Just returned to pre/pwr from an intergrated as I was keen to try the amps that were built for my speakers. Will let things settle and then experiment with different pre's. Only a day in with this setup which was poor on switch on but the sound evolved over the first few hours and is now pretty enjoyable.
You know, for all I've heard about how hard panzerholz is to work with, unless it's mass quantities you're cutting, it really isn't that bad. Sure, it's heavy, but there are ways around that. If someone is just working with smaller sizes (approx 3'x1.5') and smaller quantities, there's really no reason at all to be put off by its workability. This is coming from the carpenter who built my stands. It was his first time working with panzerholz, too. If you do decide you want to acquire this material someday, although its only North American distributor is in Ontario, Canadaused in large industrial sizesthey do sell small cutoffs in various thicknesses.
Regarding the Dynamat: (again, for what it's worth), before I had my stands, my CD player sat on a coffee table. That was when I implemented the Dynamat. I covered everywhere I possibly couldinside and underneathwithout compromising the circuitry. I only noticed one substantial change, but a substantial one nevertheless. In Bjork's "Biophillia," (track 8, I think (?) (whichever one starts with a bunch of glockenspiel), those high frequencies; the notes; the articulations; they were all resolved in a shockingly clearer way. Apart from that, I haven't noticed any other improvements. That was enough to convince me that it was making a good difference, and perhaps elsewhere where I haven't detected.
By the way, I just noticed that black object to the right of your rack. I'm curious: What is that? A sub? A seat? Some secret magical hi-fi device we've all yet to be blown away by?
Hi, Dan. Regarding the context, you can read for yourself here if you like (pages 4-5).
"Your suggestion that trying different acoustic absorbing material is a good one, do you have any suggestions?"
I'm not aware of any substance that better handles vibration than panzerholz (a.k.a. "tankwood"). It's highly regarded by many who've tried the material as a turntable plinth. Clearaudio uses it for their turntables; Kaiser uses it for their stands and speaker cabinets; LessLoss uses it as an enclosure for their Tunnelbridge interconnect system and Firewall power conditioner. I myself use it for my audio stands in the digital domain. Go here for a user-friendly study concerning the effectiveness of its damping properties.
Another way to deal with component vibration is to use Dynamat anywhere possible underneath and inside your components (particularly your source component). I would do this (have done it already), even if I could or couldn't get my hands on some panzerholz. But anyway, I'm in no way suggesting that you really need to do any of this because of your rack. I guess I'm just exploring the possibilities of how its effectiveness might be taken even further given the current design and what can be said concerning vibration control.
Hi, Defride. I guess this is what I had in mind when I was thinking of the rubber-strap suspension:
When you place 2 dissimilar-characteristic materials into firm contact with each other, say steel against rubber, sound energy in one will not readily pass into the other, it will bounce off the junction and be reflected back." -- Vertex AQ
With vibration traveling through the floor, up through the speaker rack, I can see how the rubber straps would be a good thing: vibration that the non-rubber portion of the rack failed to absorb will likely have a very difficult time passing through the rubber suspension into the suspended component.
On the other hand, any vibration picked up by the component (e.g., vibration generated by moving speaker cones, through the air, and/or across cables) , or generated by the component itself, has no real drainage path. Since the component's primary contact is rubber and it's enclosure is likely made of metal, it's reasonable to think that any such vibration just mentioned will not drain away from the component to be absorbed elsewhere, but rather be stored temporarily, only to "bounce back" into the component because of the high acoustic impedance between the rubber and the enclosure.
That being said, I don't want you to think I'm dissing your stand. It looks like a great stand. I don't doubt it does good things for audio-reproduction. And I guessassuming my previous conclusions are correctthat putting the right acoustic absorbing material (in the right degree) between each component and the rubber suspension straps, would work to prevent the the return of acoustic energy into the components, from the components.
Whatever the case, I like your stand: nice balance of aesthetics and function. Your system as a whole has a beautiful simplicity to it :)
Oh, and thanks for including the other advice I asked for. Too bad I don't really have an experienced ear to come listen to my system.
Very nice looking system. The idea of rubber straps as a partial means of vibration control doesn't make much sense to me, but the rest of the the rack seems well thought out: it looks really great! By the way, what was that speaker positioning advice you mentioned?
