Following the Second London Bomb Blast in the 90's
I was given a few slabs of removed 30mm Granite from a Prominent Buildings Facade in London.
This material was cut into shaped layers for a Monlith Plinth for a 401, which become a 9 Stone Beast, I lived in a Townhouse at the time, logistically it was a Nightmare.
I kept it until about three years ago when a friend finally coerced the sale of it from me.
I was very sore after loading it into the vehicle, with strained arm joints and chronic pain that lasted a few weeks. I reverse the car tight to the front door and I have a sack barrow now for the heavy items. This worked great for Exhibiting at Kegworth.
The remaining Material was shaped to produce Six Shelves for a HiFi Stand/Rack,
a Exotic Harwood was turned by a local Wood Turner/ Artist to produce the Pillars, and Ash was turned to produce the Shelve support rails.
These Racks are still with me today and are of as much importance in my set up as any other component, my system would feel incomplete without them.
Interestingly I am presently revisiting my HiFi Supporting methods and have very recently placed a heavy duty wall bracket set up above the original racks, and am using different types of materials for shelving and sub plinth materials to attenuate sources to my ear.
The original racks are now decoupled from direct contact with the floor, the decoupling consists of of two granite kerbs sitting on Rubber Footers, the Granite Kerbs have Sylomer Isolation Pads sat on top as Footers for a 1100mm x 700mm x 12mm Steel Plate that rests on the two granite kerbs.
The Original Racks are now sitting on the Steel Plate with Sylomer as Footers, but there is a little movement in the rack, so I will probably exchange the Sylomer for Delrin as the Delrin will offer a good solid damped footer.
Is any of the above required ??? who knows !!
Am I going to reverse anything to A/B the effects, definately not, that Steel Plate was a Killer, on the subject of Rugs and WAF, I'm gald the wife was out when i got the steel sheet into the hallway, as the rug was the perfect skid to drag the Steel Sheet on to the
HiFi room.
As for shelving and Sub Plinth Materials I have been offered a very good effect on attenuation and SQ while using compressed foams to the Likes of a Roofmate materials compression and ultimately Phonotherm/Puranit.
A Roofmate type compressed material is commonly available as a waste material from contruction and will be obtainable very cheaply and probably free if enquired about.
Stands/Racks are in my view, the vehicle to allow for the introduction of differing attenuation/damping materials as footers or Sub Plinths.
From my experience this additional exercise is more than worth investigation, and if I was to produce a rack again, I would allow a additional 50mm minimum spacing between shelving to accommadate a introduction of materials over time.
I am lead to believe Sylomer has very similar properties to Sorbothane, it has a more industrial purpose, so can easily deal with weight, most important is that the inherent material properties are not changing as does Sorbothane, so over time it will be offering the exact effects that were initially picked up on.