Vibration isolation or absorption?

In all of audio, nothing, and I mean nothing, is easier to test than the effect of vibration on a piece of solid state gear, and yet ... we have zero in terms of verified results.

It’s not hard, vendors. Put a subwoofer next to your preamp and see if it makes a difference.

Of course, tubes are another thing but even those could be measured.

I’m not saying microphonics don’t exist, I’ve definitely heard it. I had a Radio Shack phono preamp that would ring like a bell when struck, probably due to the ceramic caps in the signal path, but today? Meh.

Wake me up when there’s an iota of measured relationship between vibration and output on any piece of modern solid state gear.  Then when you've actually measured that then you can tell me what sound isolation works best.

Erik, have you watched all the videos Max Townshend made and put up on YouTube? Worth your time, at the very least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZxi1oZfvDA&pp=ygUNbWF4IHRvd25zaGVuZA%3D%3D

This is a very complex but important subject.

As others have pointed out, whether to absorb or transmit vibration depends on the floor, the equipment and personal preferences. After thirty years of experiments these are my findings:

On speakers. I have gone from spikes to Symposium Svelteshelves first flat on the floor, then on Final Daruma cups and balls to today end up with a cheap set of Chinese springs in cups

On electronic equipment I can’t even remember all the permutations: Sorbothane, then again Darumas, Symposium Svelteshelves, Black Diamond Rcing Cones and today Black Ravioli Big Pads on Gingko Audio platforms

On phono I have used a Townsend Seismic Sink for many years but now prefer spike mounting on a thick, wall mounted acrylic shelf (bearing the scratch marks with philosophic indifference).

In all this journey, two solution stand out: the springs under the speakers resulted in razor sharp soundstaging and lightning fast leading and trailing edges on individual instruments compared to all other solutions.

The Black Ravioli Big Foots are nothing short of sensational: the elimination of power supply as well as air borne vibrations resulted in significant ‘de-sludging’, i.e. an amazing increase of transparency on large orchestral works. It felt that the sound was much less ‘compact’ and closed in.

As always: Enjoy the Music

I'll second the Nobsound springs. I bought after-market springs for their bases. They take less than half the load of the supplied ones (same size). With those, I can fine-tune any component on three pods, using any number of lighter springs required. Now, everything literally gently floats, but no more than 1/8" travel.

With a combination of original and lighter springs all my subs float as well.

My speakers are a pain at 100 lbs (but a joy to my ears). Still, I'm designing a faux-Townshend platform that should utilize much larger 2-7/8" rate-specified springs. Anybody's guess but as prev mentioned, it probably can't hurt (unless the speaker falls over...ouch).