Don't know which or if either are best under floorstanders. To your second question, I'd suggest checking granite/marble/quartz countertop companies near you, they usually have smaller remnant pieces that they can cut to size
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Helmut Brinkmann uses 2-3” thick granite under his Model 7 Vandersteen speakers at the Munich audio show and most Of his electronics have an integral Granite base w exception of tables where HRS Designs purpose built bases w constrained layer technology. @ctsooner has a pair of Quattro on granite to great effect I hear.. |
Definitely Granit. From a countertop store that hadles stone tops etc. Google it in your geographic area. You might also want to consider a 3" or 4" thick maple butcher block sold here on Audiogon. https://www.audiogon.com/stores/bba |
The idea works. How well is just a question of mass. More mass, more damping, less ringing, less cabinet/frame movement. Build listening room in basement. Dig out, fill in whole floor with new reinforced concrete screed. Raise speakers each on three metal spikes calibrated to bring them to correct listening height. Choose your own metal to taste. There. Screed is intimate with the earth's mass so you have infinite mass loading. To all intents and purposes. I have the same set up for my record player, raised from the concrete floor on large stone and marble slabs. By the way, if you choose to go stone or marble, don't mess about with 2 or 3 inch thickness. No way that's enough mass unless you cut them much larger than the speaker footprint - say 5 foot square. Mass is a wonderful thing. It allows all your kit to perform to max without external or interdependent vibrations. |
There is a school of thought that says even with a concrete screed floor the Earth's seismic activity will affect loudspeakers with spikes. Similarly footfall on wooden floors will have an impact. There is an app you can download on to a tablet to measure seismic activity by resting the tablet on top of your speakers. The effect manifests itself in the way musical notes decay, but at my age and with my hearing I'm not sure I could hear the difference. |
Clearthinker, doesn't matter how much mass you put under a turntable. It will still pick up all kinds of crap. The only adequate solution is a well suspended turntable (SOTA, BASIS, SME, Dohmann) or a MinusK platform. Electron microscopes directly on a concrete floor are a nightmare. This is usually what MinusK platforms are used for. As for other equipment? You can theorize that tubes need isolation although I have never seen proof of that. Otherwise it is just another profit making scam perpetrated on audiophiles. The only reasons to put anything under a loudspeaker are to keep the spikes from marring the floor or to get them up to the right height. |
Maybe these will help you out Gaia Isoacoustics Isolators https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKCWRCE9Vns |
