[chgolatin2]

Shopping around I came across the following link below

http://stores.ebay.com/Dawns-Kitchen-Korner-and-More

18x12x3 $48
20x15x3 $66
24x18x3 $90

The size listed above should cover most components and speakers for sure.  Just need some brass isolation pointers or herbies product and your set!  Ps.  not affiliated with the above just passing info to "audiophiles" on a budget!

[BradJudy]

Don't forget the $20+ shipping. 

[Vapor Audio]

I got two almost 7' long, 1 1/2" thick, 18" wide nicely figured sheets of curly maple off Ebay for $60 shipped.  They came finish planed already, and only needed some finish sanding ... then drilling holes for spikes.  I also put a bevel edge on them with my router.  They look great raw, with just tung oil, or a full stain/poly routine. 

[F-100]

I got two (18x12x3) platforms from them and currently using under my DAC and TVC preamp. They are 3" thick and  very nice platform. 

[rajacat]

I got two almost 7' long, 1 1/2" thick, 18" wide nicely figured sheets of curly maple off Ebay for $60 shipped.  They came finish planed already, and only needed some finish sanding ... then drilling holes for spikes.  I also put a bevel edge on them with my router.  They look great raw, with just tung oil, or a full stain/poly routine. 

Wow, that's a good price. Could you share the link to the seller?

Raj

[Don_S]

Here is my favorite wood finish.  It is easy to apply and looks great.  I use the brush on and wipe off method. It brings out the grain and has a nice satin sheen.  Very durable (used on floors) and does not yellow like tung oil.  I used Osmo on my maple butcherblock shelves and the results are beautiful.  I have used a lot of tung oil in the past, but never again. 

Do a search for better prices.

http://www.environmentalhomecenter.com/shop.mv?CatCode=PRODUCT&ProdCode=OS_HARDWAX_OIL

[gooberdude]

Hey F-100, get some Isoblocks under that pretty TVC mount!!!!
also, try laying a single piece of cardboard OR an empty LP cover or 2 (side-by-side if using 2) under the Isoblocks to take full advantage of a mounting like that...you'll be surprised by what completing the mount does for the sound.    ours are darn near twins w/the lids off and 3" thick boards underneath...


I have not looked into making these boards myself, i'd bet my dad could join them real nice...$80 for the materials to make a 7' x 18" x 3" thick board, or rather  5 - 18" x 15" x 3" thick boards + maple left over for blocks or an Ipod stand is a GREAT deal, assuming the wood sounds good and hasn't been deadened too much by kiln drying.   i just paid about $120 for 1 - 3" thick tiger maple board from timbernation to go under my TVC

and i hate to admit this, but last night i ordered the $230 4" thick air dried board from Mapleshade...kinda nuts, still a little shaky.   Under any component besides my turntable this would be overkill.

i don't want to start a flame war here, but i've had loads of listening the last few years with kiln dried maple boards (timbernation) and more recently with the mapleshade air dried 4"...there's little comparison.  kiln drying does kill sonics, which can be crucial IF you intend to buy boards like these to use with stereo gear.

if you just want boards to have them, or to set under gear for looks sake, the flat grain butcher blocks would be fine.  if you want dope sound & 3-D soundstage out of a board, look for a good deal on air dried boards.   Timbernation has limited supplies of air dried maple now, a very good thing.

we need to raid an ahmish village somewhere & pillage air dried maple...

[beachbum]

hey gooberdude, are you using mapleshade two inch now and are going for the three inch platform for your tt, i am useing the two inch mapleshade platform with triple points and isoblocks under my tt, they do a better job than the aurios bearings i was using, let us know how the three inch works out. also you mentioned cardboard under isoblocks whats the story on that.
BTW hows the scotch pouring. thanks mike

[F-100]

Hey F-100, get some Isoblocks under that pretty TVC mount!!!!

Thanks for the excellent suggestion, Gooberdude!!

[gooberdude]

Hey Mike, beachbum...you're living dangerously w/the triplepoints too?   i can't get over how this stuff works on my budget TT, and the 4" thick mapleshade board i just ordered is gonna be insane.  I've had a 2" timbernation board under my TT for a few years & tried the 2" mapleshade board you have.  When you can, splurge for the 4".  not saying that to be a jerk...  I bought the 2" and sent it back, after owning 1 2" from TN already...there's no bass, or rather, there's so much more bass for more $!    SO much more bass & good things from the thick board.  its a crazy leap of faith no doubt, you are 97% of the way there though!    that extra 2" does some crazy stuff.  use the 2" board under your power supply w/Isoblocks.   if you dig the effect the Ult Triploepoints made, eat at home for a month & buy that silly expensive board.  the 'effect' goes bizerk, plain & simple...too much fun.  You have the engine, chassis, bad-ass wheels & tires...but your gas tank only holds a few liters.  get a bigger tank and race.

definitely no scotch for a while, st. patty's was rough.  

I have 4 maple boards, or will be receiving the 4th this week.

2 - 2" thick timbernation  18" x 15"
1 - 3" thick tiger maple timbernation  12" x 15"
1 - 4" thick maplehsade 18" x 15"

One 2" board simply lays on the carpet, and my amp couples to it via Ultimate Triplepoint footers.
One 2" board (this tweak one is great) under my BPT PPC strip + Isoblocks. amazing improvements
One 3" thick board under the TVC, which is coupled via flat topp'd 2" MS footers + Isoblocks
One 4" thick MS air dried board under the TT, which is coupled via Ultimate Triplepoint footers + Isoblocks.

All 4 components have empty LP covers inbetween the shelf & the Isoblocks.    The 2" board under my amp & power strip are fine...i won't replace those.  Thicker boards improve the sound under the TVC & especially the turntable.

The TT is the ONLY component i'll probably own that'll get this 4" air dried wood.  maybe someday the TVC will too, long way off though.

Over the last 2 months i've also had fun with 2 difft sets of mapleshade's 4" thick speaker stands.  At one point had their Ultra Bedrock stands under the Thiels, 1 - 4" thick floorstanding plinth under my sub and another plinth had the brass footers removed and was under my TT w/isoblocks underneath....it was only 12" x 15" x 4" thick though.    all that bad-ass wood really created a Disney like effect, so much fun.  i've since sold both sets of the stands and replaced it all with the single 18" x 15" board for under my TT.   someones gonna have to pry this board outta my dead hands though!    since i'm moving soon i though it best not to be too concerned with the stands.  

To my ears, with my somewhat limited but 1sthand experience, is that the air dried stuff is gonzo crazy whereas all the other maple i've tried (i also have 2 decent flat grain maple butcher blocks & a bamboo one) is simply dull & uninvolving.  sad to say it.   come on over for a listen sometime...    this might be one of times when i should've left well enough alone, but glad i didn't.      

There is a difference betw the 2" thick boards and the 3", and i don't think what i'm hearing is the diff betw the reg maple & the tiger...but what do i really know?  thicker is better for sure..not sure if you can overdue it.

The real key to this type of mount is understanding all the parts as a whole, and its a freak show of a 'whole' i must say...my TT would never survive an earthquake.  luckily it'll cost $450 to replace.

I've recently found that placing album covers on the shelves of my rack, then setting gear on top, makes the sound really sweet.  soundstage widens, gets all freaky.   i've had a Lovan classic rack a few years & a few free pieces of cardboard made it musical.  a good free tweak, cure for MDF.     for my cdp and 'table i laid 2 albums side-by-side & not touching.  no clue why this works so good, but it does for gear that sits on sub-uptimal surfaces.  others have reported plain ole cardboard does it too.  Of course, if you have a hi-end rack don't bother, but its worked well under every piece of gear i have, except the floor sitting amp.   i was looking for something to put under my phono preamp + PSU, in lieu of a $100 board, and the album covers fit the bill perfectly.

Since i am waxing poetic, thought i might add that i got to tear apart a Mapleshade isoblock...and there is no difference in the actual material between it and a generic one.  the diff is in the thickness of the cork and that there's 2 blocks of a certain size hot-glued together.  If you got the correct thickness of the cork, i see no issue to not make these DIY.  however, in the end you won't save much.   earlier i reported that i thought they were difft, they are not.  i see a lot of variations on that design though, waffle neoprene and difft thickness of the cork.  match mapleshade's, cut 'em to size, glue 'em together and get some LP covers underneath.   

no affiliation with mapleshade or maple in general, just a fan.

matt

[rajacat]

Hey Gooberdude,

I think I know where Mapleshade gets their isoblocks. http://www.soundproofing.org/images/vibrationpads.htm

This is a very interesting site. Lotsa different sound control materials. Ol' Pierre is making a nice profit off of those pads! You can get these for $1.50 each.

Raj

[Tweaker]

I have never tried anything that did more damage to the sound of my system than Mapleshade isoblocks, which was a real surprise to me as I really had such amazing results with their brass conepoints and heavyhats. I kept trying over about a 2-week period but everytime I placed them under my maple platforms the bass instantly become anemic and lifeless. What did work extremely well were the small Michell Tenderfeet. Probably a system dependant thing and I never tried them under a vinyl rig. I've no doubt for some people they do work as advertised. Always worth a try though with their generous return policy.

[gooberdude]

Being that this stuff is fringe to this hobby, its gotta be hit or miss, ya know?

Hey Raj, I have 50 of those $1.50 pucks from Soundproofing.org, used them to suspend 3500lbs of drywall so my nieghbors aren't disturbed by my lifestyle, i mean hobby.   they are NOT the same.  the guys at that site are great though, together we invented a whole new way to build a floating/isolating/mass barrier party wall...the ultimate condo barrier.   
the cork layer is 1" thick on those pucks, compared to just over 1/2" thick on the Isoblocks. the overall thickness of 1 puck of theirs is 1.5".  2 Isoblcoks glued together is exactly 2"...just FYI.

Again, the generic pucks are easy to get, you just gotta get the same formula Pierre uses...no doubt he's listened to every config of these things to come up with one that's musical.  the glue and Neoprene are the same though....  look on ebay for these, you'll see 5 difft variations.


Never ever heard of someone losing bass while trying out isoblocks, that's wild, they work 100% the opposite for me, but doesn't surprise me one bit.  Try it again with an album cover under the blocks!     My biggest gripe is that as a suspension, they aren't that great.  they are, to me, quite musical though...and that's what's getting me in a bunch lately.   Most MS products are for sound only, not performance in a typical way (like isolating similar to a spring suspension on a tonearm)...Isoblocks aren't great Isolators, but for what they do they sound great as isolators.  i've tried a lot of isolating products that sounded terrible.   hard to explain, easy to show in person.   funny though, read their catalog with this in mind & it makes much more sense with a demo...   Living in a place with concrete floors I haven't been bothered by bouncy floors.  soon i'm moving though, gonna be a whole new ball of wax i think.

overall i say make your own Isoblocks, just do it exactly like the ones Pierre sells.   By my account using pucks you can get at Ace hardware, DIY still cost $14 and i have to buy a knife to cut the blocks perfectly....my razor knife wouldn't do.   so, add in $10 for a new knife with deep blade & i might as well buy the blocks from MS.   

OK, back to air dried vs. kiln dried!!!

[beachbum]

alright gooberdude, thanks for the super response will be looking forward to your results with the four inch mapleshade platform,
for now the two inch platform is working fine for me, great bass, and a super quite analog rig, i have added a pic, the regular VIP feet are on the table because it looks better, they are not touching the platform. there was a set of ultimate triple points on audiogon not long ago but like all mapleshade products they were gone fast. thats my next addition, love them mapleshade isolation products, have a good one and this weekend it will be scotch thirty,

[F-100]

Man, Gooberdude!!! I hope MapleShade's product are really good stuff as you had pointed out and not snake oil because after checking out their price, I almost had a heart attack. 

[TjMV3]

I have never tried anything that did more damage to the sound of my system than Mapleshade isoblocks, which was a real surprise to me as I really had such amazing results with their brass conepoints and heavyhats. I kept trying over about a 2-week period but everytime I placed them under my maple platforms the bass instantly become anemic and lifeless. What did work extremely well were the small  Probably a system dependant thing and I never tried them under a vinyl rig. I've no doubt for some people they do work as advertised. Always worth a try though with their generous return policy.

Wow,  that's so weird.  I use the isoblocks under my components (not under my bamboo blocks) and I've never experienced anything like that.  In fact,  all they really do for my system is they eliminate vibrational noise (from the components) and the music comes out smoother,  sweeter and more refined.   I use raw neoprene under my bamboo cutting blocks.  Exactly the same as the stuff they use to make mousepads. 

But as opposed to buying a boatload of mouse pads,  I buy the neoprene by big sheets and cut it to size.   The only difference I have noticed in the bass region,  is that the bass becomes a bit more well defined with the elimination of the vibration and noise.   It's the same amount of bass,  just a bit tighter......more defined and tuneful.

I can't imagine how one could lose bass. 

I mean,  good bass is usually dictated more by room acoustics,  speakers,   speaker location,   component design and ultimately.......the production/mix of the source recording;  than anything else.

Very strange.

[gooberdude]

The price of brass has risen sky high in recent years....buying Mapleshade products is like investing in the Gold market!

seriously, i buy MS products 1 at a time, never spending more than $150 or so with any order (hopefully).  Buying the footers 1st & getting a hold on what they can do for certain equipment is key.  Completing these mounts with the suspended tonewood boards is the icing on the cake.   Can't get the boards to sound right w/o them footers though, and in most cases only the pointed Ult Triplepoints should be used.

I think its cool their prices have risen, i can sell all the brass pieces i bought from them originally for as much or more than i paid when new.

Wow Beachbum Mike, you 'table is awesome...don't change a thing.   except, maybe try a piece of cardboard under the SDS.   the vibes from it might be migrating into the shelf and into the Isoblocks & the table.   my set-up pales in comparison!     no less wild looking though.  Is that a Unipivot arm??

Another AC member has a Super Scoutmaster and had Timbernation make up a double decker mount using this Isoblocks & maple,  plus a separate double decker mount for the motor assembly.  He came up with the idea after chasing vibrations with a stethoscope.   its easy to get crazy with this stuff, but i've found that keeping it all real simple results in the best sound.

to date i haven't tried anything from MS that's flat out snake oil.  weird yes, but typically effective and worth the $ spent.   their 30 day trial should put the snake oil rumors to rest for those who are daring enough to walk on the wild side.  

If i wasn't into turntables, their stuff would never have interested me.  Pierre seems to have a soft side for guys with budget rigid belt drive tables though, and a mount like this is why i still have the Expression (no desire to upgrade).


have a good weekend ya'll...

[TjMV3]

The only thing I buy from MS is their isoblocks and music cds.  I really like a lot of their music. 

[gooberdude]

Glad you chimed in about the isoblocks!    as far as i know, they do no harm whatsoever....they are the cheese that makes this recipe taste oh so good.

I am of the camp now though that they don't isolate all that well....but for the isolation they do provide, the effect sounds amazing.   In direct comparison to inner tubes, Vibrapods, neoprene or any other household stuff i've tried, Isoblocks blow them away for the sound...not for isolation.

Just read Mapleshade's catalog description of isoblocks...nowhere do they mention that these isolate better 'than all the famous mounts'.   they just state that isoblocks 'sound' better.  to that end i'd agree, though i've never used a famous mount!

[TjMV3]

Well,  I don't know if they are better or worse than any other forms of isolation.  But I do know they have greatly reduced the vibration noise I was previously getting with my gear. 

There is the likelyhood that it is the combination of bamboo cutting blocks,  1/2 " neoprene sheets under the bamboo (between block and shelf),  and then the isoblocks under each source and component that greatly reduces the vibrations and resulting noise. 

I also believe the isoblocks allow for better air circulation and better disapation of heat.  So maybe that's a factor,  also.

Either way,  my solutions as a collective are much less expensive than some of the other solutions available,  that many in this hobby use.   And I am getting the results and sound I want from my system.  So it's a win-win situation for me.