cones or sorbothane or both?

Correction to TWL. If a rubbery material absorbs the vibration, the energy is disipated in the form of atomic vibrations. Once the energy is absorbed, it will not be "re-released". This is based on the visco-elastic model of vibrations. Some energy will make through the rubbery material either if it is in a frequency where the material can't absorb it (i.e. the resonance frequency) or if the energy coming into the material is to high for complete dissipation.

Salsero

Salsero, I think your last statement is the critical one. According to my understanding of the Zener model, the damping must occur completely during the relaxation time of the material in question, or the vibrations will not be fully damped. In such a case the remaining portion of the vibrations will be re-released into a suitable adjoining layer.

Earthquakes can be felt hundreds if not thousands of miles away from epicenter. Is the Earth direct coupled or is it absorbent under these circumstance? Molecular transmission? Yea I think so! Where did all that energy go? You are still living with the effects. You cannot isolate anything. Direct audio coupling to Earths ground is the most effective path to the best of sound. Mixing one ineffective material with the science of resonant energy transfer makes for a misguided and misjudged outcome. Tom

Theaudiotweak, I don't comprehend. Is the earth direct coupled to what? The vibrations don't go on forever, so ultimately its turned into heat from internal friction--the earth is thus, in fact, absorbent. Also, things *can* be effectively isolated. I doubt, for example, vibrations from your stereo are affecting mine...

Twl, I have to believe, in Karabiyikoglu's odd position (no real room for racks, everything on a desk), there might be *some* benefit to pucks. While they certainly don't isolate all vibrational energy, some of it has to be turned into heat...

Anyway, Karabiyikoglu, if you are still listening, sounds like you have a problem because of space constraints. If everything is on your desk, try some experimentation. How resonant/flexible/wobbly is your desk? If it is really solid, you might be better off with cones--if the desk is solidly coupled to the floor, you are basically coupling to the floor if you put points between the desk and the gear. On the other hand, if the desk vibrates or resonates, you might have the only instance I can think of where isolation makes some sense. As I said before, I'm a cone-guy myself, so I can't help you pick pucks. I would try, as much as possible, to avoid actually stacking components on each other. Any possibility of getting some shelves you could mount on the wall? At least that way the gear wouldn't be in direct contact. I know target, for example, used to make a fairly heavy duty wall mount turntable shelf...

thanks everybody. i will tweak with cones and sorbothane and post my experience on "my system" page.