Amp Stands - Wood or Stone

My experience is directly related to my speakers.  Maggies (I have 3.6 model) improve by orders of magnitude with the bracing of metal Mye stands on spikes.  The extra rigidity helps the sound greatly.

This is not germane to owners of box speakers, but critical IMHO for Maggies of all sizes.

@czarivey Horrible for audio. The cheap Ikea boards are not solid.  

 bamboo cutting board works great as stand. You can get it in Ikea for $20. It will look nearly as if it would be MapleShade brand.

And when you handle a Life vibe product you will get the sense it's a serious piece of craftsmanship

Robert is great to deal with

@

@ghdprentice ghdprentice

I should've used the word BET.

I bet you $1000. US that you would fail a blind test listening for the difference between wood and stone amp stands.

A big +1 to phishhhhh4

The platforms are a destination product you can spend years and $$$ and not be happy trying wood, Granite ,Carbon Fiber, air bladders, constrained layer dampening etc... Like I did.

You will be done the first time with Live Vibe products, give them a call and go from there.

There are multiple effective combinations. I would use a combination of materials like wood stands with elastomer pucks and topped with stone or even better Black Diamond Racing composite platform. One of the issues with AGD is the light weight. It would be nice to be able to weight the components down as well to couple them to the platform.

I recently installed a seismograph in my house. Although I live in a quiet neighborhood, one aspect of vibration is that it vastly increases during the day with traffic and human activity. So you want mass, but decoupling (hence the elastomer pucks) from the earth.

@kidbuck Thank you for your guarantee… what are the terms?  

It sure does seem that if you have access to both stone or wood 🪵. One is stuck in the proverbial situation where you get to try both and see what happens. Good luck 🍀 in the search for the best. 

See if you can get some of that fancy Cardas wood but beware, if the price per inch is equal to what they charge for those tiny cable supports (that do nothing for the sound), you'll be shelling out big $$$.

I've experimented with stands and footers over a number of decades, I've probably tried virtually every kind of material out there. Only you can determine which solution best for you, this is part of tuning one's system. In general the material used will kind of tell you what to expect, soft delivers softer more diffuse sound, hard will tighten up things. I've also found a rather unique solution for some of my equipment in using high test monofilament fish line hung from custom built stands, this closest to no stand, footer solution I've found. This delivers most natural timbre, tonality, micro and macro dynamics, natural decay, etc. This method allows the most sympathetic movement with vibrations, and the least editorializing of the myriad solutions I've tried.

And there isn't really any true "isolation" possible on the planet earth

Livevibe all the way

https://livevibeaudio.com/audio-points-coupling-discs/

The best form of isolation is Symposium Ultras with your 

component coupled to it with the metal pucks

Mechanical and airborn vibration/energy  is dissipated as heat and drains through the component into the pucks and ultimately  into the Symposium.I have 6 under all my components.  The earlier above comment  is simply that wood does not drain vibration 

and stone rings and does not absorb and convert the vibration  energy to heat

the original question was “ what’s a good amp stand”.

Really any stand that is rigid and on spikes preferably.  
vibration control is an entirely different conversation

Good luck Willy -T 

I like the idea of 2" slabs of hardwood, either finished edges or raw.  Then, rather than having them standing on the floor, I'd wall-mount them with a hidden cleat.  Then conceal all the cabling for a super-clean and finished look, if possible.  

People who use wood, granite or glass have absolutely no idea what they're doing. All of these materials absorb and release energy in non-linear ways. You're simply choosing another form of coloration. Active isolation is the way to go.

End grain maple 4'' thick does the trick with isoacoustic feet. Holes drilled in them filled with lead. A sleek half-blind or through dovetailed cap using exotic species to rest on top looks nice, with a sheet of 8# lead between them. 

I made my own out of a slab of live edge black walnut.  I put Isoacoustic feet on it for vibration mitigation.  It’s supporting a D’Agostino S350 and looks amazing.  

Solid steel brand stands all the way 

The best thing is to move to a house with a solid ground floor

I tried the butcher blocks and my speakers didn’t feel solid..  I have granite and isolation under my amps and speakers and am very happy.

Wood is more of a natural musical material IMO.. Like a violin or guitar, it should resonate like wood does for a more natural sound

It is possible that is a consideration . . . I am not sure. However, except for speaker cabinets, most other components have a chassis made of some type of metal. Although I am sure there are exceptions to that. (I kind of remember a passive preamp that was being advertised in Stereophile frequently, and it appeared to have a wooden chassis.) And then ofcourse are the brass instruments, and certain woodwinds such as the flute and sax. . . . I would think (and I may be wrong) that the ultimate goal of any stand for a component would be to minimize vibration. I am also surprised that deniers and naysayers have not chimed in yet.

Maple wood.

I say wood, look up Butcher Block Acoustics they make all kinds of stuff in rock maple and walnut, they will custom make you anything and not charge insane prices... 

Wood is more of a natural musical material IMO.. Like a violin or guitar, it should resonate like wood does for a more natural sound

Two layers of Baltic Birch plywood (13 ply, 3/4" thick), with a layer of viscoelastic material (Green Glue, or Acoustic Sciences Corp. WallDamp) between them. Finish with lacquer or polyurethane. Place on a set of Townshend Audio Seismic Pods, or for a low price option a set of the aluminum "spring spikes" available on ebay.

..

Amazon has affordable Pangea amp stands. I've used a bunch of similar stands, they all worked great.

I would definitely use some rare wood from a National Park. Or the petrified forest stuff from Arizona

(I know, not funny)

I know a few guys who have experimented with amp sand boxes, and said the sound completely tightened up. Basically a 3" wooden litter box for your amp filled with sand.

I would opt for a platform where the frequency range is well above and below the range of human hearing. You cannot hear it nor will it influence the sonic of your system. 

If the platform arrives with a specified vibration management system based on material science, physics, and geometry and is designed into the stand then you eliminate a lot of guessing and additional expenses where those funds could be used to purchase more music or finer equipment.

Robert

LiveVibe Audio

bamboo cutting board works great as stand. You can get it in Ikea for $20. It will look nearly as if it would be MapleShade brand.

I've done a good bit of footer experiments. my findings are that very hard surface, IE glass, stone, marble, etc tend to emphasize the high frequencies. So I would stay away from those unless you need more high frequencies. But it can also sound bright which is why I would stay away from hard surface like stone. Wood has a much better balance , especially tone woods like maple which is what I would use

From personal experience, I have tried both granite and different types of wood. Under front end components and amps. I found the granite gave me a more "forward" or up-front presentation, sometimes "edgy". Not the case with wood.