Do equipment stands have an impact on electronics?

Andrew,

yes; for a few reasons the active isolation does yield a greater payoff on the vinyl. obviously the most significant issue is the mechanical nature of the stylus in the groove and so the delta of improvement is greatest, then you have simply more information and nuance from the vinyl so further to take things. the true payoff has to do with a sort of spooky level of ’suspension of disbelief’ that happens with voice, cellos, piano’s......or musical peaks.....you hear farther into the music. decays and ambient information seems unlimited. like a light turned on rendering more info on familiar tracks. and at spots of musical peaks where you might otherwise cringe expecting things to get hard and edgy the music just sails thru with ease. this retains the musical flow with large scale music which tends to make you play more of it.

the more dynamic and vivid the pressing the greater the degree of improvement. direct to disc pressings seem to particularly benefit.

digital dacs do benefit, while silver disc playing benefits even more (again, a mechanical process).

obviously the better the passive isolation that it replaces the less the improvement that is heard. there are some very good passive devices out there.

I will repeat that active isolation is system dependent; whether it is a good ROI depends on the dynamic and full range capability of one’s system. if you have small monitors and play small scale music then the benefits will be marginal.

and at spots of musical peaks where you might otherwise cringe expecting things to get hard and edgy the music just sails thru with ease. this retains the musical flow with large scale music which tends to make you play more of it.

the more dynamic and vivid the pressing the greater the degree of improvement. direct to disc pressings seem to particularly benefit.

That is interesting.  That illustrates what I have always recognized in top tier systems:  "dynamic ease."  Loud but not loud.  Full but not strained. Another conversation (or it could be part of this conversation) would be the application of active isolation or any of these energy management technologies to room engineering.  I have toyed with that, and the results are compelling to say the least.  

There are a bunch of really interesting designs for audiophile and non-audiophile iso stands, many of which are actually not active designs, not the least of which is the complicated Minus K negative stiffness stand and the magentic levitation types. I appreciate any device with very low resonant frequency, for example 0.5 Hz is a very good number. The Vibraplane and Minus K both came to audiophiles courtesy of Newport Corp, the mother of vibration isolation devices for industry, active and passive.

I also like the idea of dual mass-spring layers and even sapphire threads or even fishing line for want of sapphire thread. Lol I’m also a fan of DIY bungee cord device in lieu of the usual DIY tennis ball or bicycle inner tube type stuff. I also like to suspend all cables and power cords using springy rubber bands or thread with rubber bands on the ends.

finally, as I’ve intimated before, aside from the technical aspects, there is an art to isolation: how much internal damping, how much damping for the top plate, how to interface the component to the top plate, how to interface the iso device to the floor or rack, all these issues are critical for obtaining the best sound.

cheers

That's great feedback Ralph and describes precisely what I have experienced.  Since you are an engineer and manufacturer like Geoff, any thoughts on why SS devices would be vulnerable?

The semiconductors themselves are microphonic. I've seen some (in need of replacement obviously) that rang like a bell when you ticked them with a small screwdriver, just like a tube.

I've also seen cables and capacitors be microphonic. One time a highly respected high end cable manufacturer made a set of cables for our Neumann U67 microphones, which I was eager to use, but regrettably the cables were so microphonic (tapping on them was easily heard at the mixboard) that they could not be used at all! The stock Neumann cables made much less noise.

The word "microphonic" itself is a little ambiguous as even tubes that are referred to or marketed as non-microphonic are in fact slightly microphonic, which can be easily demonstrated by using some effective tube dampers. Furthermore even things like circuit boards or cables or solid aluminum chassis that are not "microphonic" or considered to be "microphonic" are susceptible to vibration when excited by their resonant frequencies. That’s the case whether the component is tube or solid state. Funny story. A friend of mine said watch this. He was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room from his stand with a CD player on the top. Next to the CD player was a glass of water. Next, he began tapping his knee with his finger very softly. Immediately ripples appeared on the surface of the water in the glass, synchronized with the tapping.