Do equipment stands have an impact on electronics?

theaudiotweak
1,400 posts
11-05-2016 6:10pm
Geoff everything touches the Earth and is along for the ride. I know of only one operational device that doesn’t and only Bill Gates can pay the cost of entry. Tom

But the ride is a lot bumpier without isolation. You can ignore isolation and you will still have an incomplete solution. Even your methods for getting energy out of the system are incomplete. The cost of isolation is low once the light bulb comes on in your head. As I've said many effective iso devices for audiophiles have been around for more than twenty years, including many from yours truly.

Audiopoint:

"Kait says - “That’s because the entire house is shaking due to the microseismic activity, traffic, etc. This is precisely why audiophiles found out a long time ago that all efforts to build a rigid, solid foundation for their gear are for naught compared to isolating the gear.”

to which audiopoint resoonded,

"We cannot hear or feel our houses shaking therefore have no idea as to the validity of microseismic activity wreaking havoc on our sound systems. Star Sound Platforms are rigid and so are the majority of racking designs sold in this Industry. The minority involves spring isolation. You were one of a couple manufacturing racks built on spring concepts so if your rack was that good, where is it now?"

Simply because you’re unable to feel or hear something doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t degrade the sound. Take RFI/EMI for example. Besides I doubt you can feel or hear the induced vibration your company addresses, you know capacitors, electron tubes, transformers, a wobbly spinning CD. In addition microseismic activity varies from location to location. In locations where microseismic activity is more pronounced you actually CAN feel the vibrations, in Las Vegas for example.

FYI - I never made racks. I have been making vibration isolation devices for more than 20 years. The majority of isolation devices actually do use springs, in one form or another. Ironic, huh? 

More from Audiopoint:

Kait asks - “I realize I’ve probably asked you this question before but now that you’ve taken case of the vibrations produced by motors, transformers, etc. In the component and vibrations that might wind up there due to acoustic forces how did you address the seismic vibrations? It appears you’re ignoring them. Am I missing something?”

To which Audiopoint replied,

"We have always ignored them."

That’s the answer I expected. Do you also ignore RFI/EMI? Just curious.

The Great Kait cannot come up with any evidence whatsoever that inaudible seismic activity affects sound reproduction “in real time”. It takes equipment costing millions of dollars to “SHOW” seismic frequencies that are well below that of human hearing.

Huh? I have demonstrated how isolation improves the sound in real time as you say many times including with Mapleshade Recording Studios, Rockport/Tenor and John Curl at CES. It’s actually not that difficult to demonstrate the efficacy of vibration isolation. There are many examples of inexpensive isolation solutions for audio applications. You just have to understand the concept. The REQUIREMENTS for LIGO, as I’ve stated many times before, are far beyond high end audio requirements. I use LIGO as an example of me why Isolation is important, not as an example of what audiophiles need. Hel-loo! Audiophiles do not require MIL SPEC electronics, either.

Audiopoint wrote,

"Analogy: Speakers fire frequencies through air much the same as weapons fire projectiles through air. I would rather fire a weapon from a solid fixed foundation compared to firing it from a moving spring foundation - greater accuracy - the same with speakers (IMO)."

Actually, most heavy artillery employs "recoil," which is essentially a spring. Otherwise the force of the initial blast would rip the artillery weapon from it’s base or in the case of small arms without recoil it would break a man’s arm. Nor is the path of acoustic waves ballistic. So, a weapon is not like speakers. They're not similar at all, actually.

Audiopoint wrote,

"When a speaker is placed on springs, everything moves about and in situations depending on volume and room pressure level, speakers can also move counter to Earth’s rotation. Everything moves - the chassis, drivers, diaphragms and voice coils move freely - left to right and front to back.

Since everything is moving around how does one relate to or measure for driver time alignment?

If a speaker fires from different angles and/or locations while moving, does that affect driver dispersion patterns?

How do the internal moving parts of a loudspeaker function when subjected to constant flexing?

Speaker testing is usually done from a fixed foundation and position - not a moving plane, so how would spring movement affect the testing in anechoic or other studio environments?

if the iso system is properly designed any potential drawback will be outweighed by it’s advantages. Springs under (heavy) speakers - very stiff springs - would be extremely resistant to all motion except vertical motion due to their stiffness and that vertical motion would be very small in practice, again due to their stiffness. So you can ignore the motion using springs with speakers.