To stack or not to stack?

Someone in the know recently told me that it is mainly the vibration of the top cover that makes a unit unsuitable as a ground for a CD-player, DVD player, etc. And suggested using an MDF board between the stacked components. And possibly simple isolation devices under the feet.

 

ok ok calm it down.....what about my bricks and plywood rack idea, someone let me know if its a crap idea and why, apart from the fact that Changing Rooms would not be impressed.
HM

 

Too right. You'd need to use bricks and MDF to impress those guys.

 

I guess the problem of your bricks and plywood idea may be one of stability? Bricks are heavy, but they won't necessarily sit neatly on top of each other. Having said that, in my final undergraduate year I had my little Mission speakers sitting on top of piles of breeze blocks. They were just lying around the garden and I needed something to get the speakers up to a sensible height...

As for changing rooms, if they came up with it they'd probably think it was amazing, although if it was there to start with I'm sure they'd hate it . Actaully, those home improvements shows really do do wonders for peoples HiFi's; how often does a HiFi disapear during the make-over, or reapear but without any speakers!

 

True! infact how often do those shows remove everything of use from your room leaving you with alot of MDF firewood.

Well i guess if i can make it stable there may not be a problem, as far as speaker stands go, I was considering putting up a couple of home made shelves on the wall, as long as I keep vibration to a minimum and ensure plenty of space behind the speaker is there any real problem with this cheapo option?
HM

 

Unless you really want the bricks for the aesthetic you might find an MFI/Ikea multishelf unit a better bet though...

Well... IMHO you'd be better off getting some speaker stands if you could afford it. Speaker positioning can have a signficant affect on sound and if you put up a pair of shelves you won't be able to experiment with this. The standard starting point is to recommend a pair of Atacama SE24s, like these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3065643691&category=295

or at least these are certainly Atacama SE stands, you'd have to check quite what height they are.

HTHs,

Martin

 

True...guess maybe I should fork out the extra few quid and put it somewhere respectable(ish).
Cheers for the inetrior design tips, you budding Laurence Llewelyn Bowens you.
HM

 

Of course, if you really do have to stack your kit, I recommend doorstops with superballs. They do isolate rather well. Here's an inverted example (between two stacked bass speakers): doorstop/superball isolation device

 

Well i'll be......out with the toy box!

 

If you get one of this then you only have to consider where to put it. No more stacking worries.



Sorry Bluemax. I am not much of a help.

 

Too much rain to go out anywhere so today I had a go at stacking the tuner on top of the CDP.

Cut out an MDF board, the same size as the foot print of the tuner, and lined the entire bottom surface with sound deadening pad, I had left over. This went on top of the CDP.

Removed feet from the tuner, cut discs from Blutack and stuck them back. No screws.
Sliced couple of squash balls and lined the edges with a bead of Blutack and stuck them to the bottom of the feet. Then placed placing the unit on top of the MDF board.

Tried the units with the other one switched on as well as off. Did not notice any change in sound quality. Could have added a layer of copper sheet to the MDF board but not going to bother because no interference was noticed.

BTW. There is a school of thought at TNT Audio who believe that damping the CDP with something heavy on top will improve the sound quality.

The DVD? That is staying under the TV. Hope to make a long co-ax from low loss satellite cable and co-ax connectors from Maplin to connect the sound to the DAC.
Thought it is better to do this rather than get a 10-meter long SCART cable.

 

temp is a key variable in all electronics. temp coefficient of copper is positive. in other words, its resistance increases with temperature. one of the most critical specs in a semiconductor is junction temp. the design engineer will optimise his design for a specific range of ambient temperature. the local temp around a large amp will be higher than the room (ambient) temp. my guess would be that the electonics would be optimised to take this into account.

this local temp would of course be the same as the ambient until the amps have warmed up

in terms of stacking, there would be temp, fri and emi interaction. linn must have taken this into account. don't see them suggesting stacking an lp12 on top though