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Vibration Isolation Experiments

Mr Pig said:
Have you looked at Stack Audio's new isolation feet? They're not cheap but the few reviews they've had are outstanding. They use a novel method of dissipating energy and apparently they're quite hard to make.
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I've purchased some for speaker isolation.
 
What about Maglev, not for vibration control but for removing the shelf-borne variety, at least, from the equation. For my own good fortune, I was given, as a present, by a Korean pianist who thought she owed me a favour for having helped her with her English for her Berkley College final exams, some “Wills Sound Spikes “, made in Korea and which are not spikes at all but more like turret shaped feet with pistons containing opposed polarity magnets in a nice bling golden cage. I was unable or didn’t dare try them under my turntable ‘cos I only have 2 hands so, in despair I put 3 of the set of four under my Sugden A21se in a sort of improvised equilateral triangle around and roughly beneath its toroidal tranny and forgot about them. It was only after a couple of weeks that I suddenly (for me) realised that my system was sounding better, the noise floor had lowered and I was hearing new detail. It looks a bit daft with the original Sugden feet dangling in thin air but I think the extra height helps fresh air ventilation under my amp and later convection up through the vents on the top plate perhaps.
No idea what they can do under speakers ‘cos I only have one set of four.
 
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TheFlash said:
Is there such a thing as too much isolation? I suppose if we want as close to total isolation as we can get, someone needs to invent superstrong audiophile hooks and superstrong audiophile fishing line so we can suspend our loudspeakers from the ceiling, floating one inch above the floor... I wouldn't be surprised though if they then sounded completely different from what the speaker designer intended as my guess is that the designer iterated the design while it was firmly planted on a floor of some sort.

Thoughts on enoughness and toomuchness?
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My experiments so far say no.
Law of diminishing returns must set in sooner or later though.
When I first had the Creaktiv rack I thought that was it, job done, then experimentation reared it's head
Improvement to each and every addition
 
Chris said:
What about Maglev, not for vibration control but for removing the shelf-borne variety, at least, from the equation. For my own good fortune, I was given, as a present, by a Korean pianist who thought she owed me a favour for having helped her with her English for her Berkley College final exams, some “Wills Sound Spikes “, made in Korea and which are not spikes at all but more like turret shaped feet with pistons containing opposed polarity magnets in a nice bling golden cage. I was unable or didn’t dare try them under my turntable ‘cos I only have 2 hands so, in despair I put 3 of the set of four under my Sugden A21se in a sort of improvised equilateral triangle around and roughly beneath its toroidal tranny and forgot about them. It was only after a couple of weeks that I suddenly (for me) realised that my system was sounding better, the noise floor had lowered and I was hearing new detail. It looks a bit daft with the original Sugden feet dangling in thin air but I think the extra height helps fresh air ventilation under my amp and later convection up through the vents on the top plate perhaps.
No idea what they can do under speakers ‘cos I only have one set of four.
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I'm not sure I'd want such powerful magnets near my cartridge, but maybe I'm worrying too much...
 
My rack was sitting on a suspended floor and I drilled 3 circular holes through the floor, that were a tad bigger that the circumference of the rack legs. The legs now sit on the foundations of the house and isolated from the floor. Cheap, simple and effective solution
 
leroyd said:
My rack was sitting on a suspended floor and I drilled 3 circular holes through the floor, that were a tad bigger that the circumference of the rack legs. The legs now sit on the foundations of the house and isolated from the floor. Cheap, simple and effective solution
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You’ll be keeping the same rack for the rest of your days then, and aren’t planning to move house anytime soon!
 
My latest experience with isolation is different types of isolation sound different. The system sounds great when the amplifier is placed on the new rack (DAC is on the old rack). The bass sounds stronger and more impactful and the overall presentation is clearer, nuanced and more dynamic. However, when I placed the DAC on the new rack, it all sounded a bit too soft and mushy with a loss in bass slam and dynamics. I've now moved the DAC back to the old rack and the sound is slowly improving. I suspect the system particularly cables need several days to settle down after they have been moved or bent out of shape to accommodate the components.
 
I suspect your ears might be doing more settling than your cables.

Remind me: what are the different types of isolation in each rack which you refer to here? What sort of isolation was the amp on (new rack) when the bass sounded stronger? And what sort of isolation is the DAC on (old rack) when it is sounding better?
 
TheFlash said:
I suspect your ears might be doing more settling than your cables.

Remind me: what are the different types of isolation in each rack which you refer to here? What sort of isolation was the amp on (new rack) when the bass sounded stronger? And what sort of isolation is the DAC on (old rack) when it is sounding better?
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Yes, likely my ears as well.

The platforms on the new rack (Solid Tech Rack of Silence Reference) are suspended on springs with free movement while the platforms on the old rack are fixed to the pillars. Extruded aluminium feet are used to support the platforms on the new rack while stainless steel footers with ceramic ball are used on the old rack.
 
Suspended wooden floor over a void here as well, though the void is filled up with some stuff for isolation. Anyway what works here is rubber on the floor, then a big concrete block which i use a speaker stand for my threeway's. Decoupling from the block is with sorbothane. On top i use Dirac to tame some peaks(up til around schroeder), luckily not really any dips to speak off so i get a nice smooth response/slope.
Very happy with this setup and the dog won't knock this over, he lies against the stands often but they never move at all even with his 47kg.
 
IanW said:
My main HiFi is in our lounge (11ft by 18 ft) which has a suspended floor with a significant air volume beneath. The laminate floor and the air volume beneath vibrates and has added noise / distortion to the music being played to a greater or lesser extent over the past 25 years. During this timeframe I have tried various things to reduce the 60-70 Hz resonance in the room (main room mode):

1. Increased mass of speakers and Mana sound stages resulted in a tighter bass, but it did not change the main resonant modes that still left records like the Prodigy being played with excessive bass.
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I'm in a similar situation, with the music room above a double garage, and of matching size to it. My experience is that this sucked all the bass away. I had a pair of TDL RTL4 transmission line speakers when I moved here, and in their previous installation (late 1800s Scottish tenement, ground floor, solid timber floorboards, solid stone wall behind), they went WAY down.

Moved here, and all the bass was gone from my music. Solution for me was to add a couple of Tannoy subwoofers.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
I've had similar experiences to the OP. Though my room doesn't have the same sort of issues the OP's has and is fairly benign, I've found that isolation under equipment, speakers, and mains block has all contributed to a tightening up of the sound, less 'hash', less of that fuzz of reverberation around the notes, better timing and more natural timbres. All good stuff. I'm currently a big fan of AcouPlex, made by MusicWorks.
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Same here. Acouplex everywhere!
 
Mr Pig said:
My suspended floor bounced like heck. House is very old. It's still not great but I tacked the issue head on by going under floor and stiffening it. The joists are reinforced underneath where the speaker are and I've put loads of 'soldiers' in which brace the joists against the ground/solum. Helps a bit.
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I’m resurrecting this thread as I’m interested to hear from anyone who has directly compared Gaia Isoacoustic feet on floorstanders and compared them to Townshend isolation speaker platforms - when used on wooden suspended floors. Not particularly interested on the differences on a concrete or tiled floor - I’m interested in the effects on bouncy floorboards

Anyone compared and have a view?

Thanks!
 
ex brickie said:
I’m resurrecting this thread as I’m interested to hear from anyone who has directly compared Gaia Isoacoustic feet on floorstanders and compared them to Townshend isolation speaker platforms - when used on wooden suspended floors. Not particularly interested on the differences on a concrete or tiled floor - I’m interested in the effects on bouncy floorboards

Anyone compared and have a view?

Thanks!
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Hi! Townshend won for me with the PMC 25.23 I had at the time. The Gaias lost something in the bass that the Townsend didn't. My floor is not very bouncy but I don't think it's concrete either.
 
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