Maple platforms


Hi

I was wondering if anyone has used maple platforms under their turntable and if so what were the results. An exmple of the platforms I'm refering to can be seen at: http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/tweaks/platforms.php

My rack is MDF so I'm wondering if puting something harder between it and the turntable will improve sound. In other words, does the mdf have a damping affect on the turntable--in this case a Rega 3?

Thanks
24u

Showing 1 response by audiavreseller

They are all still just plank wood, think bigger...

Yes, MDF will handle some resonance benefits due to it's mass... and more than the same thickness of solid plank woods.

All wood platforms can get good anti-resonance characteristics if you go very, very thick. This is where the price, finishing and weight becomes the factor.

There are many people out there that claim that one wood sounds better than the other, but all of them have little to no variance after our two decades of our in-house testing.

It's usually all in the marketing.

A thin shelf made from solid wood can only have a certain mass variance per thickness, period. The lower the mass, the more apt it is to turn into a "speaker". The best solutions are a very, very high mass platform... the materials for this are endless.

Very low mass platforms that are rigid turn into a transducer for vibrations, actually completely defeating the purposes of controlling sonic discolouration. If you look at Audiav's website under "theory" it explains much of this.

You can easily measure vibration and inert resonance of materials and always find that it REALLY comes down to other things besides wood selection. The only things that actually make a significant difference from different wood species is total mass.

So fear not maple, as it is the same as all the other woods dependant on overall mass. Stacking maple on MDF will yield a greater overall mass on the shelf and aid in dampening.