Best material for an isolation platform?

I would personally take oak, rock maple or black walnut any day over MDF. More esthetic and those natural woods do not present a problem acoustically.  

I've been using butcher block acoustics for sometime. They look nice, are well constructed, and do not cost both an arm and a leg.

Most of my equipment (not speakers) sit on Corian bases. Although I have had decent results with bamboo, I prefer Corian to any wood in my system.  

I found oak to be not great under my turntable. Maple is better. I also found granite to be poor. 

Baltic Birch plywood (13-layer 3/4"), mated with a slab of slate, a layer of ASC Wall Damp in between them.

The CLD sounds like it could be very good. I can endorse slate as I use it on a plinth. Aluminum with Panzerholz is also top tier.

Experiment with these and you will find all your wood species have their own characteristic sound. Partly this is due to shape and construction. A thin solid plank will have more character than the same wood cut into strips and laminated together into something thick like a cutting board.  

What I mean by character, is sonic signature. Each type of wood has its own distinctive sound. 

We do not in general want this. We want all our components to be neutral. Where things depart from neutral however they can be pleasant or unpleasant. You may find you prefer the sound of certain woods. There is a reason for example why Stradivarius violins are made from the wood of a particular tree growing high in a certain mountain forest. It sounds better. 

I did a lot of this and decided the reason MDF is so common, it is not necessarily "better" but it is a lot more benign and neutral than just about anything else. The best by far and still the champ for this is the BDR Source Shelf. Stiff, dense, highly damped and incredibly neutral. Equally incredibly expensive. But worth it. For a shelf. Must be used with Townshend Pods above and/or below, or else you get the ringing. Which you will get with all these woods too. It is only a question of how much and what type. 

Put it all together, I would go with whatever you think will look the best. Because ultimately the material will matter much less than whether or not you follow it up with Pods. The Gaia you have and so cost zero, if you put those under the shelf and use Pods between the shelf and the component then you would really have something.

A different remedy is at hand for those who realize isolation can only exist with the absence of matter. Creating greater impedance on or between 2 or more surfaces generates another set of issues as does spongy materials and springs between and under components and a shelf or floor.  Tom

Corian is a real good base.

All the porous rocks that are cut and de burred work the best sonically. Coral, volcanic, manmade.

The metamorphic/igneous rocks will ring like a bell. Granite, basite even concrete, UNLESS its fluffed (add a lot of air to the mix) it will ring.

Sedimentary rock like Caliche, are pretty quiet, when sliced.
Personally I like the way it looks in a cross section.. Almost burl like.

Regards

A geophysicist friend of mine has a patent on how to reduce interfering
energy that returns from the floor and back into the strings and bow of a cello. She has a method and science for select travertine stones
to rid the cello of its wolf note double peak that has harmonic coverage anywhere from 70hz to 18khz. The tail of the wolf note is parastic in nature and with its riddance the cello speaks faster plays easier and is more open and clear..and has greater acoustic output without the interfering energy attached to every harmonic.

WOW, that’s cool.

Where is Master M, he’ll like that little tidbit..

Cool theaudiotweak!!!!

I forgot to add "Hot Mud" is really good to. It's drywall joint compound with a hardener added.

15-20.00 usd for 5 gallons. you can color, shape, grind and seal when your done.. Easier to work with than grout or concrete, lighter and actually less expensive.. NO it is not as strong, BUT you can add internal reinforcement or add a pre stretched fabric, pour and then release the fabric..

Acts much like reinforcing concrete. The same way they build a flyover on a freeway.. Cables are stretched to a given point, the mix is poured, and at a certain time the binders are released.. That way of making concrete LOGS is many times stronger than just a rebar structure...

Regards

I do much the same with my endpins for cello. One polarity of the shear wave travels on the solid brass outer surface while the other polarity of that same shear wave travels thru my chosen materials loaded in the center core. The rod is tipped off with a geometry that reduces blow back of reflections off the coupled surface. This blow back is the interfering energy that returns up thru the endpin pollutes the strings and bridge and becomes part of all the recurring notes..Just like in an audio platform or rack. Careful selection of materials and geometry are key.
Not 2 fast and definitely not 2 slow.
Tom

Thanks very interesting indeed..

Regards

From My experimenting several yrs ago, the harder the surface, the brighter the sound. Wood is popular in instruments because it is more neutral, though often warm sound. Then there are tone woods of which hard Maple is a favorite. I suspect MDF became popular with people such a speaker Mfg's because solid wood has its own set of problems and is expensive too. I have worked with wood for 50+ yrs and love it, yet respect its characteristics
Oak should be no problem, especially at 1 3/4" as long as it is dry. Its the thicker slabs which are questionable, mostly due to drying issues. So, enjoy the oak

Best material for an isolation platform?

Half inflated scooter innertube under a stone slab/tile. 
https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=scooter%20inner%20tube

Next best is Sobothane under a stone slab/tile

Forget mega $$$$$ audiophoole items, do your own

Cheers George

@tubeglow helped me set up a new system last year, including a beautiful Starr sound single shelf rack and audio points. With direction, I was easily able to place my amp And CD player. Thoughtfully designed, this single shelf rack has significantly decreased noise and interference in my system. It’s not only audible--The difference was jaw-dropping, even with my elementary gear! Bob is an absolute sweetheart with a heart of gold. ❤️ Wish he could of known you. 🌹 Check it out on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1y1Vi8wH07I

I'm a big fan of BDR. Used extensively in my system.

Hi Krissy, good to see you.

Maple.

Springs.

A couple weeks ago I set my amp on a 2”x19”x19” slab of limestone.
$41
works perfect

I found Symposium Ultra Stealth edition to be the BEST by far after all you get what you pay for.Wood sounds soft and colored and granite rings like a bell,Good luck.

John Boos maple cutting board.  

+1 for Symposium. I use svelteshelves on Rollerblocks with great results

look at this question as including the rack and floor type. the isolation base is going to just be one part of the equation.

is the floor resonating with the music?

if you have a suspended wood floor, first thing is to consider is solving the flex in the floor. might be a number of ways to do that. maybe mass loading the rack with steel plate or a sand box might reduce the flex?

if you have a concrete floor then look at your rack. is it solid?

your isolation base will be compromised or optimized based on the floor and rack. and the more dynamic and higher the SPL's you like to play the more the floor and rack will limit you.

it’s all context with resonance control. no absolutes. first things first.

Unless you have a reactively grounded rack that acts as a pass thru to the higher mass of the floor attached with points of a certain geometric shape that reject  reflected energy from the floor boundary. Tom