advertisement


Vibration Control - everything except turntables

It seems against reason but isolating (not spiking)the loudspeakers works wonders, helps cure bass overhang, and stops room singing out of tune with kit, and cleans the sonic picture.
I use stillpoints under a couple of 50mm walnut platforms under Boenicke as swingbase don’t like carpets. Cerabase work well in place of spikes and Ebony footers I enjoyed, more for tonal qualities. I used to used my Lv obx rw sat on veneered chipboard plats to match bases, no spikes.(Kevin’s preference)
Agreed that isolation on speakers can produce great results. I have been using spikes all these years and tried isolating the speakers earlier this year. It's a revelation for me.

HRS Stillpoint is premium isolation. I would agree that different materials tend to produce different results. Not all changes are an improvement as some footers can make the sound worse. For this reason it is not a surprise that some people are unable to determine if the product that they use has brought an improvement or otherwise. The subtle difference may be a degradation instead of an improvement if it's used in the wrong place on the wrong component.
 
my turntable and electronics are in a different room to the speakers, I don't think I suffer from vibration.

Rgds
Stuart
 
I use MusicWorks stuff. Originally it relied on acrylic, but they moved on to PEEK which has more vibration-absorbing properties I understand. It certailny made a very worthwhile difference. Lately, and as demonstrated at the Daventry hifi show recently, they've got a proprietary recipe, AcouPlex, which is PEEK suspended in acrylic. The difference is extraordinary. Apparently, the benefit derives from the boundaries of the dissimilar materials. But not all dissimilar materials work as well. They had some test samples made using some very esoteric filler and they were no better than the plain acrylic. It's pricey, because the PEEK is stupidly expensive as a raw material, and making the AcouPlex is very labour-intensive, but the effect is little short of transformational.

An example: an Accuphase DP450 CD player sat on AcouPlex supports sounded better than an Accuphase DP570 on acrylic. This was demoe'd at the show. The difference in price between the players is around £4k, the difference in cost of the tables, perhaps £1k. Where's the best value?
 
I might try some vibration control measures. Right now, everything just sits on a Quaddraspire rack.
Many years ago someone I didn't like was demonstrating a Quadraspire rack at a show, moving a Naim CD player from a steel rack to the Quadraspire, and back again. I really wanted him to fail, but annoyingly the improvement was obvious!
So extra isolation may have less effect with your rack than with others, as the isolation may already be good.
Personally I use Seismic type damped springs under my (70kg) speakers, my homemade equipment racks use suspended cable platforms, and some valve gear has silicone or sorbothane feet.
In the loft system I still use the inner tube speaker platforms, which stops bass transmission through the floor.
And I seem to recall* that during WW2, secret Resistance printing presses used balsa wood under them to stop their vibration alerting the Gestapo.
* Not personally.
 
my turntable and electronics are in a different room to the speakers, I don't think I suffer from vibration.

Rgds
Stuart
In my house, vibrations travel through the concrete floor, up the solid brick walls, and are audible in the bedroom. Which is why my speakers are on springs, which stops that. Don't assume a different room isolates, without actually putting it to the test.
Smart phone accelerometer apps can be useful, although they may not be sensitive enough in all cases, but speaker to floor transmission, or speaker panel vibrations often show up quite well.
BTW, those who say SS gear is immune should read up on the effect of vibration on capacitors, for one example.
 
I’ve still got a Nottingham analogue attractive blue base I retained from a space deck, under my current dac it seems to have a not wholly accurate but pleasingly euphonic sound. More a a analogue tuning tool than isolation, but mr fletcher was a expert on material sciences and those boards are a mix of wood, resin, and plaster of Paris I think designed for each deck, again early models used selected marble, later his own composite. When I bought bardo I ordered their own marble plinth as from experience I’ve learnt that diff stone sounds different, and getting a alternative might have been cheaper but would have altered tuning.

Tom decided to provide these with his TTs due to people using glass shelves which he deemed as an unsuitable support.
 
In my house, vibrations travel through the concrete floor, up the solid brick walls, and are audible in the bedroom. Which is why my speakers are on springs, which stops that. Don't assume a different room isolates, without actually putting it to the test.
Smart phone accelerometer apps can be useful, although they may not be sensitive enough in all cases, but speaker to floor transmission, or speaker panel vibrations often show up quite well.
BTW, those who say SS gear is immune should read up on the effect of vibration on capacitors, for one example.

With the first CD player I bought I was given a set of four Audioquest CD feet from the dealer, oddly enough they had a more obvious and pleasing effect when placed under a SS integrated amplifier, both items were on the fixed shelves in a Target rack. I had only tried them under the amp because I had added an Audio Alchemy DAC in a box which I sat on top of the CD player and therefore had to remove the feet from below as there simply wasn't enough clearance.
 
Do you want just move vibrations out of the most audible frequency range ie. Spikes, bearings, springs etc or get rid of them ... Sorbotheane and the likes which convert them into heat?
 
Isn’t it nice to hold a civilised discussion on something that affects, interests, all of us.
People listening to other people’s experience with open minds, praise be. The knack must be to post before the intellectually challenged wake up.
 
Isn’t it nice to hold a civilised discussion on something that affects, interests, all of us.
People listening to other people’s experience with open minds, praise be. The knack must be to post before the intellectually challenged wake up.
Agree but it’s that type of secondary comment that raises hackles and puts your own feet into a similar view camp, perhaps?
 
Do you want just move vibrations out of the most audible frequency range ie. Spikes, bearings, springs etc or get rid of them ... Sorbotheane and the likes which convert them into heat?
Spikes couple, although I believe that is frequency dependent.
I want to isolate, which the springs do very effectively, also the polypropylene rope shelf suspension system. Bear in mind the sorbothane has to be correctly loaded to work, something that rarely happens.
51609942406_88af281772_c.jpg

And as you can see here, it isn't very good with low bass. My Tannoys have significant output below 30Hz. and the damped springs have resonant frquency
 
To add that another very significant difference was putting isolation under my speakers, again I use MusicWorks stands made from PEEK, though the Townsend stuff generally seems to work extremely well too.
 
Agree but it’s that type of secondary comment that raises hackles and puts your own feet into a similar view camp, perhaps?
Perhaps, I must admit to the occasional online bear baiting, and yes ‘intellectually challenged’ is perhaps churlish, but it is nice to not having to continually intellectually duck when posting something that others find “difficult” or challenging.
 
Perhaps, I must admit to the occasional online bear baiting, and yes ‘intellectually challenged’ is perhaps churlish, but it is nice to not having to continually intellectually duck when posting something that others find “difficult” or challenging.
I agree.The trick is to enjoy it whilst it lasts.
 
I want to isolate, which the springs do very effectively, also the polypropylene rope shelf suspension system. Bear in mind the sorbothane has to be correctly loaded to work, something that rarely happens.
51609942406_88af281772_c.jpg

And as you can see here, it isn't very good with low bass. My Tannoys have significant output below 30Hz.

Agree. I don't think Darren asked about speaker isolation (unless I've missed something). I wouldn't recommend Sorbotheane for that.
 
Vibration control is something I’ve tried tentatively over the years, especially early on( seems to be a right of passage) but I’ve always been troubled by the divisive nature of varied approaches, preferring to put my limited budget elsewhere. Things I have tried have included Stillpoints( gifted and then sold them), a Tortlyte platform, sorbothane, black cone thingies etc. All were gifted and all moved on. Perhaps my gear is just too modest to pick up differences.May be the case. I have the mats at the moment but did think I might move them on.
 
Agree. I don't think Darren asked about speaker isolation (unless I've missed something). I wouldn't recommend Sorbotheane for that.
I was thinking of electronic equipment not being properly loaded. However, I think it's usually the speakers that cause the most problems for the electronics.
 
I agree on musicworks, tried cables and tables, there is a big leap forwards with peek, (not tried latest incarnation), I think the tables are excellent and look cool, used rack for many years until I could finally afford the stillpoints double width ess rack.
The musicworks reflex? power distribution block is also excellent, perhaps on pricey side but looks good, sounds musical and you can get custom orders easily. Unfortunately Perspex is murder to keep in good Nick, so prepare to polish.
It’s a material I think you can hear, I changed ess rack from Perspex shelves to support bars, lifted a feint haze I hadn’t even noticed till gone. I know some designers loathe the acrylic “honk’.
 


advertisement


Back
Top