Amplifier on top of player

sudhirbhosale

Active Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2013
Messages
268
Points
28
Location
Hyderabad / Mumbai
Hi
I use DVD player to listen music which is kept on top. DVD player is very light in weight and hence when I use some press controls like eject it's moves back. At present it is kept on Amp, planning to keep Amp on DVD player. I alos read in AVMAX that keeping some weight on player would make it mechanically stable.

So my question is:
Would it carry any risk or compromise to signal quality due to interfere of magnetic field from power supply?

OR and suggestion to solve this problem.

Thanks
 
Most amps dissipate heat from the top or the sides. Keeping the player on the top might not be a good idea. On the other hand, keeping the amp over it could actually improve the sound a bit (YMMV). Just make sure that the amp is not very heavy and its mechanism for heat dissipation is not hindered. Also tha tthe amp is firmly placed on the top to avoid accidents...
 
@sudhirbhosale,
In my case i had kept my old dvd player and set top box over my bluray player.
eventually, due to the weight, my bluray player's eject mecanism of disc trey stopped working smoothly.
So IMO unless u have strong outer case dont keep anything on it.
 
What is logic for improving sound quality.

Micro vibration of panels and electronic parts degrade sound quality. If you open some equipment you can see that some parts are glued down with hot gun glue, despite being already soldered. Gluing provides additional mechanical strength and dampens vibration.

Similarly, you will find rubber foam type damping layers glued to the inside of some equipment cabinets for vibration damping. Many high end devices come with thick gauge panels and are constructed with tight tolerances to avoid cabinet ringing.

Heavy weight placed on top of some equipment will help dampen vibration. But in my experience, it doesn't always work. For some, a damping layer below the equipment works better. Try both options. Some people are also happy with lining the interface of the top plate of cabinet to the support below with Teflon tape. This achieves the same goal - damping. Especially effective when the top plate is made of thin steel sheet that tend to ring more, especially when drilled out for ventilation.

But see the important caveat from nmursekar's post.
 
sudhirbhosale

I'm curious about your need to place the amp on top of the player. Why do you need to consider this option and not a rack?

Joshua has given enough reasons. Amp mfrs also dont recommend this- I recall a well respected Guru Frank Van Alstine also not recommending this, and suggesting use of a rack
 
eventually, due to the weight, my bluray player's eject mecanism of disc trey stopped working smoothly.
2 days back,I kept preamp on BDp and it started showing "DISC error".
Once removed,played like earlier.So if built quality of Player is tough,then can keep amp on top of it.Else may get issues.
 
2 days back,I kept preamp on BDp and it started showing "DISC error".
Once removed,played like earlier.So if built quality of Player is tough,then can keep amp on top of it.Else may get issues.

I also faced a similar problem, I kept my Mac Mini on the BDP ( LG BDP 550) and the tray close became erratic ( closes properly sometimes & sometime stops midway). After lots of trial & error, zeroed on to the weight on top. Once I removed the Mini, the the BDP started working fine again.
I also feel, the build quality has a lot to do with it
 
But then why don't we encounter such bit-errors when we copy data from CD/DVD to PC hard disc, if the mechanism is indeed so delicate and error prone?

Very different formats - Audio CD is based on the Redbook standard, CDROM/DVDROM is based on the Yellowbook standard. The latter has much more robust error correction. The wiki articles on these will give you more information on the same

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_Digital_Audio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-ROM

A simple test is try to rip an audio CD via a cd rom using EAC or something similar. See how much time it takes to read vs how much time it takes to copy data from a normal CD. The audio CD rip will be way way slower since things will be read multiple times for accuracy by EAC.
 
Last edited:
+1 to what reignofchaos said
Degradation in music will be apparent in playback.
When ripping CDs to hard disk, there are many retrys especially if you use apps like EAC
 
The build quality and the strong outer case are two different things is what i think. Basically most BDPs are not designed to take any load on its own body unleas they are designed to fit like a rack with propper leg suppoerts with sufficient height to pass the air in between for propper ventilation within. Secondly the the leg supports help to keep some distance from the other gear affecting the magnetic field to the moving parts inside.
But as the experts said, it is always advisable to keep your gears in a rack/ shelves in order to handle them with care especially in case of 2 chanel audiophile grade set up where the Transport has got a prime importance.
 
Yes, it all boils down to applying common sense. Most DVD players have rather cheap cabinets made from flimsy pressed steel sheets and are not rigid enough to take the extra weight of an amplifier (or whatever else one cares to put on top).
 
Heavy weight placed on top of some equipment will help dampen vibration. But in my experience, it doesn't always work. For some, a damping layer below the equipment works better. Try both options. Some people are also happy with lining the interface of the top plate of cabinet to the support below with Teflon tape. This achieves the same goal - damping. Especially effective when the top plate is made of thin steel sheet that tend to ring more, especially when drilled out for ventilation.

But see the important caveat from nmursekar's post.
I had an ear popping experience recently.By chance I kept a now defunct technics tuner atop my entry level denon CD player with magic hexa pads under the player.As a matter of chance, the dimensions of both the items matched perfecly and the tuner has large enough feet for proper load distribution.
I am able to sit through 2 to 3 complete CDs before ear fatigue sets in, earlier I couldnt sit through even 6 songs.
cheers
 
Yep putting some weight on top of the CD player definitely helps - However one has to be careful that one doesn't overdo it else the sound becomes overdamped. Its harder in the case where the CD transport is a top loader however.
 
Buy from India's official online dealer!
Back
Top