Low energy storage in racks.....

[PaulStewart]

I've been playing around with low energy storing racks and supports for some time and having decided that the Atacama plus the sound design and another Atacama shelf for the telly was a bit much, the time had come for a new rack. I was aided in this my the fact that the new OPPO has taken over as a single silver disc spinner, so I could change the layout a bit. People here my know about the Loricraft plinth that uses squash balls to absorb spurious energy and the Russ Andrews Torlyte system that uses torsional box construction to get rigidity without mass, which allows the rack to dissipate these energies. Ikea produce many products in their Lack range that use that use a product called Doofaylite, this is a cardboard honeycomb that is doped with a phenolic resin. The honeycomb gives strength and rigidity for little mass, I have used the "Lack" coffee tables as stands for some pretty high end TTs in the past, up to and including the Garrard 501 and in combination with the "Soundstage" isolation platform I developed for them, they have worked well.

I have been doing quite a bit of research over the last few months to get the construction and isolation right. The top section is actually on hidden ball bearings to improve isolation from the base section. First assembly and test of what I'm now pretty sure is the final version looks like this.

http://theartofsound.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=15279&d=1440356338

So the million dollar question, as ever is how well does it work? First impressions are a far greater bass extension, it was already really good but now goes way deeper with more definition in the bass and in fact, more definition overall. The imaging is now the best I've heard, the speakers have totally disappeared and the sound hangs in the air, great sense of height and back to front depth. I have been noticing this more and more as i've been trying this material out and now it has been fully assembled it has verified my theory that energy dissipation is the ideal in supports and plinths rather than high mass. Also, it looks cool rather than industrial.

[brian2957]

That's the unit I use Paul and it's very good . I wanted mine a little higher though so I bought one of their coffee tables which was the same colour ( 7 quid ) and used the legs from it . They're the same legs only much longer . Very nice setup BTW .:)

[Sovereign]

Looks good, you will find the materials used in Russ Andrews Torlyte and IKEA furniture are different. Torlyte is much more rigid and a more dense construction, yet feather light. Do they sound the same, no idea.:scratch:

[PaulStewart]

Looks good, you will find the materials used in Russ Andrews Torlyte and IKEA furniture are different. Torlyte is much more rigid and a more dense construction, yet feather light. Do they sound the same, no idea.:scratch:

As I said, the Russ Andrews Torlyte use tortional box construction, albeit in their case wood and in the case of the Ikea stuff resin doped cardboard. Does the same job at a fraction of the price of Torlyte.

[Sovereign]

Yes the Ikea stuff is a bargain, have you ever had the oppertunity to compare Torlyte and Ikea side by side?

[Rush2112]

Agreed the IKEA "Lac" is a cheap starting point and a rave recommendation of yesteryore by Sondek owners but seriously not a solution if isolaton is the aim. For me a good wall shelf, Sound Organisation for instance, with a Torlyte shelf and Atacama glass topped Isolation platform with the Anni sat on top !!! This need not break the bank, I picked the wall shelf up for £25 on ebay !

[PaulStewart]

Yes the Ikea stuff is a bargain, have you ever had the oppertunity to compare Torlyte and Ikea side by side?

James, I did this a few years ago, that's what steered me in this direction. I would say, that with my system it is probably as good as torlyte.


Agreed the IKEA "Lac" is a cheap starting point and a rave recommendation of yesteryore by Sondek owners but seriously not a solution if isolaton is the aim. For me a good wall shelf, Sound Organisation for instance, with a Torlyte shelf and Atacama glass topped Isolation platform with the Anni sat on top !!! This need not break the bank, I picked the wall shelf up for £25 on ebay !

Mark, bouncy TTs like the Linn, PT et al need a tremendous amount of isolation in my opinion, this is one reason I steer clear of them unless they are high mass like the Orbe. The main use of low energy storing/dissapating supports like this, is to dissapate spurious energy and prevent it from clouding the sound. I first used the Lack side table as a TT stand about 20 years ago, with a Garrard 501 at the Derbyshire HiFi show, it worked a treat.

[Rush2112]

Well having heard turntables like the Orbe, Rock, Voyd, Xerxes, SME20, Nottingham Analogue, Oracle etc etc on a wall shelf, with excellent results I am not sure where we disagree! The Lac may be more beneficial to turntables with a higher mass design than those relying more upon suspension but that doesn't mean the a wall shelf is ineffective, my ears certainly wouldn't agree !

[PaulStewart]

I don't disagree about wall shelves, thay can be very useful for isolation, this is about controling spurios energy by dispersing it, which is a different kettle of fish. I have a solid wood floor masticed onto concrete, so isolation is not the problem really, dispersing sprious energy is what's needed. I note you use a Torlyte platform, this will be doing this for your system.

[karma67]

that all looks rather nice indeed paul!

[zanash]

get your self a tube/ aerosol of urathane foam ....drill a set of holes in the lac top [from underneath] and carefully fill the void ....you may need to dislodge the paper/ cardboard within the void to get a good distribution. the effect is to add a small ammount of weight but increase stiffness by many times. You can also fill the hollow legs too. My foam filled lac tables out perform my old sound org table [original one] and a tnt flex design that was extremely sturdy and heavy.

[sq225917]

Gents theres no phenolic in the Lack and similar ikea products they amimo-formaldehylde resins.

Paul if you are using ball bearings between layers and they are fixed on one side then they couple not isolate. You'd have to have two axis of freedom to isolate, like a symposium Rollerblock.

[PaulStewart]

Gents theres no phenolic in the Lack and similar ikea products they amimo-formaldehylde resins.

Paul if you are using ball bearings between layers and they are fixed on one side then they couple not isolate. You'd have to have two axis of freedom to isolate, like a symposium Rollerblock.

Thanks for that Simon, good to meet someone who is as much a pedant as me. However I was told by a designer who specialises in the use of this kind of product it was phenolic. As it is the amino formaldahyde resin does the same job, so no big deal.

Mechanically after 40 years of putting these systems together, I do know the difference between coupling and isolating. :) the top layer "floats" on 8 ball bearings that have two axis of movment as they in turn sit on a hardish rubber pad. The point is all this allows the spurious energy to dissipate, which is why I would not wish to foam fill it as I think this may prevent that dissipation. All I know is it cost just over £100 to make and it performs really well, and as friends wives and indeed my own have said, it looks good and has great WAF.