The Isolator: the latest rip-off?


Any opinions on "The Isolator" which appears to have about 25 cents worth of material, selling for $150.00?
fatdaddy
Hi Turntabletweak,

I have sorely missed my ET 2.5 since I sold it. Any comments you could make of the Conductor versus the ET would be very much appreciated.
Dear Thomasheisig: The last I heard you were not a site to behold either, yet you may be of great value ? Just another two cents although that might be a litle bit to much mass around your ---!
Lets look at this from the point of view of the cartridge:

The stylus tip is vibrating, the energy of this exication is supposed ot be damped linearly with respect to velocity and frequency by the damping structure such that there is no overshoot or frequency non-linearity. this is pretty much an impossibility, but good cartridges get damm close.

The energy not damped is then transmitted through the cartridge body through the coupling between the body and headshell and towards the next coupling , i.e the bearings.

Each of these couplings is a mechanical impedance mismatch ie they couple better at some frequencies than others. This means tha at the frequencies that they don't couple well, they reflect energy back to the cartridge.
The neoprene foam creates a high impedence (lossy) coupling between the cartridge and headshell. It absorbs the energy being transmitted from the cartridge. The issue is that it also deflects quite easily which can interfere with the cartridges ability to accurately track transient information.
If the foam deflects instead of the damper, the coils dont move accurately and the rebound of the foam against the vinyl cause a movement of the coils that are not part of the recorded information.
The audio effects of this device are that in arms that do not have sufficient damping of the arm tube, you will hear better intertransient silences and definition but in all cases you will hear a dilution of transients.
It is my opinion that you have as low an impedance in the coupling between cartridge and arm such as to draw any extraneous energy away from the generator. Then the judicious use of armtube thickness, internal damping and bearing design will result in no energy being reflected back into the cartridge generator assembly.
The folks at SME are not dummies.
If you have an excitable cartridge, use the foam, it is certainly cheaper than buying a new cartridge.
HTH
Dear friends:Over the time I experimented with some self made and not self made help-devices like the Isolator.

Adding mass and antiresonant material to the headshell like: bluetack and sorbothane ( I never try the coin ), and isolator from the guys that invented the tip toes: this isolator was a little plataform with three tiny tip toes that used it between the cartridge and the headshell, etc, etc.

From those experiences I learn that what we are doing with those devices is to change not only the resonant frequency response point between the tonearm and the cartridge but the resonant point of the cartridge body/headshell.

These changes alters the whole perceived frequency response of the audio analog chain, that is what the people posted here when they post they like the changes/colorations.
Now, if you like it or not is another subject. What it is clear is that we could have a different quality sound reproduction and not necessary for the better.

Today I don't use any kind of these " isolator " devices because I preffer the quality sound of the cartidge/headshell very tight/close coupling alone: I experienced more clarity and better tonal balance top to bottom ( specially at the frequency extremes ), maybe ( and I say only " maybe " ) with a not to huge soundstage but a very natural one.

The Isolator people are doing a very clever business with their device ( and in its own rights ) and is up to any one to pay that kind of money for another " equalizer ".

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
Nice analysis by NDoshi.

Like Raul we have tried a DIY version of the Isolator on our TriPlanar/ZYX Universe. The UNIverse is a very well damped cartridge and it seems to mate especially well with the TriPlanar.

For these reasons, what we heard was mostly the negative effects predicted by NDoshi: a softening of transients and muddying of bass allowed by introducing a lossy coupling between cartridge and headshell.

Results will vary depending on arm and cartridge. Whether you like it or not will depend on what you want your music to sound like. In our system and to our ears it killed dynamics and muffled the life out of the music. We hated it.

In your system? That's up to you.