Who makes custom sized BB & granite slabs?

Well, I've added the granite slabs and updated my system thread with some pics and comments. I am still playing with speaker placement, and will comment further here after this coming weekend...

You might try your local cemetery monument dealer. They will have a good color selection, be able to carve a variety of shapes and sizes, you might save some money if you pick a standard size and you might save the "audiophile" premium. Good luck.

Don_s, will do...

Sounds_real_audio, these slabs are being cut, edges/corners rounded and fully polished from a single piece of waste material. I feel that @ $140 per slab that it's a pretty fair price given the fact that I can't whip these up in my garage. I did contact two other granite outfits here in the Phoenix metro area and neither one wanted to do this for me.

How about looking in the yellow pages under granite kitchen counter tops. The sink cut outs are about 19"
X 33". They could probably polish the edges and cut them the size you want for not a lot of money.

Perfectionist, Good luck. Please be sure to let us know how it works out and what configurations you try. I am thinking of slabbing my speakers.

I finally got a qoute from Chris at Timbernation via email today.
$140 w/o spikes, $170 with spikes, black lacquer maple (see dimensions below).

I've also been looking into granite while waiting on Timbernation, and after talking with Gpdavis1 he suggested buying local as freight charges may be in excess of $300 for granite. After some legwork, I found a local shop that is going to make me granite platforms in Absolute Black, 26" x 16" x 3/4" with soft rounded edges/corners for $140 apiece. This dimension will give me a 2" border around the base of the speaker, and the soft rounded edges will tie in nicely with the "skirt" at the bottom of the VR-4's. One reason I decided to go with granite is the 3/4" thickness vs. 2.5" for the Timbernation platform (1.5" spike, 1" board). This combined with bearing height would jack the speaker up quite a bit. Besides, the granite is frigging beautiful, and heavy! If the tweeters are too high, I will angle the M/T unit so it fires down at the listening position using sorbothane bumpers (I'm not so sure this will need to be done though). Once slabs/speakers are in place I'm going to "revisit" speaker positioning. I will then level and let settle, and possibly relevel after settling. An audiophile bud is going to bring over his Aurios Pro-Max bearings, so I don't have to shell out the dough for two more sets just yet. It's going to be a long process as the shop is three weeks out, then all the tweaking. And finally, we'll see (or hear) if having the speaks up on bearings is worth all the frigging trouble I'm going thru!@#$%&! Why do we do it to ourselves???

All kidding aside, it's a fun project that I'm looking forward to,and if nothing else, I'll spike the speaks to granite with Audiopoint disc's in between and it will look really cool...

Perfectionist,
Please let us know how it goes with Timbernation. I'm also interested in a maple BB, probably 3" thick for my amp stand. He's probably out for the holidays.

Still no word from this guy at Timbernation. I left him voicemail today...

That Timbernation is nice stuff.
I sent him an email for a price qoute on some black lacquer platforms. Thanks Bigbucks5...

I had the same spkrs for almost 4 yrs. & wound up powering them with Ayre V-1xe. They sound as good as what you run thru them.

I also used 7 Herbie's Footers under ea. module: 4 under the heavy side, 1 in the middle & 2 on the other side. These are only 1/2" high & 1" sq & the modules look just right. The best part is it effectively isolates the bass from the top, which gives a cleaner presentation.

I have a real wood floor, meaning there is a true sub floor below the wood floor and I have two layers of pad under carpet. I had one-piece SS spikes & had excellent bass. I think in your cement floor situation, isolating the spkrs completely would be excellent & allow even tighter bass. I would try the Herbie's stuff (or similar) in addition to Aurious. I've used both under components & liked both, so it's just a matter of what type of isolation works best in your set-up.

Looks good!

Lateguestsnomore, good tip on IKEA, and nice setup you have there.

Don_s, perfectplank may be my best bet yet.

Here is what I'm thinking of doing, and perhaps you'all can tell me if I'm wasting my time and money. I'm a big fan of isolation bearings, and have always wanted to put my speakers on bearings. I have been told by a reputable source that this makes a huge improvement on the overall musical presentation. Only problem is, I'm on carpet over cement slab. Bearings and carpet don't mix obviously. So I need a base or platform. Was thinking granite or marble, but floor is not perfectly level where speakers sit, so would have to be shimmed, which can be done. But I was thinking a butcher block platform with leveling spikes to concrete would provide a nice level and stable base for bearings and speakers. Perfectplank has precut 24"x12" planks in various thickness, which would be a very good fit for my VR-4's. They also custom cut mahogany planks.
Check out my system and give me some opinions please...

Driver has definitely got the granite part going on - not custom, but there is the savings - its a Henry Ford thing, any color so long as its black - I have ordered from them several times and the service and product is top notch

http://www.grizzly.com/products/searchresults.aspx?q=granite&submit.x=16&submit.y=9

I finished the last group of blocks (for mass loading) with cork from McMaster Carr

http://www.mcmaster.com/

Here is a link for butcher block in 1 3/8", 1 7/8", 2 3/8" and 2 7/8" thick. Available in a wide variety of widths and lengths. I think they may even cut to dimension on request.

http://www.perfectplank.com/maple_butcher_block_tops.html

Here is where I bought 1 1/2" butcher block for my audio rack. They have an outlet about a mile from my home.

Good luck.

http://www.lumberliquidators.com/home.jsp

You can get 1.5" tick beach kitchen top butcher block at Ikea.
You can cut it and stain it the way you want.
Please, check my system under white room.

You might be able to find something at Grizzly Industrial.

I'm not sure what dimensions you need but if there is a restuarant or cookware supply shop in your area check them out. They will usually have butcher block cutting boards and granite or marble slabs. These shops have various sizes and shapes in stock. Possibly could accomadate your requirements.

For BB, try Timbernation.com

Thanks all. I suppose trying to have something cut locally makes most sense...

Just a 2 ft square slab of 3/4" granite, with plain corners, cost me about $200 each from a local stone shop. Shipping costs, if not local, can be prohibitive. There's a custom door place up here where some of the guys do projects in their own time.

Check with Glenn (Gpdavis1) for custom marble slabs. I bought a couple about 1.5 years ago. Excellent craftmanship and superb packaging.

Jeff

You can check a local Stone and marble shop in your area and any millwork shop also in your area for the butcher block.