Improving a stone rack

Wool carpet testing - not conclusive. Maybe I prefer the naked shelf. It is not like a big TV screen between the speakers. The rack also acts as a diffusor. I will investigate - some damping of the wall, the shelves, etc. seems ok. And I will experiment with springs (when i get them). But a main impression is that rack damping, footers, and so on, is rather marginal. It works very well by itself. Why? Because the rack is very massive and heavy, and also very stable. Due to the columns I placed in the basement, below the rack. The best low cost investment I ever did.

I am testing  Cerapucs under the maglev feet on the Hanss T-30 record player. An improvement? First test: yes, maybe. Slightly more open, detailed treble, and better timbre? So the pucs stay, for now.     

So far, raising components on footers has worked very mildly positively, in the rack - now trying the Einstein preamp on Walker validpoints and the Hanss player on cerapucs. So far, no dramatic effects, maybe a bit, although subtle. I have some large black ceramic cones to try also (if i find them), and the Nobsound springs when they arrive.

At last, some clear progress. The record player is clearly critical. A combination of better feet (Cerapucs) and better power cord (Gutwire) seems to be what the doctor ordered. My wife agrees. The effect is as if the artist comes closer, I can hear more of the recording. Very promising, and quite unexpected.

With Sidsel Endresen and Bugge Wesseltoft: Try, on their Out here album, 2 x LP at 45 rpm, it is like vocalist Endresen is here in my room. On other less good recordings, like Jefferson Airplane: Wooden ships, from Volunteers, and Doors: Riders on the storm, from LA Woman, again from my best (45 rpm) versions, the same effect is there, so even if I can also hear the recording defects, in fact better than before, in the overall sound, they are reduced.

Three sets of Nobsound springs have arrived, so I am testing them under various components. They need to be tuned, so I am taking out some of the seven springs in each foot below the lighter components, so they 'sag' down appropriately. The jury is out. These things take time. It may be, that they work better under my lighter components, like the Teac dac streamer and the Hanss turntable speed control, than the heavier ones like the Aesthetix Io power supplies. Not sure yet. So far, no "wow" type of sound change, but maybe a little bit here and there. Plusses and minuses. Anyway, for a low cost, this is an interesting experiment. Granite stability plus spring type floating of the component. Maybe with a cost in terms of less precise bass but somewhat better mid tone and 3d soundstage? We shall see.  

@o_holter I use 3 not 4. I found they worked best at 1/3 to 1/2 compression. I also found that they worked best on turntable > tubed phono amps > tube power supply > speakers. Not so much on tube power amps. Try with/without the rubber protectors - i.e. straight-up aluminum. They should touch the chassis NOT the existing feet, and rest on existing surface only.

Yes, good advice. I have them adjusted to a third to half compression. I use three feet under the lighter components (Teac, Hanss) but the Io power supplies need four feet to avoid cabinet stretching I think. I will soon try them under my MA1 amps, three feet should be enough. And yes, of course, directly from the chassis, not below the existing feet. Adjusting feet position to get the best balanced load from the component.

Straight up aluminum - interesting suggestion. Reminds me of how I tried to dampen the 10 kg alu platter on my record player, and found that I preferred "real" to "pleasant" - no damping. So platter mats and DIY platter damping were dropped.

I run my 20mm oversized aluminum platter on my 401 turntables naked. Real over pleasant!

I read somewhere that Duke Lejeune of Audiokinesis wrote about damping - "as little as we can get away with", or similar- in the context of bidirectional speakers, like I have. This type of setup makes the wall behind the speakers even more critical, and the ideal is a well distributed spectral tonality and a proper time delay before the reflected sound from the backfiring drivers. So, damping should be limited, and mixed with diffusion.