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fo.q tape

The difference is that if you have a target resistance value, the thickness of the resulting cable of either material is of little practical importance. With vibration absorption, space may very well be an issue in some applications (eg inside a case), where a thinner material would be beneficial. Unfortunately I do not recall what differences in thickness we're talking about here, percentage wise.

I found some years ago that something like a cuddly toy sitting on a rubbery-backed carpet tile removed audible casework hum from an amp. Looked Ok, as well.

...actually, at present one amp has a cuddly-top cat with a cuddly-top snoopy riding it as a mechanical hum damper. Other types of cuddly toy are available. We do also have a number of elephants as my better half like them. :)
 
So that's what "the elephant in the room" is.

The room where I'm tryping this only has one elephant, but does have two bears and a hedgehog. Most of the elephants are upstairs. Over a dozen, I think. There is a mix of bears, elephantsm and hedgehogs ... oh, and some ladybirds .. in the living room, along with a few mice. Various constructions, fluffy, wooden, ceramic, etc.

Oh, I just noticed the Clanger beside the monitor. :)

They all improve the acoustic/ambience. :->
 
Must admit that if I lightly apply my hand to the upper surface of my amp with music playing, you can feel vibrations. My cd player however sits on a chipboard slab atop a small lowly pressurised cycle inner tube which seems to work pretty well, but I've absolutely no idea if it is actually effective from a sonics pov.
 
The room where I'm tryping this only has one elephant, but does have two bears and a hedgehog. Most of the elephants are upstairs. Over a dozen, I think. There is a mix of bears, elephantsm and hedgehogs ... oh, and some ladybirds .. in the living room, along with a few mice. Various constructions, fluffy, wooden, ceramic, etc.

Oh, I just noticed the Clanger beside the monitor. :)

They all improve the acoustic/ambience. :->
Large leafed pot plants (no not those!) can make effective diffusers. I use silk poinsettias, lots of, and they can work too.
 
(You can plate your plugs with Rhodium if you like,
Rhodium plating is tough, so repeated plugging and unplugging is less likely to remove the plating, unlike gold, Which is why I have used it. AFAIK, there is no sonic gain. Is it claimed that there is?
 
Since Rhodium plating is pretty cheap there is obviously no sonic gain. However, get it cryo treated, burned in and smothered in lurpak (have you seen the price of it these days!) then it will obviously perform to a higher level as it it now much more expensive
 
Rhodium plating is tough, so repeated plugging and unplugging is less likely to remove the plating, unlike gold, Which is why I have used it. AFAIK, there is no sonic gain. Is it claimed that there is?
I think there may be (possibly marginal) sonic gains, at least in theory, compared to gold plating, because gold isn't a very good good conductor of electricity compared to copper and silver, or rhodium.
 
I was pretty sure rhodium is more resistive than gold, I was just wondering if anyone had hclaimed sonic benefits. But the plating is so thin, that I suspect there is also no serious degradation either. It's just tough. And shiny! :D
 
The added resistance from rhodium plate will be the sq root of SFA in the grand scheme. If one was concerned by such things lopping a couple of mm off your cables would surely more than compensate...
 
I found some years ago that something like a cuddly toy sitting on a rubbery-backed carpet tile removed audible casework hum from an amp. Looked Ok, as well.

This little sand-filled gecko has been a steady feature for well-over 25yrs. It was considerably more effective than the original Naim 'case damper' slidey-thingummy if you tapped the case - but lives there ever since for sentimental rather than ABX reasons.

IMG_0991%20gecko_500px.jpg
 
Damping vibrations in hi-fi cases is another whole area of possible Woo to open up!

Experiment at home showed that multiple listeners preferred the sound at higher volumes if some boxes had something on them (and/ or extra isolation underneath them). An old hardback appeared to have a consistent modest effect if we turned up the volume, and the damping plates offered by HRS did a bit more, but we are really not taking a night & day change.

Whether this is due to reducing buzzing from the case itself something more complex involving microphony is well beyond my ability work out. Given the failings of tests in one room and of hearing that we all accept, the differences were small enough that I can understand someone who heard the same thing not bothering about it, while others will spend months trying different weights. I can also accept that efferent people, or a different day, might well have suggested that there was 0% difference between A & B.

I can't see myself doing a blind test on books versus fluffy toys as damping equipment, not least because using a Clanger just increases my joy - which is of course very unscientific.
 
My empirical experience is that if you can damp without adding mass that’s usually better, so I’d expect your Clanger to outperform the hardback. Double joy.
 


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