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Me for one

Posted by Charles Hansen (M) on March 30, 2008 at 10:00:51

In Reply to: Huh? Who's general agreement? posted by greg7 on March 30, 2008 at 07:12:14:

I'm with AndyR on this one. MDF is just not a very good sounding material. It is very lifeless and artificial. I think his point was not that the hybrid stand using MDF was bad sounding, but just that it could be improved by using a better wood material. (There is no piece of equipment so good that it can't be improved *somehow*).

The question is what wood. As you note, each wood has a different sonic signature. Here's a good example. One day we took a customer's preamp home to do some critical listening tests. The system had dozens of myrtle wood blocks everywhere -- under each component, under external power supplies, under all the cables and power cords -- really, everywhere.

When we installed the customers preamp, it had an external power supply, so we needed 6 more myrtle wood blocks. We only had 5, so we put one (prototype) maple wood block under the power supply. Then when we listened, we were amazed that the customer's preamp sounded noticeably brighter than our reference unit. After listening for a while, we realized that we could swap out the maple block for a myrtle block to which ever unit was active at the time. This would keep things exactly fair.

And guess what? With the myrtle block, the brightness went away. So in a system with dozens of myrtle blocks, the effect of a single maple block was clearly audible. I still find it hard to believe from a logical standpoint, but it was not a subtle change when listening.

George Cardas' theory is that myrtle sounds very balanced because its grain structure is very convoluted, almost like a burl. I've tried ebony, rosewood, and maple but rejected those as too bright sounding. On the other hand mahogany and alder are too dull sounding. I haven't tried cherry, but suspect it would be pretty good. And for a large surface you are limited to either plywood, butcher block, or MDF.

I think MDF is the worst. Next would be regular plywood, which is made from softwoods (pine, fir, and spruce). In this country, things like "cherry plywood" are simply softwood cores with cherry outer veneers. The next step up is a product called ApplePly. It has alder cores (a relatively soft hardwood) and maple outer plies. Europe supplies plywood in metric sizes (roughly 5' square) that has birch for all the plies. This used to be all premium grade stuff (void free, with many thin plies), but now Russia is exporting some lower grade versions that have fewer (thicker) plies, internal voids, and other defects.

At the top of the heap are butcher-block solids. These are most commonly made from maple, as that is the best wood for cutting boards. However, there are a few companies that will custom make solid butcher block panels in any wood you want. I recently ordered some cherry blocks to replace the cast iron bases of the Jamo 909s. Unfortunately I haven't had time to install them yet to hear the difference. Besides, it won't be a truly fair comparison -- the crossover is mounted in the base and I'm sure getting the circuitry (especially the coils!) away from the cast iron will make a big difference also.

The bottom line is to try some different things and experiment for yourself. My experience is that everything makes a difference.

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