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Post by MartinT on Sept 10, 2014 6:38:44 GMT
I noticed while I was re-jigging my hi-fi system just how much the top plate of my Ayre SACD player vibrates while playing music, when my finger lightly touches the top. I then tested my Pass preamp and its power supply, both full width components with large flat top plates. All of them do it. Putting an HFN Flux Dumper temporarily on the Ayre gave a small improvement in clarity and definition when playing at my normal listening volume.
I then remembered that my local Morrisons sells nice granite placemats in sets of two, so I bought a couple yesterday (I believe that Tesco sell them too). I removed the small stick-on feet and applied a sheet of black sticky-back felt to the underside, across the whole surface. Laying one on the Ayre gave the same improvement as the Flux Dumper but looks more aesthetically pleasing. More importantly, it stops the vibrations dead. I'm popping over to Morrisons tonight to buy two more, and I've run out of felt so eBay to the rescue.
A nice cheap solution that works.
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Post by Chris on Sept 10, 2014 6:41:22 GMT
Maybe try that with mine! Can't say I've noticed vibration but EVERY LITTLE HELPS!!  Thank you,thank you. I'm here all week!  |
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Post by ChrisB on Sept 10, 2014 6:57:51 GMT
That's exactly what I do with my LFD phono stage when it's in use. One of the mats is a good fit for the top of the unit, which is not full width but is deep. The great thing is that it's a neat solution that doesn't increase the height of the unit much at all (or any, if the unit has a bigger fascia than the case).
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Post by MartinT on Sept 10, 2014 7:01:30 GMT
Yes, that's what I wanted Chris: weight and damping without height.
The thing is, if you went to a stonemasons and had them cut for you it would cost a lot of money (I had two nero marble tops made for some speakers many years ago, and they were not cheap). I can't believe the quality of the supermarket ones for less than eight quid!
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Post by Chris on Sept 10, 2014 7:26:44 GMT
Yip,my father had white marble counter tops in the shop. Lovely things but the price(never exactly revealed) was high. They did last for years and years though with minimal maintenance. Suppose it just shows the value of the supermarkets buying powers.
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Post by ChrisB on Sept 10, 2014 7:32:37 GMT
The buying power and the quantity is the thing.
No doubt the granite comes from China. I'd like to see anyone just get two of those mats from China to here for that price. Never mind, quarrying the material, cutting, edging and polishing it, sticking the feet on and putting it into packaging.
There's something wrong with all this, isn't there?
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Post by MartinT on Sept 10, 2014 7:38:27 GMT
Call them hi-fi megadampers and the price would be £199 each.
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Post by Chris on Sept 10, 2014 7:58:51 GMT
ChrisB - the same thing happened with the Scottish parliament. A friends uncle who owns a granite quarry in Aberdeen was contracted to provide the granite reqd for the building. He simply bought it from abroad in its finished specification. He then made a fortune by doing repairs to it after it got knacked on site.
Yip - so wrong.
MartinT - go for it. Make yerself a few quid.
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 10, 2014 9:11:41 GMT
On top !
Hmm ......
Damn more to think about
I think the usual suspects would be selling them for way more than £199 !
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Post by julesd68 on Sept 10, 2014 9:13:28 GMT
I've got a number of these granite chopping boards which I bought as platforms and put some feet underneath them. The quality and thickness of the granite can vary a fair bit as you'd expect...
I have a little QED input expander that is so lightweight, when you put a full set of cables in the back it just won't sit flat. So I had a small piece of granite custom made to my specification that sits on top of it to weight it down. Cost me £9 delivered from a seller on ebay who had previously made a large granite platform for my deck.
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 10, 2014 9:14:07 GMT
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Post by MartinT on Sept 10, 2014 9:18:50 GMT
Mine (from Morrisons) are essentially black, Mike. Like a car's pearlescent paint finish.
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 10, 2014 9:26:16 GMT
Ah the black is taking over
Mwaahahahahaa !!!!
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 12, 2014 14:20:59 GMT
Touching my Pass PSU and very heavy Isis I found no vibration
Could this be more Mana effect ?
Anything else vibrating ?
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Post by MartinT on Sept 12, 2014 18:33:21 GMT
It could be my concrete floor, Mike. I'm buying a couple more of the granite mats as they work well.
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Post by Dave on Sept 14, 2014 12:34:39 GMT
I noticed while I was re-jigging my hi-fi system just how much the top plate of my Ayre SACD player vibrates while playing music, when my finger lightly touches the top. I then tested my Pass preamp and its power supply, both full width components with large flat top plates. All of them do it. Putting an HFN Flux Dumper temporarily on the Ayre gave a small improvement in clarity and definition when playing at my normal listening volume.
I then remembered that my local Morrisons sells nice granite placemats in sets of two, so I bought a couple yesterday (I believe that Tesco sell them too). I removed the small stick-on feet and applied a sheet of black sticky-back felt to the underside, across the whole surface. Laying one on the Ayre gave the same improvement as the Flux Dumper but looks more aesthetically pleasing. More importantly, it stops the vibrations dead. I'm popping over to Morrisons tonight to buy two more, and I've run out of felt so eBay to the rescue.
A nice cheap solution that works.
Thought I'd give this a try today as I have a few granite chopping boards I used as equipment supports once upon a time. I expected this to work as the theory is sound but it has had the opposite effect on my CD72 resulting in a muddy presentation... |
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Post by MartinT on Sept 14, 2014 12:38:56 GMT
Interesting, Dave. Did you leave the little rubber feet on them and did you apply sticky-back felt? My best results are from the whole surface of the mat being in contact with the top plate, so no feet and felt applied.
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Post by Dave on Sept 14, 2014 18:09:53 GMT
I removed the feet and laid the slab directly onto a microfiber cloth which covers almost the same area as the slab, there is about a 5mm discrepancy all round...  |
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Post by MartinT on Sept 14, 2014 18:22:53 GMT
Different components, different reactions. My SACD player, preamp and PSU are all heavily built, heavyweight components with substantial chassis. The granite damping works a treat.
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Post by Dave on Sept 14, 2014 20:05:02 GMT
Odd isn't it as I felt sure I would hear some improvement. I did apply some sound deadening material to the underside of the top panel shortly after buying the CD72 so perhaps placing the granite on top is too much of a good thing...
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