Mr. Kait,
I believe you should do more research on vibration specifically in the studies of sound applications and musical instruments. In every recording studio and concert venue where I engineered sound, anti-vibration designs provided a deader (not quieter) listening space which always fatigued me. The facilities with hard surfaces always presented a live dynamic outcome when mixing or listening and that ‘live vibrant energy’ kept me totally responsive through extremely long sessions.
Vibration is not an enemy when related to sound and musical reproduction; it is a ‘constant’, very similar to how the human ear works.
Vibration contains all the dynamics and harmonic structures listeners seek to hear. There are properties, a phenomenon, formed from vibration that build and layer on “all” vibrating surfaces. These heavier amplitudes of energy forms resonance and propagates on “all” smooth surfaces.
If you research Coulomb’s Law and applied it to the recording sciences and sound, it might lead to a greater understanding.
What do we seek as listeners - live dynamics or dead harmonics?
You stated: And actually, now that I think about it there are even other cones and pointed things that are better than Audiopoints, such as for example Golden Sound's NASA grade ceramic Super DH cones. Things have changed quite a bit since thirty years ago; I think it’s fair to say.
Your background and education is in aerospace so we are certain some bias exists in that statement but just to be fair, you're listening assessment of Audio Points™ is meaningless when comparing products that cost tens ($$) of dollars to others costing in the hundreds of dollars ($$$). We are much more in favor of comparing devices of the same financial investment values. Our cost comparison product at this level would be a fourteen pound mechanical grounding plane we call the Sistrum Apprentice Platform™. We are extremely confident should you ever wish to compare ours to theirs. The differences in performance are measurable, highly audible and will sound much livelier.
Agreed, a lot has changed in the past thirty years. The Audio Point still remains an Industry benchmark for very affordable vibration management yet has evolved into a much higher standard of performance when applying greater mass, geometry and physics hence the family of Sistrum Platforms.
You stated: While you fellows have actually done, by dismissing vibration isolation, is obtain what we refer to as a local maximum.
Not sure who you are referring to as “we” in your statement. Is it you and who else? I am sure the majority of listeners and readership does not understand the term “local maximum” so here is a brief definition provided by Wikipedia:
‘In mathematical analysis, the maxima and minima (the respective plurals of maximum and minimum) of a function, known collectively asextrema (the plural of extremum), are the largest and smallest value of the function, either within a given range (the local or relative extrema) or on the entire domain of a function’...
Please make your point more clear as to what it is we have actually done or accomplished?
In closing: One of our engineers examined your ‘Isolation Springs’ and noted there is a “shear component” as well as a “compression component” with a single metal conduit providing a “primary mechanical grounding conductor” which is very similar to our technical approach. Are you absolutely sure you products are actually isolating and not transferring resonance?
Once again, our understanding of resonance management does “NOT” dismiss the theories behind “vibration isolation”. We just disagree on the philosophy and principles behind isolating (storing) resonant energy within the component, loudspeaker or musical instrument without a mechanical means providing an exit pathway for the heavier amplitudes of detrimental resonance. Our ears do not listen to electron microscopes.
Robert
Star Sound
