Isolation footers for amps

hifiman5,

Glad to hear you are finding success with your damping experiments. Anyone can see that you have put in the time to do so because overdamping the smallest of critical parts is an incredibly easy thing to do. One can lose that “live dynamic” in a heartbeat simply by applying too much material and once the “live” is gone, it’s gone for good. It takes a lot of effort and a ton of listening trials in determining how much damping is just enough so hats off to you for your dedication and labors. What materials are you using in your damping techniques?

We mechanically ground all critical electronic parts to the chassis by applying various Audio Points, prototypes thereof or smallish types of Sistrum Platforms then follow that initial process by grounding the entirety of the chassis to the rack or flooring.

I never had the opportunity to hear someone else’s system other than our own where the resonance is damped focusing on the smallest of parts but would literally jump at the opportunity to do so. Please keep me in mind the next time you invite someone over for a listen. I would like to hear more about the improvements you made to the system.

 

@geoff - We discuss and share information via real world situations involving MUSICAL Reproduction, MUSICAL Instruments and MUSICAL related environments - staying on topic. We refuse to get involved with the isolation of electron microscopes that have no sound quality relative to audio performance along with your multi million dollar 99% perfect isolation vacuums because we cannot relate to them in a musical context or affordability. This is an audio forum involving audio gear and sharing experiences from listening - not that of Popular Mechanics®.

We really don’t give a hoot whether you believe Live-Vibe Technology™ is worthy of NASA’s grade of payscale or not. The multiple Music related Industries back our claims and products from musician to recording engineer to listener. You can go on and on with your rants about Green or whatever color of the day you choose. I personally refuse to become any part of your past failed love/hate relationships.

I work with a Pro-Vibration technology. It is quite obvious the majority of historical beliefs and products involved in the Audio Industry are based on Anti-Vibration methodologies where ours is somewhat the opposite. You prefer isolation where the interfering resonant energy remains stored or trapped inside the component where we prefer the interfering resonance be transferred out of the component at high speeds via mechanical grounding. You build parts and things for audio where we too build parts and platforms for audio, endpins and parts that improve the sound of musical instruments and design and build mechanically grounded structures for musical playback, musician rehearsal environments and recording studios. The difference is, our technology can and is being adapted and used in a few more MUSIC related fields.

 

Hey, nice read though - first recommending fairly expensive cones of a different brand name, earning a few listener’s approvals then closing in on sales announcing ‘your very own’ much less-expensive springs…and Price Points too!   Hmmm shilling used to require a bit more talent on this forum or quite possibly no one is reading or affected by your 'same old - same old' anymore. It’s not like we heard it all before - 5,832 times.

Robert - Star Sound

I found that the plain old rubber feet under my big tube amp worked better than any footer I tried.

Robert, I’ve had this same discussion with Michael Green a hundred times. No, more than a hundred times. We argued until we were both blue in the face. Night and day for at least two years over on Stereophile Forum. Don’t believe me? Go look, all the discussions are still there. So, you’ll have to trust me on this, you are channeling Michael Green. It’s the same situation, exactly. Let me be more specific. Obviously it’s possible to over-damp something or to use the wrong materials. Noone is recommending either. Anything can be done wrong, no one is recommending doing anything wrong. If you are not getting good results with damping you are doing something wrong. Michael used to repeat the mantra, speakers are musical instruments over and over as if repeating it over and over would somehow make it true.

Also, nobody has suggested it’s not a good idea to evacuate vibrations from components as rapidly as possibly. Certainly not me. I’ve always recommended a combination of vibration isolation and rapid evacuation of vibration from components. Have you been sleeping through the discussion of NASA grade ceramics? Why are you and Michael Green SO dead set against vibration isolation? Why are you both so stubborn? Is it the Backfire Effect? It just makes you both seem a little like Col. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, operating without any connection to audiophiles or physics way up the river in Cambodia. One assumes the seismologist you hired or were going to hire, whatever, was unable to straighten you guys out and you fired her. Lol you saying it’s my way or the highway. I say it’s the Lost Highway.

A question of speculation:
In principal, what's the difference between the DH Cones from Golden Sound and the Star Sound brass Audio Points with brass Coupling Discs?
Someone, please school me...

I am very familiar with both of those cones and have them in my system at various times, as well as a great many other cones. One difference between the DH Cones and the brass cones is the hardness; the NASA grade ceramics in DH Cones is almost as hard at 9 + as diamond 10 on the Mohs hardness scale and brass is much much softer at 3-4 on the hardness scale although you wouldn’t intuitively think brass would be that soft. As I intimated previously hardness is directly related to effectiveness. The shapes of both are ballistic which is a good thing, both somewhat resembling the nose of an ICBM. Effectiveness is probably due to several things, most particularly rapid transfer of energy and isolation. The NASA grade ceramic cone would also be stiffer, I.e., more resistant to bending forces (isolation) than brass.