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  #21  
Old 08-02-2019, 07:14 PM
Beet Farmer Beet Farmer is offline
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It has been awhile.
I now have more butcher blocks in the system. All the main rack shelves have Walnut full size (fits the glass exact) 22" by 16" and 1 3/4 thick.

The main thing I have been experimenting with are what is under the OEM feet, or instead of the OEM feet. Mostly relatively inexpensive Ebony points and bases, Got some larger points with a rounded tip for use without a saucer. The big problem with those in a lot of positions is they enhance the upper frequencies and detail, at the expense of the midrange. But at this point I am only looking for a full around improvement. Less add this to take away that.
Latest plaything... piles of exotic wood 'pen blanks' (exotic wood, generally 3/4" or so square shank and 5" or 6" long (used to make 'pens'. The come in various sorts of groupings, various quality. So far Cocobolo wood is the most interesting. Under the OEM feet on the Threshold FET10(which sits on top of the FET10 phono box.Finally an enhanced ALL AROUND sound. Alright!
Also trying them as "vibration assistants" .. just laying them on top of the equipment cabinets!
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  #22  
Old 08-02-2019, 09:38 PM
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So, Beet Farmer,
I have been doing some similar things. I recently got two rock maple end-grain boards from Butcher Block Acoustics to be used under my power distributors. Today I have placed one under Denali 6000/S V2. Some rubber/cork footers similar to the Mapleshade "isolators" were included with these maple boards, but I have not used those yet. Right now my BB Acoustics board is sitting on 1" wooden blocks.

Can you please provide where you are getting your Ebony points and Cocobolo wood 'pen blanks' from? Today, I just bought some 1/8" thick 24" long strips of red oak, walnut, and poplar today to try building up as "constrained layers" and serve as footers under my Harbeths, and would be interested in trying Ebony and Cocobolo pen blanks as well.

I'll post some unboxing pics of a Butcher Block Acoustics board. These 1 3/4" end-grain hard maple boards are superb in quality and very affordable. A 12 X 14" board was only $57 and a 19 x 16" board was only $67.

Thanks,
Stephen aka PC
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Lumin P1 streamer/DAC/preamp, Constellation Inspiration integrated TT: Michell Gyro SE MkII, SME V, Koetsu Urushi Vermilion, EAR324. Harbeth 30.2s, REL R-305, Shunyata Alpha V2 ICs, Alpha V2 SPs, Sigma XC, Sigma NRv2, Omega QR-s & Alpha NRv2 PCs, segmented Altaira SG stack w/ Alpha & Omega CGCs, Everest 8000 PD. Remote Server Room: Uptone EtherREGEN, AfterDark Master Clock & LPS, Alita, Battle Angel, (Akasa NUC Roon Core), iFi DC Purifiers (for SMPS used for Alita & router), Shunyata Gemini combo power distributor & Altaira-type CG GP-NR hub, Venom & Alpha CGCs, Shunyata NRv14 power cords for digital components.

Last edited by Puma Cat; 08-02-2019 at 09:51 PM.
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  #23  
Old 08-03-2019, 12:52 PM
Beet Farmer Beet Farmer is offline
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The flatter saucer type ebony with rounded points are pretty good. I bought three sets of four to make four sets of three. These do not enhance the treble at the expense of the midrange as much as the ebony cones with a small brass pointed tip. The small brass tipped ebony are common on Amazon and EBay. The flatter ebony rounded tip only two sellers on eBay, Ditto the half domes.
There are also hemisphere ebony feet I have on order but have not received yet.
The flatter cones from eBay are called: 4pcs 43mm Ebony Speaker Spike Isolation Stand Feet Speaker Shock Round Head Nail these are about $25 from the lower priced seller. From Hong Kong

The half domes from eBay are called: 4PCS 23mm Ebony Speaker Spike Amplifier Damping Isolation Base Feet Stand Nail (some are $9.98 for 4, some are far higher price. all from Hong Kong)

The exotic wood pen blanks are all on Amazon typed on to 'all' exotic wood pen blanks and surf the large number of items available. all these sellers are from USA
But here is a good one, with various size set, 5, 10, 50! https://www.amazon.com/Variety-Blood...ateway&sr=8-71

I found the heavier wood to be 'more useful'.
For ease of finding out what each type specs: Here is a Wood finder great resource: https://www.wood-database.com/
use the wood finder search.
The heaviest wood from Amazon at a lower price is Cocobolo at 69lb cubic ft
Bloodwood is 66lb/cu. ft
Wenge is 54lb/cu ft
Bubinga is 56 lb/cu ft
Jatoba 57lb/cu ft
Yellowheart 52lb.cu ft
Pao Frerro 54lb/cu ft
To compare: Gabon Ebony is 60lb/cu ft, Macassar 70lb/cu ft

I steered away from ebony pen blanks because I have so many cones etc in ebony anyway.

The pen blanks I have received have two good parallel sides and two rougher sides. I have more on order, but they are all in transit.. or still waiting to be processed.

ADDED: a few more sets came today. I am marking an end with an abbreviated name so I can sort them out. Some are very hard to tell which is which anyway. It really helps that only five types in a package, which are named on the website. So I can match up the names. Hardest was Bloodwood vs Padauk. (I would have assumed the Bloodwood would be more red. nope. Since I had a prior orderwith Padauk, and those four matched the darker red... trusting (hope) the way they were packaged I have them right. Some easier since one weighs a lot more, but some... Yikes. (Even the site I posted mentions how hard it is the identify an unknown wood. And being a newbie... Deciding of two that look very similar... So I am marking them as I get them. Actually no reason for me to know, except to order more, or mention them.

Last edited by Beet Farmer; 08-03-2019 at 06:56 PM.
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  #24  
Old 08-03-2019, 01:15 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Beet Farmer View Post
The flatter saucer type ebony with rounded points are pretty good. I bought three sets of four to make four sets of three. These do not enhance the treble at the expense of the midrange as much as the ebony cones with a small brass pointed tip. The small brass tipped ebony are common on Amazon and EBay. The flatter ebony rounded tip only two sellers on eBay, Ditto the half domes.
There are also hemisphere ebony feet I have on order but have not received yet.
The flatter cones from eBay are called: 4pcs 43mm Ebony Speaker Spike Isolation Stand Feet Speaker Shock Round Head Nail these are about $25 from the lower priced seller. From Hong Kong

The half domes from eBay are called: 4PCS 23mm Ebony Speaker Spike Amplifier Damping Isolation Base Feet Stand Nail (some are $9.98 for 4, some are far higher price. all from Hong Kong)

The exotic wood pen blanks are all on Amazon typed on to 'all' exotic wood pen blanks and surf the large number of items available. all these sellers are from USA
But here is a good one, with various size set, 5, 10, 50! https://www.amazon.com/Variety-Blood...ateway&sr=8-71

I found the heavier wood to be 'more useful'.
For ease of finding out what each type specs: Here is a Wood finder great resource: https://www.wood-database.com/
use the wood finder search.
The heaviest wood from Amazon at a lower price is Cocobolo at 69lb cubic ft
Bloodwood is 66lb/cu. ft
Wenge is 54lb/cu ft
Bubinga is 56 lb/cu ft
Jatoba 57lb/cu ft
Yellowheart 52lb.cu ft
Pao Frerro 54lb/cu ft
To compare: Gabon Ebony is 60lb/cu ft, Macassar 70lb/cu ft

I steered away from ebony pen blanks because I have so many cones etc in ebony anyway.

The pen blanks I have received have two good parallel sides and two rougher sides. I have more on order, but they are all in transit.. or still waiting to be processed.
Great information, many thanks!
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Lumin P1 streamer/DAC/preamp, Constellation Inspiration integrated TT: Michell Gyro SE MkII, SME V, Koetsu Urushi Vermilion, EAR324. Harbeth 30.2s, REL R-305, Shunyata Alpha V2 ICs, Alpha V2 SPs, Sigma XC, Sigma NRv2, Omega QR-s & Alpha NRv2 PCs, segmented Altaira SG stack w/ Alpha & Omega CGCs, Everest 8000 PD. Remote Server Room: Uptone EtherREGEN, AfterDark Master Clock & LPS, Alita, Battle Angel, (Akasa NUC Roon Core), iFi DC Purifiers (for SMPS used for Alita & router), Shunyata Gemini combo power distributor & Altaira-type CG GP-NR hub, Venom & Alpha CGCs, Shunyata NRv14 power cords for digital components.
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  #25  
Old 08-11-2019, 04:08 PM
Luxman38 Luxman38 is offline
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I'm looking at Butcher Block Acoustics 19"x16"x3" Edge Cut for my Luxman PDA-171 TT. Trying to decide between the harder maple or the softer walnut.
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  #26  
Old 08-11-2019, 04:20 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Luxman38 View Post
I'm looking at Butcher Block Acoustics 19"x16"x3" Edge Cut for my Luxman PDA-171 TT. Trying to decide between the harder maple or the softer walnut.
They're both nice; while maple with a Janka hardness number of 1450 is harder than walnut, walnut is still reasonably hard with a Janka Hardness coefficient of 1010, so I think it would work well as a stand for your Luxman TT. My guess is maple would give a somewhat livelier sound and walnut a somewhat mellower tone.
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  #27  
Old 08-11-2019, 06:08 PM
Luxman38 Luxman38 is offline
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I was thinking of ordering the Butcher Block w/the threaded black iso feet. Or should I skip the feet?
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  #28  
Old 08-12-2019, 05:23 PM
Beet Farmer Beet Farmer is offline
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The holes for the feet are always a good idea for future use... even if you are not going to add the feet now.
On Amazon, sadly they do not offer many with options for getting the holes and inserts for the feet. But if you order direct from the company website you can order them with one of several sorts of cones or soft inserts.
All my on floor Butcher Block acoustics blocks I just use old "Tip Toes' cones I had laying around anyway.
For the ones on shelves I mostly used small bits of thin 70 Duro sorbothan under the corners.
For my ones under my turntables I used the free cork/rubber sandwich pads offer free with the boards on Amazon, but cut in half
(since I bought twenty, I have a huge stack of those free pads just laying around.) I like the amp on doubled up butcher blocks, ditto the TTs.

As for the difference in the Walnut vs Maple. There is a difference. it is subtle. I cannot say one is better. They are each better sometimes...

For my Kuzma I have an under Maple with a Walnut on top. For the Rega I have the same size Maple under, with a same size as the other but in Maple.
For all power stuff I used Maple. For all source and preamps I used Walnut.
Also the things for footers... OEM equipment feet, added footers, Ebony, wood pen blanks (3/4 square and 5 inches long, all sorts of woods, Walnut, Cocobolo, Mpingo, Kingwood, Ipo, Katalox..Wenge is my current fav. Still experimenting with those flavors.
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  #29  
Old 08-14-2019, 10:16 AM
Beet Farmer Beet Farmer is offline
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Small but significant enough discovery... I had four bits of 70 duro sorbothane in the corners under the butcher blocks on the main rack (glass shelves) and a few 'extra bits of sorbothane in middle etc.
This Morning I theorized letting the butcher blocks vibrate would be better than dampening the heck out of them...
Well I backed off on the dampening, and taking those extra bits off. Better sound, slightly richer?
So I moved the outer front pair so the front at 1/4 (16" deep, so 4" in at long direction edges) and the rear next to each other at the far back so they carried the same weight, but formed a triangle holding up the butcher block.
Basically letting the butcher block resonate as much as it can.
I would have gone with some less dampening material for the lift, but with the glass shelf under, I wanted at least some minimal cushioning effect.
So not a large effect. but seems to allow a richer sense playing piano music (I just did this, and am a little excited. (MY life, at 70, getting thrilled over little things)
(I am lifting the butcher block with everything on it! using a large flat screwdriver in a wide cardboard sleeve. Slide under the sleeve then just forcing the screwdriver between enough to leverage the edge up to stick a block in to hold up that side. Works great. No having to take everything off!)
(((ADDED: I had tried repeatedly to add a single pen blank to under the fronts of the main preamp and it's power supply biox, but then the treble would be accented a bit, with the mids recessed. Well doing the three point under the butcher blocks on the racks.. I added the pen blanks again for the twentieth time, and Ahhah! now good. One thing I have learned with fiddling with everything. NEVER give up on something, since some other little tweak may help and make the other one work)))

I have to say on the downside listening to not so great recordings (recently) has bummed me out. I am so thrilled with the incredible sense of realism on some recordings.. To then play something lacking this, sound like some boxed performance., clearly sounding like a stereo playing, instead of as if live. Hopefully I can get over it.
Like listening to Yuja Wang (PBS performance) ON THE TV and her performance was so inspired, I was getting goosebumps even though it is just the cheap tiny TV speakers! So I am hoping I get over the feeling of bummer on some not so great media on the stereo... I think it is just the wonder of how goods some sound... I want more of that, more often.. But maybe after I get more used to it ,and become satiated.. I can be happy listening to the average to not so good recordings again..

Added later.. An apology for adding.. I just learn new things, and I do not want to add another post. Thanks
An additional thing I have discovered. The 'pen blanks' do improve the sound some times. Depending. a variety of influences. But I realized tonight.. After finding ones I like, To actually file them so the sides are really FLAT, and parallel, matters! The pen blanks come generally with a square cross section, but they are typically rough cut. Smoothing and making the sides parallel improves the sound (when the initial rough pen blank wood did so.. just even better. One could sand them, but that makes a cloud of dust, and you really do not want to inhale the sort of dust exotic wood has (in general many are allergy producing) I use a old (new ones seem to not be as well made?) Hand file with curved mill cutting surface. Usually used on metal in automotive refinishing. Works well on hte unusually hard exotic woods, and the dust stays settled.
My current top wood is African Blackwood just one!! under front only of preamp and power supply on Walnut butcher blocks. OEM back feet directly on Walnut (What works best TODAY) but under Furman REF20 on top of the Maple butcher block I have to say Burmese Blackwood is really great.
Clearly I am having fun here.

Last edited by Beet Farmer; 08-15-2019 at 10:12 PM.
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  #30  
Old 08-20-2019, 07:42 PM
Luxman38 Luxman38 is offline
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I pulled the trigger today. I ordered from Butcher Block a 19"x16"x3" Edge Cut Maple Isolation platform. Also added a set of 4 black synthetic rubber feet. Just an extra $27 for the feet. They are rated up to 400 lbs. Now just wait for delivery. Exciting. See how it matches w/my Luxman PD171-A TT.

Last edited by Luxman38; 08-20-2019 at 07:48 PM.
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