Sorbothane is magic. Over the weekend I disassembled my self-made IKEA rack construction, for three reasons.
Reason 1: The little adhesive silicone feet I used to isolate the top deck with turned out not to be as adhesive as expected, the whole thing drifted like a glacier on the shelf-back I had mounted on the bottom deck due to vibration.
Reason 2: It therefore looked incredibly ugly.
Reason 3: I did not like the way it made the rig sound.
So what to do, I have two rather big boards and round about 20kg of equipment. At first I got rid of that horribly ugly shelf-backing.
Idea, I still have a bunch of those fat sorbothane feet I use to isolate my source and Cosmic with. So I took three of those (had to steal from the Cosmic) and put them in between the boards. One in front, two in the back. Perfect look, as if the top deck was levitating.
Soundcheck. Peter Gabriel - So, SACD. Incredibly strong bass. Incredibly shrill highs, out of control. Incredible lack of soundstage.
Bad. Very, very bad. Sound was better when the rig sat on the plain carpet.
Remebered about endless damping product site readings, put in two more sorbothane feet today thinking that three of them might not be enough to compensate for the weight.
Soundcheck. Peter Gabriel - So, SACD. Magic done. Bass still strong but more pronounced now. Highs still a tad shrill at insane levels, but great at normal volume. Remembered that "So" might be a bit on the high side anyway. More testing with other material made me confident about this idea. And, finally, soundstage has returned to my speaker setup, and very much so. The whole thing returned to sounding more contoured and controlled now.
Looks are still neat (if it wasn't for the ugly black MD-Deck I put up again in the vague hope of needing its DAC for my yet to come AirPort Express setup)
Now I just have one problem. I am running out of sorbothane. I want to put the remaining three feet from under my source in between the shelves, hoping for even smoother highs and possibly wider soundstage. Then I just lack something to put under my source, and I am not going to put the original feet back on. Basically I need six feet, three for my DVD-2900 and three for my Cosmic. So much for cutting back on putting money in the rig.
What are your ideas about sorbothane?
Edit:
I took some shots of the rig, you can see them here (password is headfi)
http://service.gmx.net/mc/8rVPmLEq53...utwnm7gFWZ9XAt
There is also a slideshow.
They do not really look as ******, it's the &%$!ยง GMX interface.
Reason 1: The little adhesive silicone feet I used to isolate the top deck with turned out not to be as adhesive as expected, the whole thing drifted like a glacier on the shelf-back I had mounted on the bottom deck due to vibration.
Reason 2: It therefore looked incredibly ugly.
Reason 3: I did not like the way it made the rig sound.
So what to do, I have two rather big boards and round about 20kg of equipment. At first I got rid of that horribly ugly shelf-backing.
Idea, I still have a bunch of those fat sorbothane feet I use to isolate my source and Cosmic with. So I took three of those (had to steal from the Cosmic) and put them in between the boards. One in front, two in the back. Perfect look, as if the top deck was levitating.
Soundcheck. Peter Gabriel - So, SACD. Incredibly strong bass. Incredibly shrill highs, out of control. Incredible lack of soundstage.
Bad. Very, very bad. Sound was better when the rig sat on the plain carpet.
Remebered about endless damping product site readings, put in two more sorbothane feet today thinking that three of them might not be enough to compensate for the weight.
Soundcheck. Peter Gabriel - So, SACD. Magic done. Bass still strong but more pronounced now. Highs still a tad shrill at insane levels, but great at normal volume. Remembered that "So" might be a bit on the high side anyway. More testing with other material made me confident about this idea. And, finally, soundstage has returned to my speaker setup, and very much so. The whole thing returned to sounding more contoured and controlled now.
Looks are still neat (if it wasn't for the ugly black MD-Deck I put up again in the vague hope of needing its DAC for my yet to come AirPort Express setup)
Now I just have one problem. I am running out of sorbothane. I want to put the remaining three feet from under my source in between the shelves, hoping for even smoother highs and possibly wider soundstage. Then I just lack something to put under my source, and I am not going to put the original feet back on. Basically I need six feet, three for my DVD-2900 and three for my Cosmic. So much for cutting back on putting money in the rig.
What are your ideas about sorbothane?
Edit:
I took some shots of the rig, you can see them here (password is headfi)
http://service.gmx.net/mc/8rVPmLEq53...utwnm7gFWZ9XAt
There is also a slideshow.
They do not really look as ******, it's the &%$!ยง GMX interface.
