DIY speaker isolation base for a wood floor

Thanks for the link to the Newport primer @audiozenology. Another interesting maker of passive spring-based isolation platforms is Minus-K. Unfortunately priced on the high side.

Ironically (perhaps) Minus K is actually the modified “audiophile” version of the Newport Corp Sub-Hertz Platform of yore. Also ironically, the Vibraplane, the first high end iso stand is also based on a Newport iso stand, a table top microscope stand. 

But what is missing, if I can be so bold, is the “black art” of isolation necessary to get the best performance out of isolation systems. It’s not all numbers, guys! In the beginning there were only four iso stand manufacturers - Townshend, Brightstar, Vibraplane and your humble scribe, and mine was the only one with a sub Hertz performance. Of course, there should be a tip of the hat to LIGO project - the grand wazoo of isolation ever since it detected gravity waves, the amplitude of which are on the order of an atomic nuclear.

Also, of some interest to the student is the fact that the actual operating principle of the Minus K stand is “negative stiffness,” a much more complex principle than simple mass-on-spring employing stiff members and springs. Get it? Negative K?

Nano-K did not start out in audio, that was just a side market. The primary market for Minus-K (Nano-K) is scientific / industrial.


You can be as bold as you want but I am going to say the guy who runs Minus-K with his 10's of patents around shock and vibration isolation knows a few things about the "art" and science of isolation and probably has the numbers down pat as well 


Kinetic Systems (vibraplane) has been around since the 60s.   When did Your company release an isolation platform?

Somebody woke up on fhe wring side of the bed. I’m feeling a lot of angst Nd frustration. 😩 You are still my favorite internet scientist. 😬

The person with no skin in this game is feeling no angst. The one with angst is the one desperately trying to appear relevant while the rest of us are going "Geoff who?".


I mean why else would someone describe a somewhat simple but effective concept of using spring mechanisms both in compression and extension, the extension implemented as a flexure (the negative term in Minus) as "much more complex"?   The use of the tunable flexure giving significant benefits but not that complex. The whole isolation mechanism certainly has some complexity, but the underlying principle ... Not at all.


I am glad I am your favourite. Everyone needs a muse.