Audio Furniture has its own sound!


I've been using a stand that I made about 12 years ago.  It's a flexi-type, with large rods, and I cut chrome curtain rods to cover the threaded rods.  For shelves, I glued two pieces of MDF together, routed the edges, and painted with stone paint.  Looks great, and it's really heavy and sturdy.  But, I got a little tired of the look.  I do think there is sound to furniture if it vibrates, but solid is solid, right?

So, I found a used Salamander Chameleon Sonoma 326.  It matches the other furniture perfectly, looks great in the room, and has a perfect amount of storage.  And, room on top for the turntable, as well as the Primaluna HP.  Makes it look like simple and elegant system.  The Salamander is very heavy, and made from solid wood. 

But, when I hooked it up, that damn Salamander rings like a bell, and that energy totally transfers to the tonearm.  I could not believe how horrible the system now sounded!  Clearly the furniture was the problem.  It was immediate, and completely ruined the sound.   I think part of the issue is that it has a metal frame beneath the wood, and the sides seem to cause the metal frame to vibrate and ring.

Now, I'm on an adventure to see if I can fix it.  My plan is 2 inch thick maple platform with vibrapods under the platform.  A platform for the amp, a separate one for the TT, and vibrapods under the phono preamp.  I have used an old tabletop from Ikea (it's honeycomb inside, and good dampener) with rubber feet, and it's helped a lot.  But, I can still tell this vibrates slightly.  I don't think it transfers much to the tonearm, but I'm still getting the maple platform.

I'm posting this because I've done some research oil Salamander as a TT stand, but didn't find much.  So, now you know... buyer beware!


soundermn

Showing 3 responses by chakster

Designed and made my metal racks for Luxman PD-444 (i have two), genuine turntable footers are suspended, metal rack filled with sand, stands on 4 adjustable spikes. Luxman is superheavy turntable with metal cabinet. No issues!

Over 20 years ago i designed this table (custom made), also metal filled with sand, Technics SP-10 mkII on it, no issues.

I have no idea what you’re talking about.
There are many solutions invented by professionals to isolate turntables used near huge 20 000+ WATT Sound Systems and a crowd of 5 000 people jumping and dancing around.

I have no idea why someone in a small living room need anything like that with 10 WATT speakers and only a few people in the room sitting in the chairs and listening to vinyl ? Anyone can explain me what are you trying to isolate and why, what for ? Just a good heavy rack, some cones or spikes and a turntable in a nice plinth is not enough ? Are you living on volcano or something like that?  
Just curious how weak must be turntable itself if for use anyone need  some crazy isolation devices. Proper turntables already isolated in its plinth and on its feet, a healthy people need just stable wooden or stone platform or just a nice metal rack for home use. In some people's imagination everything ringing ... can't help it. I think it's mental. Why not just enjoy the music with a nice turntable ? Room treatment is far more important