How does wood hardness affect the sound of a TT on a wood TT platform?

Hi, I doubt it would have any effect on the sound. the question is what effect would it have on the isolation. The maple will be about 25% heavier for the same size. If your TT stand is on concrete and the stand is sturdy I would go with the walnut for aesthetic and durability reasons. Maple expands and contracts more than walnut with humidity changes so it is more likely to check with age. I can not think of any situation that the extra weight would be a sure benefit. If you have bouncy floors the only things that will help are tip toes or a well suspended table. I n that case a wall shelf would be the best way to go and again I do not think there would be a significant difference. I would go with the walnut, oiled if possible. Shame to lacquer such beautiful wood.

I think the first thing you have to ask yourself is whether your tt is sensitive to what it sits on.  My Linn was extremely variable depending on shelf material, while my Basis is not.  I don't know what your table sits on now, but try a different shelf material like glass or corian or whatever you have and see if it makes a significant difference sonically.  That said, I truly do not believe one can predict whether they will prefer one shelf material over another without trying it.  There are just too many variables to make a blanket statement that harder wood does X and softer does Y.  
And even if you could predict, that doesn't mean you would prefer it.  

Hardness of wood is related to stiffness which is useful in resisting bending forces, I.e., isolating against rotational forces. Hardness is also an important characteristic of the cones the wood board should be resting on.

Elizabeth thanks for all that information on Butcher Block. My TT sits on a heavy 3 shelf MDF audio rack w/metal screw in poles. The feet are spiked . The floor is carpeting w/a cement base. My neighbor is the Apartment Laundry Room. There seems to be some inaudible vibration as some of my throw carpets over time move around. Both the TT and the Luxman 38 Tube preamp are a shade on the warm side. I think the Bryston 2.5 SST2 balances that out w/a neutral sound. Right now I'm looking at the Edge cut Maple and Walnut. The TT is fairly big so I will go for the 19"x16"x3" block. Just need to decide as to what feet to put on. 

@geoffkait OP might need springs with that vibration which changes everything!

I’ve shocked enough monkeys for one day, I suspect. 🙉 🙈 🙊

The most vibrationally sensitive device in the world is suspended on glass strings, so to speak.

Any guesses as to what device it is?

Teo_Audio

Electron microscope?

Gravitational waves detectors?

nanotube resonator? for measuring down to yoctogram (one septillionth of a gram – 10 to the -24th grams) or the mass of a single proton.

Ok i'm running out of ideas.

I was just discussing that a couple weeks ago on these fora. Coincidence? 😳

Back from Google. Global earthquake detection. The glass (silica fibers) are 400microns thick so chosen as they are immune to expansion and contraction from temperature changes. This thermal noise would impact negatively on measurements.

LIGO mirror suspended by glass threads video,

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/LA/video/ligo20170216v

The wood in a plinth of turntables has much more influence for example than the wood used for making table tennis rackets.
Have you ever tried to use table tennis rackets with identical rubber but different woods?

I have been trying for a long time and there are macroscopic differences.
I believe that for the plinths the same thing is the same, the problem is that nobody has ever built plinths with different woods and then made tests and measurements with laboratory instruments.

So few of the geniuses above provide any practical, REAL, scientific insight into what Janka Scale hardness might be best for TT isolation.  Why don't you just say you're not certain rather than bloviating about what might work?

What is a fundamental to what is desirable as an inherent property for a Plinth or Isolation Platform - Sub Plinth for materials selected is the following:

Damping Factor ( The materials ability to harness received energy or at the other end of the scale bounce it back to the source. Preferably a High Damping Coefficient for an Audio Support ancillary used within a System).

Dissipation Factor (Speed at which energy within the material is lost or no longer significant as a reading)

Most who have a HiFi System and have the opportunity to make change, seemingly reject the materials available today that are much more fit for purpose to perform a particular role and maintain materials that are very poor and wanting for the role selected.

Do a search on “damping factor wood types”, there are some studies on the subject. 

One does not need to search too hard to discover a Board produced as a

'Phenolic Resin Impregnated Densified Wood'  

is the material where the the Damping and Dissipation Properties are very attractive to be used in a Audio Set Up.

Today it is quite easy to find, TT Plinths, Sub Plinths, Tonearm Wands, Headshells, Speaker Baffles or Full Cabinets and even Chassis and Bespoke Component Casings are being produced from material with the properties of Branded Board Material.

Most of the annual volume of Phenolic Resin Impregnated Densified Wood on the market consists of resin-impregnated densified veneer products, while solid resinimpregnated timber boards are rare. Some example of names or tradenames of densified material, some of them not existing anymore, are: Bakelisiertes Holz, Carbonwood, Compreg, Delignit, Delignit-Feinholz, Dehonit, Hydulignum, Insulam, Insulcul, Jablo, Jabroc, jicwood, Kunstharzschichtholz, Lignofol (Preβschichtholz), Lignostone (Preβvollholz), MyWood2, obo-Festholz, Panzerholz (Delignit), Permawood, Permali, Pregwood, Ranprex, Sonowood, Staypak, Surendra, Transformerwood, and VANyCARE.

Typical products made from this type of densified wood are storage containers for liquid natural gas and associated support structures, wear plates for machinery and transportation vehicles, machine-pattern moulds, tooling, jigs, bulletproof barriers, security panels, transformer parts, neutron shielding, audio.

Picawood is not in the above list, this is a board produced with increased plies of veneer to the typical production methods where up to 25 Boards are compressed to produce a 1" (25mm) board.

It is typically a guidance to use Cross Grain Ply Board  @ 25 Plies per 1" (25mm).  

I would really like to see a Three x Orientation for the Plies, but when discussing with an individual has a direct communication with a manufacturer, the batch to be produced was quite substantial, way beyond a Group Buy quantity and the Wastage as a result of the orientation laminations was to be quite substantial as well.  

Kaiser Speakers has a bespoke board produced using similar to the Three Orientation design, to improve on the already impressive Dissipation properties of Cross Grain.

After nearly 4 years, the OP probably gave up and got real a real isolation platform-Minus K.

Since no self-respecting, audiophile, least of all any of us, places a component in direct contact with a shelf, with no intervening exotic footer designed to isolate the component from the shelf, I think it makes very little difference what kind of wood is used for the support system, so long as it is very stiff and rigid. The issue of transmitting energy into the structure and dissipating that energy is moot, if you have a good footer, which all of us do I am sure. Also, I think we all broach subjects like this on the premise that there are vast amounts of energy to be dealt with when in reality the magnitude is relatively tiny to begin with.

Before I buy something I try to understand the physics behind it.  

As a Observer looking in, from my Keyboard End, it is seemingly easy to discover there are behavioural limiters that are stuck to certain individuals within this Analogue Forum like flies to a released motion.

The real Arch to Learning and New Found Behavioural Freedom is to be discovered when such as the following can be acknowledged.

   "There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which can not fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation."

The real WOW to be found is when it is a regular practiced chain of thought where "contempt prior to investigation" is recognised in one's chain of thought and the efforts are made for it to be avoided.

This is not limited to an Audio Experience only, life is so much more fun as a Blank Page to be constantly filled up as an evolving Text Book.  

As a Observer looking in, from my Keyboard End, it is seemingly easy to discover there are behavioural limiters that are stuck to certain individuals within this Analogue Forum like flies to a released motion.

A "released motion"? That's not nice. Are you still mad I pointed out your inconsistent posts?

I have no argument with you, personally (we have found some things in common with SME tonearms and Kontrapunkt cartridges). If you post contradictory things just say it was a mistake and it's done. But please don't get into scatology.

Let us try to be pleasant to everyone on this forum.

The only inconsistency I am able to deduce in my posts, especially the ones pick up on recently by one forum member in another thread.

Has left me of the mindset, that the critic of my post, has not got the context of what has been written and took the content literally, which would seem at odds, if the context has failed to be grasped.

There is one other inaccuracy being projected from the same person, and that is their assumption I am mad, I do believe I have the context correct, meaning I have  'ire ' about something referred to.

For the record, there is no 'ire ', again life is way too short, and I have a lot less good times in front of me, than behind me, why spoil a good experience where skies are Blue, contaminating it with the Grey Cloud that is Anger,