Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Viscoelastic materials - Sorbothane is one of the least effective of that type material I’ve worked with -when used in conjunction with a constraining layer form a constrained layer damper, which is not a bad idea for damping the top plate of any isolation stand of the mass on spring variety - the gold standard. There is obviously “residual vibration” on the top plate and the component being isolated due to acoustic wave mechanical interaction, vibration from motor, transformer, etc. in the component and very low frequency seismic vibration transmitted via the isolation system, only partially effective for very low frequencies. Mass on spring. So, to be thorough, two things are needed - effective mass on spring isolation and effective damping of the top plate. Also it’s best to have extremely hard footers like NASA grade ceramics to couple the component to the top plate and to couple the iso stand to the floor or shelf, for extremely fast EXIT of vibration, eschewing rubbery materials altogether.

Geoffkait- great post. I needed to read it a few times.  Lol. 

Some definitions :

constrained layer damping - flexing of viscoelastic (VE) material between two layers of a stiff material will generate a shear force on the VE material. The force will stretch the VE material, and the stretching converts the kinetic (acoustic) energy to thermal (heat) energy.

mass on spring damping - loosely, a mass on sprig system implies any system where a mass loads a compressible material, converting kinetic energy into potential energy. 

@mattnshilp and @geoffkait , I appreciate your comments on a very interesting subject, keep it rolling. I’m going to be trying out some of the footers you mentioned and others. I will come back with my findings.

As regards speaker isolation, have a look at Sven Boenicke interesting swing base design. The rear of the speaker hangs from steel threads and the front is supported on a ceramic sphere sitting in non ferrous metal cups, might be brass or gunmetal.

With regard to Shun Mook, the design looks very interesting. I have read some comments that Dalby here in the U.K., have used ebony in an even more effective way. I don’t know anything about this brand, they seem rather elusive, if indeed they still exist.

I will cut up a few pieces of ebony and try then by themselves under my DAC/Server and integrated to see what they do.  I know Cardas uses Myrtle for theirs, which is tough to find.

Here’s the thing. The Shun Mook Mpingo disc is probably not what you think it is. It’s actually two different woods, Gabon ebony and Mpingo wood, a variety of rosewood as I recall. Also, inside the cutout, if you remove the small disc of wood embedded in the disc, lo and behold - a crystal! WTH!

The Mpingo disc is very resonant and is very sensitive to direction, top to bottom but also azimuth. Thus the real Mpingo disc is rather tricky to fabricate, tricky to knock off and tricky to use. Used incorrectly it can easily hurt the sound.