Has anyone heard about the Dynamat tweak? It calls for removing the top plate on an audio component (CD, pre-amp etc.), and applying a sheet of Dynamat to the underside of the cover, then replacing it all. It is suppose to provide superior damping and tighten up the bass yadayadayada. Anyone tried this or heard about it?

http://www.tricell-ent.com/Shakti.htm

I can't imagine that working. Probably the best bass improvement (assuming you have a sub) is from this procedure: put the sub in your listening position, play LF calibration tones (available on many receivers, and various calibration CDs), crawl around the room with a $35 Radio Shack sound meter. When you find the highest bass response on the meter, put the sub in that position.

It's not fancy but it will usually give a major improvement, assuming you haven't already done it, have a sub, and your room layout allows the reposition.

I think the Shakti stone would work better wrapped in foil...

If you do decide to go this route (I would put the money into CDs or DVDs) do not cover any ventilation holes in your equipment.

From other sites I have read, it is supposed to help minimize if not eliminate the inherent vibrations coming from all electronic circuitry and especially vibrations from a spinning platter in a CD player...reducing or eliminating these vibrations result in a cleaner, less colored sound...

Sounds like a marketing "urban legend" started by Dynamat to sell more Dynamat...as if they are not making enough sales in the automotive market...

WhatFurrer

Yeah, when the first line of a product description is "Designed utilizing understood scientific principals," I'm a little concerned.

Isn't the placebo effect an "understood scientific principle?"

In reply to:

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Isn't the placebo effect an "understood scientific principle?"

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*trying to breathe*

Actually, I removed a huge source of vibration from my stereo setup just the other day. It reduced standing waves and distortion to none. Seems 99% of the vibration in the room was coming from these little boxes with speaker drivers in them...

Bren R.

Is Bren the nice fella who works for Axiom? If so, I have had the pleasure of speaking with Bren on the phone, getting good advice and enjoying his easygoing manner. Therefore, and respectfully, as to the implications of Bren's comment and the comments of others, I disagree.

It seems to me that we try to reduce resonant vibrations in the speaker cabinet by building a solid Axiom-like speaker cabinet. The goal is attempting to assure that the transducer is the only vibrating component. Now, clearly, everything turns into a Helmholtz resonator, but it also seems to me you want to localize your audio vibrations to the speaker drivers.

As to the other components, vibrations from outside sources can cause tubes to act in a microphonic manner. So, you hope that at least your tubes are not excited by your speakers or other sources of kinetic energy to resonate.

Unlike many on this board, I do not presume to know anything about quantum physics except what I've learned from watching Star Trek. Nevertheless, it seems to me that you want to isolate your solid state components from vibrations, i.e., from kinetic energy - dunno whether kicking a solid state component will produce an undesirable miniburst of electrons or otherwise cause noise.

I don't think the idea of using dynamat to dampen components was thunk up by the marketing folks at dynamat. I think it is much more likely that audio tweakers seized on this product and applied it to accomplish a specific and as far as Dynamat is concerned, a use unanticipated by Dynamat.

I figure I'll get a sheet or two and use them on the inside cover of my CDP (as pointed out above, careful not to block any vents).