OT: Glass shelves in stereo stands - opinions?
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New member Username: BetamaxCanada Post Number: 10 Registered: May-07 | I know the topic doesn't quite fit, but I'm thinking primarily of CD player stability on a glass-shelved stereo stand. Though of course power might also be affected. I'm looking for a new stand and notice that many of the nicer stands these days have glass shelves rather than wood. Are there any concerns about vibration with glass shelves? Thanks! |
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Gold Member Username: NuckPost Number: 7415 Registered: Dec-04 | No glass. Use Packed Dung rather than glass. |
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Gold Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 4818 Registered: Feb-05 | It depends on the stands and the equipment going on them. Some very good stands use glass shelves. Most cheap budget shelves use thin glass that's not tempered...bad idea. But to just say no glass misses the boat. http://www.naim-audio.com/products/fraim.html Just one exeample of a very good shelf system that uses glass shelves. |
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Bronze Member Username: BetamaxCanada Post Number: 11 Registered: May-07 | Packed dung - that was my second choice. LOL. Art, nice unit from Naim, but I'll take both your and Nuck's advice and avoid anything less than that. |
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Gold Member Username: My_rantzAustralia Post Number: 1368 Registered: Nov-05 | I have a six shelf glass and alloy stand. The glass shelves are of a thick tempered variety and the uprights are alloy which are screwed together with rubber washer damping to the glass. This stand, with adjustable feet, is very heavy and rigid with absolutely no determinable ringing or vibration. I wouldn't dismiss glass shelving if the design is right. Works great for me. |
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Silver Member Username: NmytreePost Number: 114 Registered: Aug-04 | Personally, I don't like glass at all for shelving. That's just my own personal opinion and preference. Several years ago I had a friend build me a component rack, to my specifications and design; using yellow pine. The width, height and depth of each shelf was designed to give each component plenty of breathing room on all four sides. Yellow Pine is a softer wood, yet ridged. I believe the softer grains makes for better shock-absorbtion. I still have this cabinet and it does the job I intended it to do. I use a layer (sheets) of neoprene a half inch think and cut to the size of my shelves, over each shelf. Then, I use a 1 and 3/4 inches bamboo cutting block/butcher block on top of the neoprene and under each component. Then to further illustrate my insanity (LOL! ) I use Mapleshade Isoblocks under each component, with the Isoblocks resting on the Bamboo. But in my other systems, I now go with bamboo racks and shelving. Bamboo is an acoustically inert material and while being extremely strong; it also is very good at absorbing and riding with vibrations in a smooth manner. So there you have it, a clear testament that I have lost my friggin' mind in this hobby...LOL! ; ) |
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Gold Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 4836 Registered: Feb-05 | As have we all  ! |
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Platinum Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 10486 Registered: May-04 | . "Bamboo is an acoustically inert material ... " I hope the guy playing the bamboo flute doesn't learn about this. Sorry, what does "acoustically inert" mean? I've talked to people who I thought had acoustically inert heads, but that's a different subject. . |
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Silver Member Username: Mike3Wiley, Tx USA Post Number: 399 Registered: May-06 | NMyTree, Thanks buddy. You did it to me. Cause of this one simple post I have now heard Johnny Cash's "My Name Is Samuel" among a bunch of other recordings unlike I have never heard before. Why, because I read your post and it occurred to me that I had 3 unoccupied MDF shelves on a not inexpensive audiophile stand and had components sitting on a glass tempered stand. So what happened is that I moved my Rogue Audio Pre-Amp and Saturn CD player from glass tempered Z-Link to MDF audiophile shelves. Unfortunately that is not the whole story. And no I do not need all of my friends here piling on when I lay this out. Because I became more dependent on one stand over the other I was able to move the audiophile stand out of the corner and slide back the Z-Link stand away from between the wall and my right speaker. Ok, improvement, change of set-up whatever, I get it. Secondly, this is primarily predicated on your post so I now have my Saturn and Rogue sitting on shelves (Art you are to blame here too) on a stand where I have screw in pegs on the shelve stand which I can adjust to balance the stand, and screw in pegs on each shelve which I can balance per shelve, and the Black Diamond Puck / Cones under both sources, also with screws which I can adjust to balance each component. Enough already, not exactly. Again, no getting on my case about this as I know how wrong it is to do all this at once. Well, my Red Storm Power Cord no longer reached from my Panamax to my Saturn. So I swapped it out with my Van Devers which was connected into the little, relatively speaking, black box which has two connectors, one 7 Pin one 3 Pin, that lead into the Rogue. Now the Element Cable Red Storm Power Cord supports my Rogue and my Van Dever's Power Cord supports my Saturn. Improvements are to the point where I hope nobody ever dares come up to the media room and suggests I turn something down or off. Okay, I can hope can't I? Truly the sound for everything I can throw on the Saturn is off the charts. Everything is that much better. Art, coming back to you on this, I get it!. Now for the critics, I think I can sort through the improvements which add up to profound clarity. But to be sure it has been suggested I get another Van Dever's Power Cord to run into the Rogue and have a square of tempered glass cut to fit my audiophile stand. Isn't this hobby the best?!!! |
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Silver Member Username: Mike3Wiley, Tx USA Post Number: 402 Registered: May-06 | Step 1.Play the Linn. Ahem, the thing I would have given the least contribution to, moving the Turntable from the corner and the TV glass tempered stand away from between the right speaker and wall, well, lets just say, shucks I should have known better. The vocals carry the width of the room. On B.B. King's Live at Cook County Jail, the over emphasis of the vocals, which were not apparent, are now. Other flaws of the "live" recording have surfaced which up to this point I had not noticed. The other track I played was Kill Bill Vol. 1 - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood by Santa Esmerelda, which up until now has been a reference track for me on the Linn, just displayed an overall fresh breadth of performance, every note appears more exact, succinct. Bang Bang, Nancy Sinatra was even more specific in where she stood and the guitarist played. If you have heard this track you will appreciate my point about being more specific in placement. How? Good question. One I can only defer to the experts. Just maybe it is moving the Linn from the corner that exacted this improvement as the other two changes on the CD Player, would not appear here and the power cord was if anything a downgrade on the Rogue. I will still need to validate the improvements on the Saturn apart from this. |
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Bronze Member Username: BetamaxCanada Post Number: 12 Registered: May-07 | NMyTree, your idea of a custom stand is an alternative I hadn't considered. I've looked at a lot of stands and don't see what I want, so maybe I'll just buy the wood, build it and stain it myself. That might be the way to go... |
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Platinum Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 10490 Registered: May-04 | . https://www.ecoustics.com/electronics/forum/accessories/55.html |
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Silver Member Username: NmytreePost Number: 116 Registered: Aug-04 | Jan Vigne, I suppose that 'Acoustically Inert" was a bad choice of words. Obviously they do make and play bamboo flutes. What I meant was, Bamboo is a very good diffuser of sound waves. It diffuses them smoothly, rather than creating any sharp or nasty reflections. Frank S., Those years back I had researched till my head was spinning and I couldn't find a component rack that had the generous internal Width, Depth and shelf-spacing Height that satisfied my preferences. Furthermore, it became quite apparent that the price of a good component rack which had decent internal space (but not even close to what I prefer), was extremely high. Now, the internal spacing in my component rack is as follows: 25 3/8 " W X 11 1/4" H X 20" D Each shelf is one inch thick and the sides are 3/4 " thick. This amount of space serves two very important purposes. 1) It provides a great amount of airflow and plenty of room for the heat to dissipate. Even moreso with the Mapleshade Isoblocks as supports. 2) The extra space allows for the upgrading or changing out of just about any component; without concerning myself with the racks available space. Just about anything fits in there, with the exception of some of the larger amps. But I don't put the power amp in there, anyway. The power amp sits on a dedicated amp stand, on the floor. It cost me $750.00 to have it built for me, to my specifications, and delivered to my door. If I had a licks-worth of skill with wood, I would have built it myself. But I don't. I'm a spazz with wood. Michael Wodek, I'm glad to see the changes you made had such a pleasant and satisfactory improvement! And yeah, this hobby is something else! : ) |
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Platinum Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 10491 Registered: May-04 | . "What I meant was, Bamboo is a very good diffuser of sound waves. It diffuses them smoothly, rather than creating any sharp or nasty reflections." I'm not trying to be picky but on the face of it that still makes no sense. " ... I now go with bamboo racks and shelving." If the desired effect is diffusion, the material is not as important as the shape. Soft draperies hung with pronounced fullness will act as a diffusion screen and be more effective due to the larger surface area presented to the soundwave. If the shape is what is important, any material shaped like bamboo would do just as well and many will do so more effectively. However, I don't understand what sort of bamboo racks and shelving you have, so maybe I'm misunderstanding your purpose here. Are you implying that the shape of the bamboo is the effective agent in diffusion techniques? Or, do you intend to say the bamboo material is responsible for the diffusion? "Bamboo is an acoustically inert material and while being extremely strong; it also is very good at absorbing and riding with vibrations in a smooth manner." Bamboo is good for absorption and/or diffusion? Not necessarily contradictory functions but confusing as it is written. And I really have no idea still what "riding with vibrations in a smooth manner" suggests. I'm not trying to discount your concepts but I am interested in how you came to these conclusions and what they really mean. If this is just too insignificant, don't bother answering but I'm curious about what you've done, why and where you did your research to come to these conclusions. . |
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Silver Member Username: NmytreePost Number: 117 Registered: Aug-04 | Jan Vigne, I think you missed the last senetence of my first post, where I said.... " So there you have it, a clear testament that I have lost my friggin' mind in this hobby...." : ) If you're looking for me to provide some scientific evidence to support my comments about Bamboo, then you'll have a long wait. All I know is this. Rooms with bamboo window blindes, bamboo bookshelves, bamboo furniture/racks; sound much better to my ears. Everything sounds smoother. No nasty reflections audible to my ears. All my rooms have large, thick, plush curtains over the bamboo blinds. Again, there's no scientific evidence or maybe even rational explanation....for it. Just what my ears hear. Yes, I have lost my mind...lol! |
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Gold Member Username: NuckPost Number: 7433 Registered: Dec-04 | Balloon valances over bamboo blinds...nice. OK, now I've lost my ferkin mind. |
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Gold Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 4850 Registered: Feb-05 | Michael, I had a good laugh after work today reading your posts. We really are nuts aren't we...lol!!! |
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