TV Cabinets and Vibrations

[admin_exported]

Hi,

I need to buy a new TV cabinet, which will have the following items on/in it: Onkyo 605 AV Amp, PS3 (Blu Ray / Media Player), SKY and my centre speaker.

Ideally, I would like a mango wood unit to match the rest of my furniture, but have read articles about vibrations etc. from ill designed equipment ruining the sound quality?

Obviously, sound quality is a fairly subjective, but should I be worried or will my setup not suffer too much?

Cheers,

Paddy []

 

[Anonymous]

I think your set up and proposed rack will be fine, remember most equipment comes with vibration/isolation feet of one type or another and as you say sound quality is fairly subjective at best.

Cheers

 

[scene]

stu31:I think your set up and proposed rack will be fine, remember most equipment comes with vibration/isolation feet of one type or another and as you say sound quality is fairly subjective at best.

Cheers
Agreed - and if you still find you're getting some unwanted vibration, blu-tak or half tennis / squash balls are a good cure...

 

[audioaffair]

Well said - most AV stands now have isolation control on them including many wooden ones that include spiked shelves etc to isolate one shelf from the other (not including the 605 amp which will have a degree of isolation control in its chassis).

Do you have a budget in mind? Alaphason make some great wooden hi-fi stands, the Atacama Elara range for black wood, or higher up the Hi-Fi Racks range of wood stands are very impressive.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies. I'd like to keep it under £500, but that isn't the main issue. My problems is that unfortunately, the make and style are likely to be out of my control!

If it was completely up to me, I'd already have an Atacama or similar...

We have mango wood furniture, so it is very likely that a mango wood TV stand is the only "option". This will not be made necessarily by a recognised AV stand manufacturer (Who would likely take sound / space issues into consideration).

First and foremost, the stand will be furniture as opposed to specialised AV equipment, which is why I am apprehensive to say the least.

I'm probably being over precious and my amp does have rubber feet etc, and they are currently sitting on a glass stand which was given away free from Sony... so maybe a wooden one will not be any worse than what I currently have?

I just don't want to spend a few hundred pounds only to find out that the POS resonates and makes listening unbearable!

Thanks again!

 

[scene]

One option, which I did with a temporary wooden cabinet I was using, was to get some 6mm toughened glass cut to size, put foam feet underneath it and rest this on the wooden shelf of the cabinet to act as an isolation plinth. The original cabinet seemed to have been made by a guitar manufacturer, judging by the resonance levels! This worked a treat. I am thinking of re-instituting this for my salamander, as the Virgin Box has a really noisy fan+disk, that seems to resonate with the V+ box's cabinet

. Wondering if it might just deaden some harmonics.

 

[Anonymous]

That seems like a good idea and might also be a good use for my outgoing glass stand! Besides, I hear electrical fires are quite common, who knows what might happen should it prove to be troublesome!

 

[Big Aura]

I've ordered something similar (custom made), in reclaimed indian teak (not unlike sheesham, but a harder wood). It's due for delivery at the end of Feb - if you can wait, I can give you a subjective view (although my view these things is - if it's solid to the touch, it's going to do the job).

 

[audioaffair]

Paddy1978:
Thanks for the replies. I'd like to keep it under £500, but that isn't the main issue. My problems is that unfortunately, the make and style are likely to be out of my control!

If it was completely up to me, I'd already have an Atacama or similar...

We have mango wood furniture, so it is very likely that a mango wood TV stand is the only "option". This will not be made necessarily by a recognised AV stand manufacturer (Who would likely take sound / space issues into consideration).

First and foremost, the stand will be furniture as opposed to specialised AV equipment, which is why I am apprehensive to say the least.

I'm probably being over precious and my amp does have rubber feet etc, and they are currently sitting on a glass stand which was given away free from Sony... so maybe a wooden one will not be any worse than what I currently have?

I just don't want to spend a few hundred pounds only to find out that the POS resonates and makes listening unbearable!

Thanks again!

In that case an Alpason may indeed be a good bet and well within budget.

The ACT1100BR is a nice option with open and closed shelves as is the ABRC1100 which is enclosed a little more. Are these close to the "mango" wood of your current furniture?

 

[Andrew17321]

I agree that that in most houses a hifi cabinet must fit in with the rest of the furniture. Compromises have to be made unless one has a dedicated listening room or lives on one's own.

My 'cabinet' is a heavy old oak sideboard which I bought 30 years ago at an auction for £4. When not in use the cupboard doors are shut and it looks like an ordinary piece of furniture with a TV on top.

I strengthened it underneath with a steel girder and drilled lots of ventilation holes in the bottom and back. My centre speaker is solidly attached in the centre section and my hifi equipment, including a record deck, is on half squash balls in the side compartments. I am not aware of any feedback, vibrations or resonances. Probably because it is so heavy and rigid.

So maybe worth considering something solid like this rather than a highly engineered design?

Andrew

 

[audioaffair]

You can't complain to the tune of £4, though it does depend what you're after. Solid furniture is beautiful in the right living room and in others a dedicated AV stand as beautiful as something from the Alphason range might be a better match aesthetically.

Have you narrowed down a shortlist yet?

 

[Anonymous]

audioaffair: Have you narrowed down a shortlist yet?

The Alphason or similar don't seem to match all that well. The mango wood furniture we have is pretty unique, but I have managed to find 2 that might do.

http://www.showhousefurniture.com/living/mango_plasmatvunit.htm

http://www.furnituretoday.co.uk/acatalog/Monte_Carlo_wide_2_drawer_TV_cabinet.html

The only trouble now is that these seem to be desigend for SKY and DVD players etc, but not for an Amp that is getting on for 20cm high! They seem solid enough, so if my amp can fit I might be on to a winner.

 

[Anonymous]

I had a similar challenge to this when we updated our living room furniture with IKEA cabinets - hardly solid stuff. I found Herbies Audio Lab products really helped with removing vibrations on the components and isolating the centre speaker. I did invest quite heavily in these but the setup I have now sounds much better than when everything was sitting on an Alphason rack. Just an option to look into in the future if you're struggling.

 

[Anonymous]

Paddy1978:
audioaffair: Have you narrowed down a shortlist yet?

The Alphason or similar don't seem to match all that well. The mango wood furniture we have is pretty unique, but I have managed to find 2 that might do.

http://www.showhousefurniture.com/living/mango_plasmatvunit.htm

http://www.furnituretoday.co.uk/acatalog/Monte_Carlo_wide_2_drawer_TV_cabinet.html

The only trouble now is that these seem to be desigend for SKY and DVD players etc, but not for an Amp that is getting on for 20cm high! They seem solid enough, so if my amp can fit I might be on to a winner.

Bloody hell what horrible and ugly tv cabinet's, if i were you mate i would go for a ATACAMA ELIRA range in black ash, it's beautifull unlike your's.

 

[StanleyAV]

If you're stuck with using furniture rather than a dedicated AV rack - which will have dealt with resonances properly - then I would suggest thin sheets of cork tiling to place under your equipment to damp any stray resonances.

Equipment feet are rarely anything more than cheap rubber or plastic/alloy composites which may absorb at best but never fully isolate equipment from either structurely born or air borne vibrations.

What Hifi should be educating you a whole lot better in this subject. There are many racks, footers of one kind or another that deal with vibration, way beyond the cheap and virtually useless things attached to most equipment.

You could be trying aluminium cones from Michell Engineering, RDC cones from Clearlight Audio (they make all kinds of cones and platforms too), air suspension from Townshend Audio.

It is largely a question of budget and trying things to see what suits you best : my cork option is exceedingly cheap and wife friendly!

 

[Anonymous]

i had the same problem with my v+ box and the wooden cabinet we bought to house all the AV stuff. I bought some 'Acoustifeet' and they've worked fine. Maybe not the best out there, but significantly cheaper than some of the isolation products out there.