Stands and sound quality

[bobbasrah]

Sand is superb stuff for damping any resonances, because each partical can't really pass it on to it's neighbour any nasties are soon damped out.

Wharfedale (an old speaker manufacturer from the UK) used to make a sand filled baffle speaker, the same thing applies, the baffle was non resonant due to the sand filling

Try punching a bucket of sand & see how much it resonates

I guess it has to be white sand with lead shot to avoid colouration of the non resonance.

Still not convinced from previous messing around that lead shot adds anything (other than mass) to the behaviour, and in a resonating cabinet, particle separation and migration would be rapid. In a tubular metallic frame, such dampening would exhibit the same migration which could possibly cause localised ringing, only to be dampened by the sand.
Drop lead shot and sand mix onto a steel plate and listen for the sand hitting it or vibrate the mix in a glass to see the effect....
Even the best graded quartz sand will settle out leaving a fine dust on the top layer as it is effectively a range of particle sizes of unequal mass.

Pretty sure I came across a fairly recent design using the exact same sand technique for dual walls in a DIY speaker array, and yer another for a sub-bass. Also came across a turntable base that was so designed, which seemed a little extreme.

[Macca]

Wouldn't siting a piece of kit on top of a sandbag give theoretically total isolation from structure borne vibration at a very low price - albeit with a low WAF rating also?

[Marco]

Not sure how level or stable it would be for long, though!

Marco.

[bobbasrah]

Wouldn't siting a piece of kit on top of a sandbag give theoretically total isolation from structure borne vibration at a very low price - albeit with a low WAF rating also?

Nope.....more likely to get a black eye for the leaking sand as a result of WAF.
If the sand is not incorporated in the structure it is not dampening any chassis vibrations.
A sandbag's contents would shift so would have no support stability.
It would however dampen sonics travelling through it down to a certain frequency. Such is the design of the TL's stand here, a box of sand on spikes, the speakers spaced off the timber box.
The sand however is not the support.

[goraman]

I guess it has to be white sand with lead shot to avoid colouration of the non resonance.

Still not convinced from previous messing around that lead shot adds anything (other than mass) to the behaviour, and in a resonating cabinet, particle separation and migration would be rapid. In a tubular metallic frame, such dampening would exhibit the same migration which could possibly cause localised ringing, only to be dampened by the sand.
Drop lead shot and sand mix onto a steel plate and listen for the sand hitting it or vibrate the mix in a glass to see the effect....
Even the best graded quartz sand will settle out leaving a fine dust on the top layer as it is effectively a range of particle sizes of unequal mass.

Pretty sure I came across a fairly recent design using the exact same sand technique for dual walls in a DIY speaker array, and yer another for a sub-bass. Also came across a turntable base that was so designed, which seemed a little extreme.

The lead sot only adds mass,and mass helps deaden vibration by it's very nature,Mass is your friend.

[bobbasrah]

The lead sot only adds mass,and mass helps deaden vibration by it's very nature,Mass is your friend.

Unless you are in the sights of the shotgun

[Reid Malenfant]

Personally I wouldn't add lead shot to the sand.

Speaking of migration you should have watched me make some sand filled speakers a while back, there is a way round it What you have to do is fill the panel from one corner & then with a scrap piece of wood & a hammer you proceed to beat the crap out of the scrap wood while it sits against the centre of the sand filled panel. This soon settles the sand & you then add more via the gap in between the panels in the upper corner.

Having beaten it up enough a plug is then glued & hammered in to plug the gap

Take it from me that it works & works rather well

[Ali Tait]

Wouldn't siting a piece of kit on top of a sandbag give theoretically total isolation from structure borne vibration at a very low price - albeit with a low WAF rating also?

http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/sandblaster_e.html

[JJack]

Okay, as I promised (I'm the OP) here's a picture of my equipment stand.

It is spiked on the bottom, and the turntable base is spiked as well.



I confess I didn't do ABX testing, and I don't know if it "sounds" any better, or indeed, if it "sounds" at all, but at the very least I removed the notion of poor eqiupment stands from the equation, and I think it looks nice as well.

[realysm42]

Nice rack (arf arf).

What is it? I like the finish.

When I went from a manky old Ikea stand with a wobbly leg to something better, I didn't listen for a difference but I couldn't help notice everything sounded more coherent, atleast to me it does.