Ikea Chopping Board for Turntable Isolation?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by DJtheAudiophile, Oct 24, 2018.

  1. heathen

    heathen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colorado
    My turntable sits on a concrete paver from Home Depot. I put some squishy feet under the paver, and the turntable itself has feet that rest it on the paver. Super cheap, and seems to work well. I can walk around on the wood floors and not hear it through the turntable.
     
    dcarwin and Spin Doctor like this.
  2. Wasabi

    Wasabi Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lutz, FL
  3. Socalguy

    Socalguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    CA
    A yoga mat works better
     
    Mike from NYC, uzn007 and defmoot like this.
  4. Spin Doctor

    Spin Doctor Forum Resident

    It's HUGGGE!
     
    longdist01 likes this.
  5. Andrew Harrod

    Andrew Harrod Member

    Location:
    Norfolk, England
    I had one. It was great. I put 3 oak feet on it and chopped the protruding edge off. A cheap and effective platform.
     
    4xoddic and DJtheAudiophile like this.
  6. DJtheAudiophile

    DJtheAudiophile Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    TJ Maxx near me has 17x12 in stock. I’ll get this since everyone seems to like maple over bamboo. Any name and link to roller blocks?
     
    808_state likes this.
  7. Spin Doctor

    Spin Doctor Forum Resident

    That's more or less the setup I have. Except I used a slate paver that sits on Iso-pods.

    [​IMG]
     
    Kyhl, bluesaddict, longdist01 and 3 others like this.
  8. sound chaser

    sound chaser Senior Member

    Location:
    North East UK.
    I use two Lack tables, using the top only from the second, resting on a 3/4 inflated 16” bicycle inner tube in between. Lack is stiff and light with low mass which I thought would be preferable. They’re cheap enough.
     
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  9. plastico

    plastico Forum Resident

    Location:
    ontario canada
    I have used through the years on my wall shelf with spikes; granite, maple cutting boards, sand box with a bike tube, and the best for me is two of the Ikea boards, with Herbies feet between them. I can hit the stand and get no noise through my speakers. And, more importantly, no feedback from gut wrenching bass!
    Cheers, Doug
     
  10. 808_state

    808_state ヤマハで再生中

  11. JohnO

    JohnO Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    In my experience, those linked pads are worthless for a turntable. Mine are now under my washing machine, where they help a little but I didn't need them there either.
     
  12. JohnO

    JohnO Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    What is the problem you are trying to solve?
     
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  13. Drew769

    Drew769 Buyer of s*** I never knew I lacked

    Location:
    NJ
    I bought a Boos Block maple cutting board on Amazon, and then used HVAC isolation blocks (exactly the same as the Mapleshade ones but around 99% cheaper because I buy them as HVAC blocks and not audiophile tweaks!). Works as a great base for my VPI Aries 3D.
     
    Upstateaudio likes this.
  14. vinylontubes

    vinylontubes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Katy, TX
    I would not use the suggested cutting board. It's fine for cutting vegetables. But it also swells with humidity. So it will probably affect any leveling that you may have done. I would look at bamboo, if you want something more stable.
     
    DJtheAudiophile likes this.
  15. Just Walking

    Just Walking Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Maple (indeed most hardwoods) are exceptionally dimensionally stable provided they have been properly seasoned first. Which I suspect will be the case with a first rate chopping block.

    In NY (ie in NJ where Drew769 lives) maple changes dimension by about 0.7% tangentially (which is how a Boos Block is assembled) during the course of a year. Such a board is 1.5" thick. Even if we do the extreme though experiment of 0.7% at one end and zero at the other, and the turntable feet are 60cm apart that will mean a tilt of 0.025 degrees. Which is completely insignificant, and unmeasurable without precision metrology equipment. It is outside the capability of a spirit level.

    Now the fact is that the 0.7% will occur over the whole board - so any tilt will be the square root of a gnat's hind leg.

    Drew - go for the Boos Block with confidence. It will not screw with your levelling.
     
  16. Djulzy

    Djulzy Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Toulon, France
    I made a Hifi rack out of Ikea Chopping boards. Decent look, not sure about the isolation.

    [​IMG]
     
    Kyhl, Dan Steele, ZippyPippy and 7 others like this.
  17. Drewan77

    Drewan77 Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK/USA
    Glad to see fact based debunking of more forum neurosis & paranoia there @Just Walking
     
    Drew769 likes this.
  18. harby

    harby Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR, USA
    I do know not to put Ikea chopping blocks in the dishwasher, unless you want a whole bunch of warped 1" boards instead after they come unglued.

    Your local stone or countertop place may have turntable-sized scraps of marble or granite. Get two for their mass, and put isolating material in between, from memory foam to inner tubes, for a delicious bump-isolating sandwich.
     
  19. GyroSE

    GyroSE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    I've the IKEA Aptitlig butcher block beneath my Michell Orbe SE as you can see in the link below:

    https://www.minhembio.com/GyroSE

    The Aptitlig is a more heavy and sturdy version, the sorbothane feet combined with the IKEA butcher block works just great.
     
  20. DJtheAudiophile

    DJtheAudiophile Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    I have a Marantz 6100 and it is springy. My floor is not the most stable either. I guess I will get a thick maple chopping board. What feet would you recommend for it?
     
  21. jacks2start

    jacks2start Active Member

    Location:
    kannapolis NC
    all great idea's, someone give me your take on using granite slab, size,weight an such
     
  22. 808_state

    808_state ヤマハで再生中

    I think I need a love button for this post. Thank you for slicing and dicing (full pun intended) through the confusion with logic.

    Incidentally my wife found me two more big Boosblocks at the T-Maxx. I need to check the size when I get home.
     
  23. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    I'm at a loss with why you think everyone likes Maple over Bamboo, perhaps xenophobia or Maple looks nicer?

    Certainly in the UK Bamboo is being taken up by most manufactures of HI-FI stands due to it's vibration suppressing qualities.

    In terms of other isolation (?) tweaks I've had the chance to borrow over a extended period, roller blocks, RDC cones, Nordost Sort Kone AS and Sorbothane feet.

    Placing these under my amp(s) I found:

    A slight improvement with the RDC, roller blocks and Nordost but Sorbothane always seems to make matters worse.

    Using the inner tube, straw and Bamboo shelf was the biggest improvement I've every heard in 30 years of owing my current system.

    But the way it opened up the whole sound revealed:

    Roller blocks were giving a slight smearing and hard edge to the sound.

    Nordost didn't improve the sound and perhaps made it worse.

    I'm currently using the RDC cones as they still give a very slight improvement.

    I'm using the roller blocks under my speakers to great effect, I can't remember the name of the roller blocks but they had very good reviews in the Hi-Fi press and cost around £150 for six.
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2018
    Clayton93, Kyhl, 4xoddic and 2 others like this.
  24. Doug Walton

    Doug Walton Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    I can't quite tell from the pics or the IKEA site - are all of the sides angled or just one or two? Thanks...
     
  25. 33na3rd

    33na3rd Forum Resident

    Location:
    SW Washington, USA
    I never let my equipment come into direct contact with Sorbathane. I think it just kills the sound. However, I have used sorbathane under the platforms that the equipment sits on with good results.

    The Herbie's products are interesting. Much more neutral sounding than sorbathane.

    As far as my own preference of maple over bamboo, the maple sounds warmer than bamboo in my system. I suspect that my system may be more sensitive to these types of changes due to our 100 year old suspended wood floors.
     

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