Custom Amplifier stands

Brian, if it is on a concrete slab and behind closed doors I would save yourself a pile of $$$ and buy yourself a slab of 1 1/2 or 1 3/4" Maple butcher block. You will be very happy

Brian

I didn't know where to get it either. I called a local kitchen cabinet maker and he said of course. I had him do custom sizes for each of my components which BTW at the time were all in the front of my room under the screen. I had the cabinet maker shape along the grain of the wood, double bevel the edges so they wouldn't be sharp and then lightly stain with a wood oil fixative.

Very inexpensive but highly effective. Maple is what you want

If you give me the dimensions of what you want I may have one that size because at that time my Krell 750 Mcx's were sitting on them and they weighed 200 Lbs each

BFlowers said:

I don't even know where to get that butcher block. Sad, I know. I am the opposite of DIY. I also need it to be 6 inches in height and I want the ability to run power cords and such under it. Thus, I need "feet" of some sort.

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Try Lowe's or Home Depot (Or whayever your local home improvement store is called). I saw some beautiful butcher block at Lowes. For custom metal stands try Sound Anchors. Reasonably priced. He may already have a design on hand. If not, he will build to spec.

I have two 3 cm granite slabs sitting atop 2 high stacked hockey pucks...that's right, hockey pucks. The rubber like material is about as inert as it gets and the slabs weigh a ton. I have my MC501 monoblocks sitting on them and they seem to do a great job.

es347 said:

I have two 3 cm granite slabs sitting atop 2 high stacked hockey pucks...that's right, hockey pucks. The rubber like material is about as inert as it gets and the slabs weigh a ton. I have my MC501 monoblocks sitting on them and they seem to do a great job.

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No need to apologize. I was going to say that many of my friends use granite. Just butcher block is terrific at a whole lot less money and it is in a room behind closed doors on concrete. For me it's a no brainer

I have my 2 Pass Labs amps on custom Sound Anchor stands. Like Gregadd said, they really don't cost that much.

This guy sells pre-made butcher block for this use: http://www.timbernation.com/mapleplatform_popup.cfm

That said, I am not sure I understand the merits here. Putting wood on concrete is asking for trouble. It will soak up the moisture from concrete, warp and transmit that moisture up to the bottom of the amp which may rust.

I also don't understand the physics of what that block would do for a 250 pound mass sitting on top of it. Is there something I can read on it?

Just off the top of my head you could line tbe butcher block with some shelf liner paper like Contact. That would block the moisture path.

I suppose one can ask the question that if the amps are behind closed doors out of view on a concrete slab why wouldn't the amp sitting on the concrete slab be sufficient

This might be overkill for your application, but I've always admired these...

http://coreaudiodesigns.com/category/products/isolation-platforms/

These are also interesting...

http://shop.mapleshadestore.com/departments.asp?dept=46

I used butcher block for an install a long time ago in a galax* -- never mind, it was this galaxy, sorry. ANYway, after a couple of years the butcher block cracked and broke apart along the glue lines from the heat and repeated thermal cycles, dumping a huge monoblock amplifier onto the records stored beneath. The customer was displeased. Really, REALLY displeased, as a matter of fact.

This may never happen to you, but I shall never again use it under a heavy, hot PA. Wood or MDF, finished to avoid moisture issues, should work OK. I'd put rubber feet/bumpers under it to keep the wood off the concrete. For a cheap solution, why not standard concrete foundation blocks?

FWIWFM - Don

I would definitely check out Steve Blinn Designs I ordered a component platform that came out great in fact I am ordering another one for my VPI SDS that I just purchased. The owner Steve Blinderman is a great guy, great communication and a really quality product.

Joe

amirm said:

this guy sells pre-made butcher block for this use: http://www.timbernation.com/mapleplatform_popup.cfm

that said, i am not sure i understand the merits here. Putting wood on concrete is asking for trouble. It will soak up the moisture from concrete, warp and transmit that moisture up to the bottom of the amp which may rust.

I also don't understand the physics of what that block would do for a 250 pound mass sitting on top of it. Is there something i can read on it?

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+1

p

as far as what amps sit on; there is no one answer.

currently i use a GPA Monaco amp stand with my darTZeel NHB-108B Stereo Amplifier. i've tried it on the floor, i've tried them on top of butcher block, and i've tried them on cones. The darTZeel seems to like a bit of de-coupling that the GPA provides.

6 months ago i had the very beautiful pre-production $135k darTZeel 700 watt monoblocks in my room for a month. they were shipped to me after CES. as they weighed more than 200 pounds each they sat on the floor.

when i first recieved them i loved their sound but found that i was getting a slight upper bass thickness somehow. i spent a frustrating hour that first night trying to figure out what was going on. the next morning i removed some long stainless steel pins and replaced them with gold plated cover slugs. the pins prevent the suspended chassis inside the casework from swinging during shipment by gently holding it stationary. as i started listening again i noticed that the upper bass thickness was gone and the transparency was greatly improved. turns out that those pins were preventing the internal suspension of the amps from working correctly.

these amps are designed to go directly on a floor and provide their own suspension.

in the past i have owned two different sets of Tenor amps; one was a pair of 75 watt OTL monoblocks which i used on top of Zoethecus amp stands....and they did like that. the other Tenors were the 300 Watt monoblocks; which did not sound right on the Zoethecus and sounded quite a bit better directly on my hardwood over concrete floor.

for awhile i had multi-channel in my room and i was using some Rowland 5000 digital amp monoblock knockoffs for the rear channels. these digital amps are quite lightweight and are subject to being microphonic. i found they needed some sort of mass loading on top of them to sound natural.

prior to the Tenors i had both the Mark Levinson #33H monoblocks and the big 375 pound each #33 monoblocks. i tried big marble slabs, granite slabs and maple butcher block under these amps. both of them sounded best directly on the floor.

my guess is that most amps (under 200 pounds) prefer some sort of decoupling to being diectly on the floor. but i did not own my GPA amp stands until i owned my darTZeel's.

the floor-amp interface will be a component of the sonic character of your system and you need to be open-minded to what each approach might do.

Hi Brian,

You may wish to consider one of the Adona Amp stands. I had been very happy with mine. They have now been incorporated into my rack system.

http://www.adonacorporation.com/index.html

I suggest looking at the Signature series. These will support 300 pounds.

http://www.adonacorporation.com/av45as.html



Rich