Slate – a natural metamorphic stone with a fine foliated structure.  The main building material of our anti-vibration platforms. It has unique damping characteristics due to a combination of high mass, softness, and a fine layered structure. The layered structure, unlike e.g. crystalline structure of granite, efficiently dissipates vibrational energy by the layer-to-layer friction. The sonic virtues of slate has been known for many years. However, there is no ideal material in nature and slate too has its own ‘sound’. At Stacore we improve the natural damping properties of slate with our own Constrained Layer Damping (CLD) technique. This creates a sonically transparent, high mass combination. The bodies of Stacore platforms are FULLY made of CLD damped slate. No corners cut, all you see when looking at our platforms is the stone. Everywhere, apart from the control panels of pneumatic platforms. We import ourselves a premium, homogenous slate directly from Italy. It is the softest and the best for sonics, but difficult to work with if a high aesthetics is the goal. The whole Stacore body construction must be made by hand as there is no way to automate this process. It is the job of our local stone masters with years of experience. What follows after a body or a plate is ready is a thorough high pressure washing, drying, and several impregnation rounds using natural oils. This is also done by hand and takes up to 12h. The whole production is a costly and time-consuming process. We could have used cheaper and easier to work with materials, e.g. steel or aluminium, like our competitors do, but at Stacore we want to create the best ever anti-vibration solutions for audio. Then there is no place for short-cuts.