Equipment rack - isolate or couple?

[gary_j]

I have an Apollo equipment rack which is spiked into carpet, also the top shelf is spiked for turntable/cd player use.

The rack is made out of metal with chipboard shelves.

Also my speakers are on stands which are spiked into the carpet.

Now I maybe wrong, but surely that’s coupling the equipment rack to the speakers so all vibrations from the speakers are going through the rack?

Most amplifiers, cd players etc come with rubber/sorbothane feet to stop the equipment soaking up the vibrations, aren't the spikes on the equipment rack doing the opposite to what we want?

Would I be better off finding some rubber feet for my equipment rack?

The only advantage I can see from the spikes on the rack is to set it level.


If ive got the wrong end of the stick please say :doh: :lol:


Cheers

Gareth

[sburrell]

Hey there,

I'm pretty sure there's a thread with a similar topic somewhere here on AoS. IIRC, opinions varied. I recall someone saying that sorbothane etc. worked well for some components but not for others, with similar results for the spikes. It may just be a case of experimenting and seeing what sounds better in your system.

Hope this helps :)

[The Grand Wazoo]

There are no absolutes in this game. As mentioned above, try a few different approaches and see what you think works best for you.

Here's one very cheap option to try, devised by a rather ingenious (and modest) fella:
http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=12705

[sburrell]

Hey Gareth,

I have a laminate floor over suspended flooring. My MA speakers are on Atacama stands on spikes. In order not to damage the floor, I was putting additional, spare laminate between the spikes and the floor, but this wasn't great - wobbly for a start, despite my best efforts.

Well, I just picked up some of this stuff (http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=10246832&fh_location=//catalog01/en_GB/categories%3C%7B9372013%7D/categories%3C%7B9372031%7D/categories%3C%7B9372105%7D/specificationsProductType=natural_tiles/specificationsSpecificProductType=natural_slate_ti les) from my local B&Q, and coupled it to the floor with white blu-tack. Well, smack my thighs and send me to Alaska - this sounds fantastic! I've managed to reduce the rocking of the stands substantially, and this along with the density of the slate has made an incredible difference.

I'm currently listening to the soundtrack from American Beauty, and the bass is astonishing. Tight, full-bodied and DEEP. I'm also hearing so much more high-end detail than previously that at first I thought the sounds were environmental rather than on the soundtrack (my window's open and the effects were kind of "whooshy", so I just though it was the wind, you know?).

Of course, you've got carpet, so blu-tack is out of the question, but if you can find a way of stabilising the slate then I think you'll be very pleased with the sonic improvements.

Chris: lol, modest indeed, showing off your mega-bucks amp on some cheap as chips DIY isolation jobby. If Levinson knew that their power amp was even in the same house as anything from IKEA, they'd throw a hissy fit! :lol: Humans - we're a funny bunch, eye? Hehe.

[ursus262]

Well, smack my thighs and send me to Alaska.....

:lol:

[DSJR]

The solid-foamy stuff Hamish tried also made a good support for floor-standing speakers I seem to remember...

For equipment racks, I loved the Something Solid "string-driven thing" rack. Neat balsa-wood shelving (about 25mm thick - light and strong enough) suspended from a solid space-frame using a criss-cross of nylon rope pre-tensioned at the back. Worked a treat and didn't look anything like as bad as my terrible description says -

Pic nicked from Signals -

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/DSJR_photos/xr4-1.jpg

[gary_j]

I will look into fitting half squash balls to the feet/spikes of the rack if possible, then try on carpet & then on slate/slab. Will report back.


Thanks for the help!

[gary_j]

The solid-foamy stuff Hamish tried also made a good support for floor-standing speakers I seem to remember...

For equipment racks, I loved the Something Solid "string-driven thing" rack. Neat balsa-wood shelving (about 25mm thick - light and strong enough) suspended from a solid space-frame using a criss-cross of nylon rope pre-tensioned at the back. Worked a treat and didn't look anything like as bad as my terrible description says -

Pic nicked from Signals -

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/DSJR_photos/xr4-1.jpg

That looks smart, quite a different design as well. Bet its not cheap though!..