anybody buying into magnetic levitation "eliminates the effects of any vibration" ?

jnorris200546 posts03-21-2019 11:36pmCommon sense dictates that levitating the turntable would increase its susceptibility to airborne vibrations. It may decouple the table from its mooring, but that isn't the only source of vibration.

>>>>I’m glad you brought that up. The reason airborne vibration is not very important for turntables is because the resonant frequencies of the tonearm and cartridge are very low, by design, circa 10 Hz, much lower than the lowest frequency generated by most speakers. That’s why it’s the very low frequency seismic vibration in the range 0-30 Hz that is the real issue, you know, since that range contains the Fr of the tonearm and cartridge. Of course, other components ARE susceptible to airborne vibrations. 

gs5556774 posts03-21-2019 9:07pmI don't buy it at all. The people who have an economic interest in vibration isolation aren't playing around with magnets. They offer products that work:

https://www.newport.com/c/table-top-isolation-platforms

>>>>Newport Corp is the mother of all isolation. They were the seed for Vibraplane and Minus K audiophile iso stands. But they are not the only game in town for audiophiles. There are many ways to skin a cat. Mag lev, compression Springs, airsprings, squash balls, air bladders, inner tubes, bungee cords, spring or fishing line suspensions, forced air, negative stiffness (Minus K), leaf springs. 

Of course it doesn't provide complete isolation, the question is whether it does a reasonably good job of isolating whatever is on top from vibration originating from whatever the platform is sitting on at its price point.  It is not going to do the job that a platform built for an electron microscope sits on, and even that wouldn't qualify as "perfect." 

My speakers came with magnetic levitation, like the Relaxa, for the platform that held the midrange horn and tweeter.  I eventually removed the magnetic levitation feature because it was hard to keep the upper platform balanced correctly, particularly if one tried to tilt the speaker a little bit.  I have no idea if the sound changed that much.

I have seen Gabriel, Verdier and ClearAudio tables with magnetic levitation.  All of these tables sound good, but, I have no idea what this form of suspension contributed to the sound.

I would not fret so much about theoretical considerations.  The bottom line is what it does to the sound, and that is a quite complicated matter where "less" is not necessarily better.  I've heard demonstrations using the same brand and type of isolation where, in a particular application, the model capable of better isolation/damping sounded worse.  I've heard systems sound worse after being put on to very expensive rack systems, and I've even heard sets of microphonic tubes sound better than tubes that are less microphonic.   

I'm with mapman. Electromagnetism caution.

geoffkait "The reason airborne vibration is not very important for turntables is because the resonant frequencies of the tonearm and cartridge are very low, by design, circa 10 Hz, much lower than the lowest frequency generated by most speakers."

Much has been researched and implemented towards controlling resonances of the tonearm and cartridge, but, depending on it's construction, the actual table itself will vibrate and resonant well into the audible range.  Those resonances will transfer to the tonearm as well.