IKEA Aptitlig: A juicy cheap upgrade.

Now I'll admit that I tend toward the objective side of things; not in that i believe there is one standard by which all sound should be judged (i.e. flat FR, no distortion etc) but in that I believe all things should be explainable and have some mechanism of action.

Whenever some seemingly inexplicable thing comes along, I ask myself: How could this work? Is there a plausible mechanism of action by which some difference could be made. Think the quantum capacitor stickers or the wacky stuff put out by synergistic research.

In this case, I'm not even interested in whether or not there is a difference between cuttingboard and no. Presuming there is a difference, how is that difference caused. What features of a system could be impacted by the presence of a cuttingboard?

Again, I'm not here trying to say "yes it does" or "no it doesnt", only "how?". Initially one might think "vibration" or something like that, but I ask you: what does vibration do in your system that changes the sound? Thoughts?

 

lots of things in the universe "need Splainin"

I'm not going to waste my cycles on the "how" part,

I'm just going to continue to enjoy the music.

 

I drove to Ikea today and messed around finding these Aptitlig's... also picked up the Molger since I just moved into a new place and all my gear was just stacked on the floor.

Not entirely sure if I can notice much change if any on my setup. The Molger looks decent and holds everything nicely... the bamboo wasn't too much of a pain in the ass to cut into pieces, but honestly, I don't know if I hear any difference at all. I bought 4 of the large Aptitlig's, and also 2 of the smaller 3/4" thick ones to cut into smaller pieces.

To be honest, the biggest change I've heard in the last month is bi-wiring my speakers. I was super skeptical, but it seriously opened up the soundstage and imaging. I have PMC Twenty.21 bookshelves, sitting on Skylan mass loaded stands. This is in a small room, so they're only about 7' apart. The PMC's remind me of the HD-800's in their presentation, in that they tend to have a lot of treble energy. I'm very happy with these speakers, but they are fairly bass anemic.

Anyway just some input on the mod... glad to hear others heard positive changes.

 

Nice Speakers, just curious if the stands are spiked to the floor? I had done that with all my stand mounts and floor mounts for decades, then discovered the nicely different presentation of decoupling by using screw in glider type feet. Now they sit on these feet which sits on top of carpet and bass is more apparent and more textural. Might be worth a try, it's relatively cheap.

 

Alright, got a chance to spend some time with the Zana Deux on bamboo, with the 650's and the sound has most definitely improved... I'm a believer.

What I hear: improved resolution - micro details (more air, more sophisticated sounding reverb and decay) - overall clarity. I've always found the ZD to do a nice job with bass, so I can't say that it I've noticed it has improved. I also don't find the soundstage has widened, but the reverb is much more sophisticated sounding, which may lend to a more "full" sound. I could see how people could say it's a more musical presentation with the bamboo...

As far as the speakers, the stands aren't spiked which I'm thankful for. I think these improvements are much more audible with the headphones simply because they're far more efficient. I'd recommend this mod to anyone using tube gear, seems to work well.

 

I would recommend to experimenting with placing this type of gel placed on the bottom 4 corners of speakers, preamp and dac. Unlike Audiophile feets/spikes, these kind of gel is not that expensive.


moongel does excellent job on dampening motor/rotor vibrations on drone:






Earthquake proof gel cushion

 

Wow Mikoss, I almost missed your post, So I found another believer
Ok... this comment of yours answers to a question I had in mind, i.e. if a headphone rig could equally benefit from this bamboo board even if there are no outside soundwaves to cause vibrations. I would have tried myself but my current shitty SS headamp is not resolving enough to show differences between dacs... let alone different coupling materials.

So I guess it is more (or at lest also) a matter of internal vibrations. I've read that internal vibration caused by transformers and other components could deteriorate the sound. I still feel unconfortable and enbarassment to write this kind of snakeoil bullshits but I can't help acknowledging the difference if I take the boards off. I heard more or less the same differences you depicted above, but bass in my case improved a lot with speakers.
Thank you for post

@Madaboutaudio
The point in this case is not dampening, is coupling so to route out vibrations.
I tried various kind of dampening compounds even in composite sandwich and ime everytime it got worse than with bamboo. But I you got me pretty curious abou that gel. Hope it's as cheap as bamboo to try.

 

I found this to be a pretty good resource
http://shop.mapleshadestore.com/products.asp?dept=3231

 

Lately the SBAF mod and cork mods for the HD800 have been intriguing me. As I currently can't get my hands on the mods, I decided to take an alternate route and apply the mods to my amplifier/DAC instead. I can say with confidence that the same treble reducing attributes of the mods have been applied to the amplifier/DAC and through to my HD800S.




Highly recommend either or, I myself personally prefer the sound of the cork. It is warmer and I can hear the distinct sound of wine swishing in the glass my pretentious ass is holding.

 

Don't rule out trying dampening/vibration control tweak on your DAC as the Quartz Crystal clock oscillators found inside DACs is sensitive to effects of thermal changes and vibrations. Of course you should always spend your money on the correct gears before this kind of tweaks.

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/44680/what-causes-jitter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_oscillator

 

...

lmfao.

 

This sounds like a special talent. Pics or it didn't happen.

 

I see where this is going... I would like more people to say "I tried and it didn't work for me, so maybe it is utter bullshit" and less people to post "Look how smart and funny I am".

 

Alright, that's fair. I'll behave.

 

Place the cork pad such that it bypasses the dac feet, coupled directly to the chassis. Then put a weight on top of the chassis and tell me that you didn't hear a difference. Vibration control is fascinating...you can literally tune the sound to your liking, almost like an EQ sound.

Everything vibrates when electricity passes through it. Micro vibrations, chassis vibrations....everything. It can be tuned to your liking. Experiment before negating it...

 

Yep... as far as stating such thoughts is dangerous around here ( ) I have to hagree with you. I'm surprised there are many people discerning dacs and their burn-in\break-in , opamps ant tubes differences and so few that are able\open to evaluate these kind of differences related to vibration control.
Not that I want to make absolute statements but as you said... trying before negating could be a pleasant surprise.