|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
208.123.32.107
Had this on "Tweaks/DIY".
I have used Mapleshade ISO Blocks for years under my transport and DAC to good effect.
Recently I was considering buying some more iso blocks for a second system, but decided to look for cheaper alternatives. After all, they are just cork and rubber blocks like those used by HVAC technicians to install under furnaces.
I found a place on the net that sells the exact same thing Mapleshade sells for a fraction of the price. When I say fraction, think miniscule.
Understand that the anti vibration pads sold by HVAC retailers are not tuned by ear in the manner that Mapleshade describes in the linked page, so you will have to do that yourself (tounge in cheek). The Mapleshade description is pure, well I don't know what. It's pure something.
Buy for .29 and sell for $6. Now that's a nice profit margin!
Hmmmmm, Not bad Pierre. PT Barnum is smiling. I'm laughing at myself for paying what I did 10 years ago.
Now I have to figure out which iso block orientation sounds best under my furnace. If anyone has any suggestions about how to tune your furnace by ear for the best possible sound, I would love to hear them.
Meat; It's the right thing to do. Romans 14:2
Follow Ups:
Ideal for air conditioners, compressors, cooling towers, presses ...
I'll pass the tip onto my pal with the 12 tonne Lirpa Labs Turntable. :)
But he'll probably go for the expensive ones anyway ... Ttthhhh ... Audiophiles!
Apologies...You try and send along a cheap tweak to try and you get crucified!! You should have bought a 100 of them and re-sold them for $50 each and you'd be a hero! I gave you kudos on the tweakers site. I bought 12 of them and I'm happy with them....'nough said.
nt
Happy listening,
Jim
"The passage of my life is measured out in shirts."
- Brian Eno
No worries.
It's just one guy - I got this.
Meat; It's the right thing to do. Romans 14:2
I'm thinking of putting these under my houses foundation. Going for the "whole house iso" solution. How many do you think I will need? Place is about 2,500 sq. ft. Might even help if an earthquake hits here in Cali.
.
If they (cork and rubber iso pads) in your opinion are so useless; Why did you ask for the link?
I presume that you must have nothing better to do on a Friday afternoon than to peruse the net for "useless" items. Hmmmmm.
Meat; It's the right thing to do. Romans 14:2
.
Try real hard to not be a tool and read the complete thread. You will see that I DID provide a link......Your welcome.
Meat; It's the right thing to do. Romans 14:2
Edits: 02/12/16
.
I can't help it if you refused to read the complete thread before you made a ass of yourself with your rude response.
The only reason I didn't link the supplier in the original post is because I was unable to link more than one URL from my phone.
Again; Your welcome.
Meat; It's the right thing to do. Romans 14:2
Not only do these make great dampers for audio gear, they work well in shoes to comfort your feet.
"I can't compete with the dead" (Buck W. 2010)
"It would take me forever. I don't think I have forever" (Byrd 2015)
I'm LMAO!!
could you manage that?
Not that I don't believe you, but man, Oreo's are for EATING!
How they could pass from the package via your hand and NOT
make it to your mouth is beyond me.
Try the Mint - they add a calming, refreshing tone in audio
applications and a nice, well, minty smell to footwear.
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
I was thinking of repackaging and selling some hockey pucks from the sporting goods store after "tuning" them by ear for audio. Nah, too much work. I'll just repackage them. ;-)
On a more serious note, I have used hockey pucks to tilt my tower speakers back slightly. Depending on how I'm seated they sound better that way. The hockey pucks work!
I bought a bunch of generic "ISO Blocks" on the cheap from Audiogon several years ago but they still cost much more than .29 each. Darn, and I thought I got a good deal on 'em!
My scraped hardwood floors and those pointy footers do not get along.
from a knock hockey game. Needed the space to let the 3 channel HT amp below breath.
Abe;I agree. Tuning hockey pucks by footprint and physical makeup to exactly those vertcal, horizontal, and torsional resonant frequencies that provide the best sonic isolation for each individual component platform would be a arduous task - I would let this one pass as well.
That was a joke.
Just a thought, but maybe we could could corner the market on NHL game used pucks. You could make your pitch to the Avalanche, and I to the Wild. Certainly we could spin that NHL game used pucks have certain sonic advantages over run of the mill pucks......
Meat; It's the right thing to do. Romans 14:2
Edits: 02/12/16
In my case, I found said pucks on the "take it or leave it"/swap pile table at the Harvard, MA town dump.
Excellent price/performance ratio.
all the best,
mrh
(for some reason) of this guy.
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
My hockey pucks are standing on ISO pads, and still points.
The universe is made of electrons, protons, neutrons, and morons.
nt
all the best,
mrh
As long as he offers 30 days money back.
If an audio enthusiast uses Mapleshade instead of Graingers to shop for anti-vibration devises, it's ok as long as the enthusiast is satisfied with his/her purchase before the 30 days.
If an audio enthusiast progresses to the lofty level of audiophile, and finds what's needed from another source for less dough, I think Mr Sprey smiles with him.
thanks for bursting my bubble, thinking I'm using "exclusive" pads.Since mine are black, Pierre surely had some Amish organic paint used that make them even more amazing!
Wish I knew this years ago when I purchased them.
I feel like a SUCKER when I discover info like this. Oh well, I do think the planks are a bit nicer than other less expensive options.
either the "Mapleshade" product or the larger-sized, much-lower-priced cork-and-rubber blocks sourced directly from the San Marcos, CA manufacturer--that I found truly effective was placement under a since-replaced Comcast Motorola cable box, where they damped out a DVR-originated vibration that could be heard prior to block treatment as an annoyingly audible hum in both the listening room and one floor below the location of the A/V cabinet which housed the cable box.
In my case, placement under audio components (line stage, amp, universal digital player, and the 4" thick non-Mapleshade maple block supporting my turntable) tended invariably to "mush out" sonic output.
Jim
http://jimtranr.com
We had a similar Cable Box DVR noise issue in our bedroom. I think it was the spinning disk drive inside the DVR. I didn't notice it but my wife has very sensitive hearing, much better than mine, and it bugged her at night. I put some generic ISO blocks under the DVR and that solved the problem.
Nt
and rubber to be fashioned and hand-glued into a useful, viable audio product? Hunh.
Thanks! for sharing-
I bought some of those and also tried a 12 inch wide tractor tire inner tube (about $10 at hardware store) with very little air in it....so to keep the frequency low. The inner tube sounded way better than the cord/rubber thangs. I still use the inner tubes today. I have maple block on top of the inner tubes and then use the latest Mad Scientist Ceramic footers on top between the wood and component....nice combo!
I've been using these for years, ever since another inmate clued me in on them. Pierre says that these have the wrong compliance and are therefore no good, just like he says his Amish air-dried maple is totally better than Boos blocks. Um, color me skeptical.
Happy listening,
Jim
"The passage of my life is measured out in shirts."
- Brian Eno
I bought a 19"x19"x4" air dried maple platform from Mapleshade at the same time I bought the iso blocks - about 10 years ago. Within a year the 4" thick maple platform had warped pretty significantly so I took it out of service.
About 6 months ago I took it to a cabinet shop and they ran it through their drum sander to re-true it. So far so good.Anytime you get wood stock of that thickness that has not been kiln dried it will move, it's just a matter of when and how much. That experience is what convinced to take a pass on their Amish built rack(s).
Understand, I'm not trying to bash Mapleshade as I think several of their products are great, but the fact remains that some of their products are a lot of hyperbole.
Still, I don't know how I will be able to sleep until the iso blocks that my York furnace rest on are oriented and tuned by ear for the best possible performance.
Meat; It's the right thing to do. Romans 14:2
Edits: 02/12/16
At the local JC, which has an A++ woodshop department, they have not ONE but TWO planers out of a BATTLESHIP.
These things sound like jet turbines when they wind up and will easily do 12" THICK planks maybe 40" wide or more. You can easily do 3"x30" bench tops which the school made IN-HOUSE.
Such tooling is IMPOSSIBLE to find today and the heavy castings ensure incredible longevity and stability. Not to mention make moving and bedding in both a difficult and quite a wait while the machine 'settles'. Don't forget, many ships in that era had TEAK decks and you must be able to repair them and do assorted woodwork on the ship.
Too much is never enough
Mapleshade ad copy can be way over the top. I remember a few years ago reading in their catalog about the superior properties of their maple platforms. The copy claimed that if you placed a PC on on their platform your success at gaming would be vastly increased because the platform would allow you to hear enemies sneaking up on you better than without it.
You know, for someone so thoroughly grounded in science as Pierre Sprey, it's amazing to read something like that as representing his products. The man is an established aircraft designer. He helped design the F-16. Does he really believe putting a PC on a piece of wood improves its ability to produce sound?
Um, like these?
My personal favorite is the power strip on the maple platform and brass footers - Too funny!
Meat; It's the right thing to do. Romans 14:2
I mean, look at the second photo. You've got a desktop machine sitting on brass footers on a maple platform with isolation pads underneath. Mapleshade would have you believe that this will improve the ability to hear audio in a game. No, I haven't tried it myself so maybe I'm wrong but I doubt it. It's ridiculous. And I don't know what's going on in that first photo. Is that really a maple platform for a power strip?
I was once in the USAF and back in my cadet days I wrote a research paper on the F-15 development history, for which I learned a lot about Sprey's tenure at USAF HQ. I have come to believe he was the same person back then, i.e. self-aggrandizing, not grounded in science. And never was actually an aircraft designer although he aspired to be.
The energy-maneuverability theory that he advocated isn't grounded in science either. It's not really a theory at all and has nothing to do with maneuverability. It was a heuristic formula of thrust, drag, speed, and weight created by Boyd to rank aircraft and show the US at a air combat disadvantage in the 1960s. Boyd and Sprey were two of three like minded self-aggrandizing outsiders at USAF HQ who liked to call themselves the "fighter mafia", and who used the formula to try to undermine the F-14 and F-15 programs in the late 1960s.
Sprey favored a fighter concept called the "red bird" which would have been a cheap, short range, clear-day only fighter with no radar, no countermeasures, minimal avionics and limited speed and limited turning capability. He believed it was necessary to match the Soviet Union in number of fighters, but not try to match the flight envelope and intercept capabilities of the newer Soviet fighters. From what I read, he and the other "fighter mafia" briefly had the ear of the incoming Nixon administration appointees, but never really had any credibility with the engineering community and their proposal wasn't seriously considered.
As far as I can tell, he wasn't involved in the design of the F-16, he only helped draft some early requirements. Otherwise he was out of the picture for the most part. And his input wasn't very consequential since many of the key aspects of the F-16 are the opposite of what he advocated for, e.g. multi-role capability including air-to-ground, sophisticated radar and avionics, external stores, 9G sustained turning. Aside from the light weight (relative to an F-15 anyway) and high production numbers/low unit production cost, the F-16 doesn't resemble Sprey's concept.
He also wrote requirements for the A-10, which did end up close to his original concept, so we can give him credit for that although he still wasn't an aircraft designer.
Over the years he has been telling tall tales and trying to puff up his credentials, even saying he was the chief designer of the F-16 at one point. But he has no credibility among any of the people I worked with who are actually knowledgeable about aircraft design. I think he's half curmudgeon and half con artist and it drives me crazy when people reference his rants believing he designed the F-16 so he must know what he's talking about. I'm a critic of the F-35 program and every time I get into a discussion about it seems like I end up having to correct the record about Sprey.
Needless to say, I am never going to buy anything from Mapleshade.
I have an amateur's interest in military aircraft, especially from the Vietnam era forward. I'd always thought Pierre Sprey to be counted among some of the best designers, but I can see I have more reading to do. I guess he's no Kelly Johnson, huh? Thanks Dave.
Wish I could have met Kelly Johnson but he was before my time. LM Skunk Works was involved in a couple programs I worked on and according to the old timers there Kelly Johnson was a god. Not just as an intuitive designer but a crack project manager and good salesman. His successor Ben Rich was reportedly a better engineer and a good manager too, but he had bit of a used car salesman personality.
15 or so years ago, I tried some Mapleshade speaker cables and interconnects. They easily bested anything else I had ever tried before, helping to make me a believer in good cables and connectors.Although they were overly fragile, Mapleshade's old style (air-dielectric w/ huge brass connectors) interconnects are still my all-time favorite ICs. And Sprey's entry-level speaker wires have always sounded good to me.
Edits: 02/12/16
I can't comment on the efficacy of the products, as I've never tried them. At least they're not crazy expensive, although they aren't the bargain they once were either.
is used descrbing his accomplishments?
When I read of them, I thought of "The worlds most interesting man" from the Dos Equis commercials.
In fact, that that would be a great thread- When Pierre.....
Wish I could finish your sentence, but my funny bone seems broken today.
N/t
Here ya go.
If you have heavier gear, over 30 lbs, I would rubber cement the bock together the way Mapleshade does.
For transport, dac, cd player, headphone amp etc, I would use just one layer - YMMV.
Meat; It's the right thing to do. Romans 14:2
Used to do software support for them back in the 90s. Maybe I should call George and suggest creating an "audiophile" product line. :)
N/t
"...somebody and their money shall soon be parted..."
or something to that effect
Happy Listening
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: