

I've had my amps on the floor or short stands since about 1979. This is a natural and tidy place for them when using long interconnects and short speaker wire.

In my experience, a slab of butcher block plus footers are superior to amps flat on the floor. Sound Anchor is a step up from nothing or the butcher block and Grand Prix amp stands are the best I've experienced.

GP is the most expensive, but considering how much they improved my system I feel they are worth it. If you have a chance to try the GP, be sure you have the correct damper pads. Pads on the GP are rated for specific size and weight equipment and greatly effect performance.

I took my Shanling SP-80 tube monoblocks off the floor and put them on custom-made 3-inch maple platforms. What a difference this made to the sound : clearer mids, cleaner highs and tighter, weightier bass. I used the Mapleshade guidelines and put the amps on brass cones and the platforms on soft footers. If you want to see how they looked, check out my system pic.

I have several pair of monoblock amps that sit on amp stands on the floor. I find better sound if I use the Star Sound SP 004 Sistrum Platforms, or have Valleyplastic (audiogon member) make you a pair of monoblock stands out of 1" thick Acrylic all CNC finished and highly polished (in black or clear), and include spikes.
See: http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?accsrack&1216588272

I use Finite Elemente Pagode Master Reference amp stands (see my system pics). I second Albert's opinion - they are expensive, but well worth the money. And they look great.

Thanks for the responses, I'll check out those suggestions.

Zar,

Since you don't appear to have tubes or a TT - vibration control is probably a mute point. Why not go with what the wife wants...I see no reason to go in this direction other than for macho display purposes...just two cents.

Timbernation makes nice stuff, reasonably priced. You can see a couple of their amps stands on my system page. They also list many on auction here. If the size is what you need, they can be a bargain. Cheers,
Spencer

I have all my equipment on multiple low stands. Low stands are best for equipment placed between and behind speakers, best isolation and minimal inteference with soundstaging and imaging.

I have my amp sitting on an Ultrasonic custom made acrylic platform spiked into Aurios Pro Max's, sitting on a 400 pound concrete slab. This is a huge improvement over every other isolation scheme I've tried.