[Syrah]

Hi All,

I thought I'd share my experiments over the past few days.  My main table (a highly modded Teres) is down, awaiting a new fuse, so I decided to start playing with my VPI Classic.

First, I switched around the feet with what I have lying around.

Foot 1 - Stillpoints (classic) - better than the stock feet, nicer highs but bass lacking.

Foot 2 - Stillpoints Ultras - incredible highs, detail galore, better bass than foot 1, but still a bit shy on the bottom end.  Unacceptably so.

Foot 3 - Mapleshades brass - and there's the bass back.  Much better.  Unfortunately those fantastic highs of Foot 2 are not quite there.  But this was the best.  Shame I can't have the best of both.

Now for shelves I have kicking around.

Shelf 1 - DYI Symposium.  Only OK.

Shelf 2 - DIY 3" thick maple - better than DIY Symposium, but a bit too splashy in the mids and not a very dark quiet background.  Lacking "authority".

Shelf 3 - slab of slate, with 3M spray glued MDF on the bottom.  Great bass and black backgrounds.  But maybe a bit too black and not the springy mids of the maple.

Shelf 4 - the unfortunate winner was not exactly easy to build.  I built this about 10 years ago to match my Teres.  It is three 1" butchers' blocks of bloodwood.  The middle block had several circles drilled out of it, stuffed with lead shot.  It is very hard, dense and heavy.  This has great midrange, deep tight bass, and natural highs.  Black, black, quiet background.  End of shelf search.  This is really great.  The idea of the lead dampened ultrahardwood was taken from the Teres table design.  I imagine one would get similar results from cocobolo, rosewood, etc.  The best part is that this shelf was just lying around my attic, since my Teres sounds better on a granite shelf 3M'ed to MDF.

Now if only I could get those highs of the Stillpoints Ultras back without the bass loss.  Maybe I'll try Aurios next.  Maybe someone needs to build a brass roller block foot?

The Classic I have now is considerably better than the one I started with - to my ears, in my system.  At this rate my Teres might become my second deck.

I'm really surprised that there are not more posts of people playing with this deck.  Enough people seem to have one.

[tonyptony]

Shelf 3 - slab of slate, with 3M spray glued MDF on the bottom.  Great bass and black backgrounds.  But maybe a bit too black and not the springy mids of the maple.

Syrah, did you try flipping this over so the table would rest on the MDF?

[Syrah]

I didn't try that.  One for the next session.  I have a granite/MDF shelf as well, so I could add that to the mix.

[orthobiz]

Great post. Any pics?

Paul

[BobRex]

Wow, good to hear about the bloodwood.  I've been contemplating a similar base - 2 levels of bloodwood separated by Herbie's Fat Dots (or some simialr product.)  Where did you find the butcher's blocks?

[Syrah]

I'll see if I can snap some picks this weekend.  I used bloodwood only because the table I bought from Chris (Teres) was one of his experimental bloodwood tables.  He found the bloodwood good, and a tad warmer sounding than his usual choice cocobolo.  I recall that he also uses rosewood on some tables.  So I suspect that any of those woods might do the job.  I do recall, from his experience, that the hardwoods need that lead shot damping to really sound their best.  I remember that when I knocked on the 1" slab of bloodwood it actually pinged the way metal or stone would.  Maple and oak do not do this to the same extend - they go "thud".  So if you can, I'd recommend using a centre block, making swiss cheese holes in it with a circular saw on a drill press, and stuffing it with lead shot before gluing the three blocks together.  I ended up getting a local cabinet maker to do the holes for me after I almost broke my wrist getting my hand held drill caught while trying to make the holes.  What I did was, (1) glue the middle piece with the holes first, let it dry; (2) filled the holes with lead shot; (3) glued on the top piece; (4) clamped it, which is also something you might want to get a pro to do, since you need lots of clamps and it's actually harder than it looks to not end up with any gaps.  I think some people suggest mixing the lead with epoxy first and then stuffing the holes.

I'm not sure about the rubber idea.  I say that because the Symposium DYI uses constrained layer damping, and it was not the best under the Classic.  Also the stock feet, as you know, are rubber and they were not the best.  To me, it seemed to always sound best with hard contacts rather than squishy ones.  But I suppose that if you don't glue it there's no harm in trying it like that first.  You might even try a sheet of rubber instead, in a sandwich since that might dampen the ringing of the hardwood.

I got the bloowood from an exotic floor specialist in Toronto, I forget the name and I don't live in Toronto anymore.  He had a showroom full of all sorts of exotic woods that I did not know existed, purple heart really stuck in my mind - it's actually naturally purple, really purple.

I'd like to try to change the color of my Classic from walnut to more of a dark cherry, maybe with a tinted finish.  But I'm inclined to try that on a spot in the back first, for fear of really messing it up.  The walnut and the bloodwood are not the best looking together.  The new VPI special edition Classic, now that would look good!

I'm thinking the Aurios might work since the had a solid contact on the vertical plane and only move horizontally.  Fingers crossed for that Stillpoints treble and brass bass.

[TomS]

JTWRace used some of the Terrastone/TerraCone footer products from http://edensoundaudio.com/index.html on his VPI Classic. They make some specific to the VPI, so maybe they're worth a look too. They have a few in their gallery.

[Scottdazzle]

I've gone much simpler than you guys (so far anyway).  My room has a concrete floor, so footfalls are not an issue.  I have the Classic on top of a 3" maple butcher block.  The butcher block sits on generic neoprene/cork feet like Mapleshade offers.  The stand is a Salamander Synergy, but I'm taking a serious look at Kanso stands.  I can't hear any feedback or other problems, but I'm open to suggestions.

[SteveRB]

single butcher block (painted to match speakers) with 8x vibrapods underneath. Stops the foot-falls in my apartment, but not super ideal. I will be watching this thread for ideas.