I think there is still a host of experimentation to be done with tonewood, but my 1st hand experiences have been enlightening & i like to share...
1) Try and set your gear on top of suspended Maple. Other tonewoods can be substituted too, i'm a mapleshade dude though. Coupling gear with proper footers is key too...more on that later since we are really discussing Isolation.
2) Setting Isoblocks, or any other isolation material, directly under a chassis will simply isolate that chassis. Any & all internal vibes will be stuck inside the chassis, which is the exact opposite of what i think is correct...exceptions to this rule exist though (YMMV sort of thing
) like with CD players. Pure isolation has worked on CDP's for me.
3) My Amp sits on top of a set of Ultimate Triplepoint footers, which sit on top of a 2" thick 15" x 18" timbernation maple platform, which sits right on the carpet. For this arrangement, my carpet (and padding) is the isoblocks. The other chassis mounts all involve Isoblocks and empty LP covers.
4) Mapleshade's expensive 4" thick platform is damn near a musical instrument on its own. The bass is insane. I've owned their 2" finished platform and it did 70% of what the 4" does...i don't recomend their 2", go with Timbernation (perferrably air dried) if you can only swing $100 or so. You won't get the seductive 3-D craziness of MS maple, but you will get prodigious bass. I have 4 tonewood platforms, 3 are Timbernation + the 4" Mapleshade rocketship which supports my TT and Imod.
5) I wish these could be puchased locally, for sure. Air dried is real hard to come by, however south of here is an Ahmish area & it seems like those communities have the patience/resources for air dried wood. There is no doubt in my mind that Kiln drying kills these boards. 3 of my boards are Kiln dried. the type of Maple is important too, drying techniques aside. Just ask any drum or guitar maker.
I see so many cool DIY TT decks made from multiple layers of Baltic or Russian Birch. i've often wondered what a 6" or 8" slab of nicely glued layers would do in use as described above.
Whitese, i'd lay the Granite slab on the floor & find some butcher blocks around the house in the meantime just to play with - those would go right under your gear. If you want to get crazy, a set of Isoblocks under the boards & above the granite would be good...but try the empty LP cover trick under the Isoblocks...and also inbetween the granite and the boards. IMO granite can be toxic to fine electronics but don't get me wrong, i like mass. Your system looks very cool, those PA Audio co-axs are killer i bet. Kinda funny to look at the back of those and compare to my hawthorne SI's. the PA's look real serious
we could always start a new thread in another circle to invite folk other than me to school you all! i don't know much about this stuff, but do know i wouldn't be as gung ho about this hobby without them. Nick Chua knows a thing or 2 about this also....
The jist of this type of mount is simple, but its weird as all get out: The coupling footers, like Ultimate Triplepoints, suck internal vibrations out of chassis and jettison them into the suspended tonewood boards extremely efficiently. These vibrations dissipate inside the boards because the boards are isolated & due to properties of the tonewood. In effect, the boards vibrate right along with my gear and somehow this brings out inner detail, bass, imaging, clarity & an unmistakable sweetness that is simply not there when i lay the gear directly on the shelf with the factory feet (as the mfgr intended). There is one review that i've read where they label the type of distortion that these mounts remove - or maybe they guess at what it might be...no idea when or where to find that though. i'm not even sure Pierre Sprey would say it, since he hasn't to date.
Now, to do this right costs anywhere from $250 - $400 per component. Add in the required interconnects & powercords...and this hobby gets quite expensive in a hurry. I tried the DIY route for almost 2 years, but spent a lot of time & $ on rollerballs, neoprene & other crap that never gave me the performance i knew was possible. so, i caved in...so did my wallet! on 1 level these tweaks can help mid-fi gear sound pretty good. What i wasn't expecting is that is allows nice gear to sound great. all gear i've come across can benefit.
If anyone has a power strip that has spikes on it, i recomend trying a mount on that gear initially...its a wild, wild ride. My BPT PPC strip came with tiny spikes attached, a $25 upgrade, and this enables the whole scheme to work. In this spot, Mapelshade's 2" board might be the ticket and it comes with Isoblocks for $125. Second would be your amp or source...
I've purchased 2 unfinished Timbernation 15" x 18" boards for about $90 each..finishing was fun. My TVC sits on a TN 3" thick 12" x 15" tiger maple finished board, cost about $120. My TT and Imod sit on the MS rocketship. Including Isoblocks that'll set you back $250
Timbernations air dried maple boards are about 10% more than the regular maple, but his supplies are limited. i do recomend air dried though, there's something to it for this particular application. Chris @ Timbernation is a great guy and guarantees his boards won't warp. MS does not.
Being a vinyl junkie with a new, light & rigid TT led me right into that expensive board...but i'll probably get buried with it in 50 years...or they can make my coffin's lid out of it. My friends can beat on the lid with drumsticks as they pay their last respects.
the only issue with some butcher block is that its end grain, not flat grain. end grain is too hard if you intend to drain the vibrations. For simple isolation though, it should be fine.
