Equipment Rack

Robert. Still hoping for a link to a reference showing how a mechanical spike can act as a mechanical diode to filter out seismic interference? You claimed this was "common knowledge" so would love to hear more

Also I’m a tad confused as to how a mechanical diode (isolation in other words) fits into your system. From the following it would seem this is not the effect you are after? Again apologies if I’m confused

they move because they are coupled to the flooring. The Energy Rooms™ are also direct coupled to the structural foundation so they also move ‘in rhythm’ with the earth

Star Sound products do “NOT” Isolate.

Robert wrote,

"Isolation prohibits the evacuation of resonance formed from vibration. Said resonance builds up within and on all surface areas of the chassis including circuits and all the small parts, wire, power supplies, etc., including every part and surface area of the chassis. This establishes tremendous component operational inefficiencies as this resonance also propagates on all smooth surfaces clogging all signal pathways (electrical, electromechanical and acoustic) per Coulomb’s Law."

Robert, as I already said damping is necessary and sufficient to deal with (medium and high frequency) vibrations that show up on the top plate of an isolation device, whether produced by an internal motor, transformer, CD transport mechanism, acoustic waves, etc. BUT this is in addition to isolation which is necessary to deal with the *very low frequency* structureborne vibrations. It is not true that isolation prevents the internal vibrations from escaping the system. The trick is to properly isolate and properly damp without over damping. If there were no such thing as isolation or if isolation prevented vibrations from escaping the system, as you say, then the LIGO project would never have been able to detect gravity waves, the amplitudes of which, by the way, are on the order of the diameter of a neutron. In fact, LIGO would never have been able to detect gravity waves without vibration isolation. Period. Surely your seismic expert knows that.

I have almost always used vibration dissipation, "mechanical diodes" and damping techniques in conjunction with or integrated into my isolation platforms, including my sub Hertz Nimbus platform. It is not exactly a big secret that damping of the top plate is important.

I have had many discussions with Michael Green of TuneLand and Michael Green Audio, who preaches a very similar message as yours, that vibrations should be allowed to flow freely in the system and the room and that isolation is either not possible or ineffective. Are you aware of Michael Green and are your methods similar to his?

cheers,

geoff kait

Hello folkfreak,

That information was provided by our newest member who is heavily involved with seismic sciences and I believe was posted by another company associate.

The studies of seismic activity are new to our company. When establishing our technical model we addressed limiting low frequency rumble via shear waves, reflective angles and relied more on the laws of gravity and motion regarding inaudible frequency.

We have always stated and agreed energy can and will travel up into the Sistrum Platform™ despite the geometry and material science, however with the majority of energy traveling down the conductor is greater the minute energy making its way upward would not affect sound quality and to the best of our knowledge it does not. The Sistrum Platform accepts and transfers energy from ‘all’ sources and is in a constant state of motion so we never became too concerned with regards to inaudible frequencies.  

The greater concern was airborne resonance. There is little known, written, studied or discussed as to the effects of airborne energy within the sound room and more importantly how it constantly  bombards component chassis and metal conduits via a wide range of frequencies both audible and inaudible.

Reviewing the industry from a racking manufacturer’s standpoint, information concerning the managing of airborne resonance is all but nonexistent but we have noticed a tremendous amount more information on the sub-harmonic factors. The immediate question was simply why? Adopting vibration management to musical reproduction systems and listening environments is all about airborne resonance.

Our belief is that airborne resonance has greater disruptive factors limiting component operational efficiency and definitely affecting room environments as the acoustic sciences will easily back this statement was the major concern in comparison to sub harmonics.

We do not know everything, who does? We have individuals involved in our company who provide information to us based on their engineering or science specialty. Example: If you want to discuss a snare drum stand which is a catch and hold type of resonance device or the effects of mechanical grounding a grand piano then I am your guy. I am not the person who would have the resource information you have requested so please bear with us as we should have something for you in short order.

Thank you for your patience,

Robert

Star Sound

Robert -- thanks for your response. I get what you are saying about Airborne resonance and am personally getting very good results with the Marigo Mystery Feet F8 Extreme to control this effect.

My main question was regarding the other issue that of ELF or lower vibrations from seismic, traffic and construction. Having seen the immediate and profound impact controlling this has on my speakers I was hoping to find a solution I could easily apply to my equipment stands. I guess I’ll have to explore some Townshend pods to replace the GrandPrix Apex footers under my Monaco stands and see if that helps

ps If you look at the Townshend materials you can quickly understand that the issue with ELF vibration is not the audibility of the seismic activity itself but on the effect it has on the relative geometry of the speaker/listener and stability of the speaker, so an indirect effect

answer, a lot . The impact of mounting my Magico Q3s on Townshend Seismic podia was profound. The quality of the bass response became much more natural, sounding exactly like the live unforced bass I heard in a concert just this last weekend

This link provides more background on the sources and effects of this insidious vibration, don't underestimate what it is doing to your system nor make the false assumption that because you are on a concrete slab a long way from a main road you are not still subject to the effect of micro earthquakes

I am familiar with the Townsend stuff.  There are no in situ measurements in that link per say.  It will be interesting to see what Starsound's new seismologist has to say about that topology.