the trouble with that entire paragraph is that the frequencies involved are quite different so one set of vibrations coming down cannot block the seismic (very low) frequencies going up. Furthermore the energy involved with the seismic vibration is much much greater than the energy coming down towards the floor since seismic energy can move the entire building, and does move it, the everyday microseismic activity moves the building up and down, to and for, and in 3 rotational directions. The spikes are unable to deal with the rotational directions of seismic vibration and cannot block them. So the real analogy is it’s like a 44 Magnum vs a pea-shooter, with the seismic vibration being the 44 Magnum. Without decoupling techniques such a mass on spring the whole Coulomb device is moving right along with the motion of the bundling and the spikes are moving up and down right along with the motion of the building.
There is nothing coming down the pike resembling 0-20 Hz, but there is plenty of seismic vibratin going UP the pike in that region, which includes the resonant frequencies of tonearms, cartridges, turntable platters, CD laser assemblies circa 8-12 Hz.
If spikes could block seismic vibrations as you claim LIGO, the experiment to detect gravity waves could have saved itself an awful lot of time and effort by foregoing the very advanced seismic vibration isolation systems they developed and just used Coulomb type devices, or spikes or mechanical diodes. But that would not have worked. In order to obtain the instrument sensitivities that were eventually deemed necessary to detect gravity waves (recall they are the amplitude of the diameter of a neutron) REAL and HEROIC sesmic vibration isolation techniques were required. Gravity waves were not detected overnight. LIGO project was begun 20 years ago and didn’t detect gravity waves until last year, most of the effort was actually applied to the development of the seismic vibration isolation systems.
Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica
vibration isolation & resonance control