Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

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Home made glass platrorm.....

Posted by moray james (M) on August 25, 2006 at 22:45:43

In Reply to: Best and worst audio shelf material... posted by recroom on August 24, 2006 at 17:58:37:

everybody seems to know that glass is the wrong material to use for audio shelves right? Well in audio as in most other areas where mechanical vibrations are a concern loss is one of the major concerns that you want to take advantage of if you want to make things work. Since glass is hard it transmits energy well (and over a wide band) but if you recall it is also a liquid and these to characteristics can be taken advantage of. Glass like some other materials (MDF for example) has a surface skin. If you take a piece of standard 1/8 inch window pane glass lets say the size of your component and 6 thumb tacks you can construct a very effective audio platform. Here is what you do. You will probably need to remove the stock feet from the bottom of your component to do this experiment. Now you want to place three thumb tacks with the points facing up into the air on your audio shelf (lets say we choose the two front corners and the middle at the back). Now you sit the glass pane on top of the three points. Next you want to use three small balls of say blue tack or the like (gum or what ever) so you can easily stand the last three tacks (point to point) on the top of the glass. Now you have the three tack points supporting the glass (on the under side of the glass pane) and the other three tack points directly over and above the first set of tacks beneath the glass (having the tacks exactly point to point is important). Now carefully rest your component on to the upper three tacks. Done, now you can listen and enjoy. This system uses the tacks as a stable dual tripod acting as energy sinks to each other via the glass plate. The glass plate has excellent stiffness and the ability to transmit energy in the horizontal plane (where your component is least sensitive) but it vibrates easily (because it is thin and a liquid) in the vertical plane (so there is much loss there) the vibration is converted into heat inside of the glass because of the vibrational motion and resulting friction. This little platform will cost only a few dollars to make and even less if you happen to have a piece of glass about the house not in use. I am sure that any of you that try this experiment out will be very surprised by how effectively this form energy sink works. Now you can tell your friends that you have an audiophile glass sink and watch the expression on thier faces just for fun. Perhaps this will encourage some of you to experiment with this technique. You might be wondering if a double layer shelf would be more effective and the answer is yes. Please be careful. Next week I will tell you all how you can cut ordinary window pane glass with nothing more than a pair of paper siscors (it's true). Hope that you have fun. Regards Moray James.
moray james

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