Is the bottom of the wood base on a ufo2 made of wood also?

My brand new SE84-225 does not have a wood bottom but I don’t mind. Holy f*#+k it makes the Traps sound great. Rodriguez & Gabriella blew my mind. More on that later.

I wish Steve would have an option for an AIR DRIED MAPLE base.  I'm assuming that all of the wood bases are kiln dried.  I have my stuff mounted on 4 inches of air dried maple and boy it makes a difference.

How is air dried and kiln dried different other than the time it takes to dry?

Or are you pulling our "leg"?  Wouldn't "green" give a better base to sit on since it'd be denser?

I see.  Although for an amp base or platform I would think adding to the sound would amount to the addition of noise unlike an instrument where the vibration is the music.

Jags.

The bottom of the bases are HDF as opposed to wood, plywood or MDF

The wood itself is Kiln dried, yes. Finding a source for air dried that would be consistent in %, enough for my use would probably be next to impossible.

I'm not so sure you are correct on the strength of AD vs KD lumber. Hardwoods are never dried at high temps. Usually no higher than 140° for hardwoods, and when cooled they retain their strength. Softwoods use high temp schedules and are used mostly for southern yellow pine.

Both have there issues, I choose KD, if done properly.

Zygi

I meant HDF

Archie,
The maple platform is essentially a sink for the drained vibrational energy.  Like a heat sink only for internal vibes.  The weights, footers and platform work incredibly to that very end.  Punch, detail, vibrant warmth, and naaatural dynamics.  Oh yeah!

If it's a vibration "sink" then it's damping.  But wood isn't particularly well damped so vibration can go from the wood into the amp.  I have a very solid wood support under my amps and vibration went from the speakers into my house structure and right up into my amps.  I use isolation platforms to break that link.  As I said, I'm not questioning your sound but if you've never tried true isolation, it might be worth an experiment.  When I first put isolation under my speakers I thought I'd lost bass but I really only lost noise/interference.  I have chest thumping bass now that isn't coupled to my floors as a soundboard with a random tuning.

I'm not sure what an iso-block is but if it breaks the path of the vibration then you may have already what I was suggesting.  As for what you said about high pressure point contact, that isn't correct.  Spike type supports are absolutely a coupling connection and not an isolating connection and they transmit vibration in both directions.  There is a nice demonstration of this in this link:  https://www.sonicdesign.se/sdfeet.html

I have demonstrated something similar myself but I don't have the vibration measurements to prove it.  Adding/removing mass will shift resonant frequencies so tuning of the "feedback" is possible but given the full range of HIFI sound, I follow the concept of elimination/avoidance rather than tuning.  

I know this started with my question about AD vs KD wood qualities but that is a moot point if vibrations are cut off or damped out.  I still maintain that the gold standard would be if we could suspend our equipment in a vacuum.

Problem solved.  Either put your amp in a vacuum or levitation.  I like that.    Anyway I started this thread by asking the question what is the bottom of the ufo2 made of.  Now I know it is HDF.  High Density Fiber.  I'll bet it is very rigid and stiff and that is a good thing.  I'd still like to see my Air Dried Maple though.  And maybe it would have a sonic advantage.  You never know.

Amen Archie!