@kemela

Custom Design is a family-run company located in Newcastle upon Tyne - a major powerhouse in the UK's industrial revolution - that designs and manufactures one of the most comprehensive ranges of innovative, specialist Hi-Fi loudspeaker stands, Hi-Fi racks and isolation products in the inudstry.

Custom Design has more than 30 years of design and manufacturing experience and uses modern precision manufacturing techniques and the highest quality materials. New designs are continually being added to an already extensive portfolio of award winning contemporary and classic products all making significant improvements to sound quality with pleasing aesthetics to compliment your room.

Choice of materials and green friendly products

Hardwoods, MDF, steel, glass, polymers and in-house developed materials are all used in practical ways for best sonic performance while keeping costs in a resonable range. Steel transfers energy better than extruded aluminum and glass is denser than wood or MDF. Loudspeaker enclosures, turntable platters and sound proofing windows use glass in thicknesses that don't behave like a ringing wine glass.

Custom Design's philosophy is not only to question and challenge their own ideas in depth, executing, fabricatiing and finishing with the greatest attention to detail, but also to develop and grow business with a social responsibility and environmentally friendly practices for every product designed and manufactured.

Resonance control: Acoustic Steel and Inert Filler

Acoustic Steel™, a laminated steel composite that dissipates vibrational energy by converting it into heat, is featured in all but the less expensive loudspeaker stands, and in Custom Design's Isolation platforms (iRAPs).

Inert Filler is available as an optional upgrade for metal tube stands to reduce resonance and to mass load the stand. It is a better filler than dry sand or lead shot as more vibrational evergy is converted into heat because of the surface area contact of the irregular filler granules.

The graph shows the reduction of resonance when the support column of the popular RS 300 speaker stand is filled with 'Inert Filler'. More impressive however is the reduction when standard steel top and and base plates are switched for ones made from 'Acoustic Steel'.

The y-axis of the graph is in steps of 5dB and over much of the frequency spectrum to 5kHz there is a 40dB reduction; vibrations are reduced by 100x from speaker platform to floor spike and vice versa. With the addition of an Acoustic steel base plate the reduction is 1000x at some frequencies!