SAE Home Theater Classifieds Showcase Tubes-DIY Speakers Links Ampzilla2000 Cars Hayabusa Home SAE Obsession SAE Information SAE Technical SAE Service SAE Documentation My System Components Carver Info THE RACK View Ads Place An Ad Track A Shipment SAE Systems My Systems Jims Systems Marks Systems Bobs Systems Normans Systems Carver Systems Bottlehead Foreplay Bottlehead Paramours Bottlehead Seduction Bottlehead S.E.X Amp Harman Kardon DIY 2A3 Amp Rega Upgrades Isolation Table Passive Preamp Table DIY Cables Lone Star Bottlheads DIY JBL Corner Horns Altec Voice of the Theatre JBL L26 Restoration Martin Logan CLS DIY McCauley Subwoofers Infinity BIC Altec Gallery Vintage

DIY Isolation Table : aka Sandbox

This was my first attempt at building an isolation platform - sandbox.

Design layed out before stepping into the garage to start.

  

3/4" MDF cut and then final assembly .

Painted with Krylon Semi-Flat black and then weathered stone finish.
Topped off with six coats of semi-gloss Deft.

Here is the pebble finish. The color was black sand. Then the final coats with Deft.
The glass beads are size number 10 and came in a 50 pound bag. I used about half the bag.

Here is the finished platform filled with glass bead media used in bead blasting.
Finer than sand, white and covered with a piece of 1/2" glass.
The hardest part was getting the "sand" absolutely level.
Instant difference in the sound quality from the Rega.
The rumble that I had been experiencing since
installation of the high output Audio Note cart is gone.

Edit: Long Term Use
After years of use, the "sand box" contiues to work great.
I am not an engineer, so don't know why it works, but I believe it is electro-mechanical.
The glass is a great conductor. I takes the mechanical vibrations and transfers them to the "sand."
The sand distributes the vibration and dissipates it by turning the mechanical engery into heat.