Component isolation

zavato: Let’s say you’re going to add isolation feet to a component with no moving parts, such as a preamp, phono stage, DAC, amp, tuner, etc.

Which one is most critical to the extent would get your attention first?

All audio parts are moving. Audio itself is motion as it interacts with the four fundamental forces. This why I like to say vibratory tuning instead of isolation. On this forum you’re probably going to see 4 camps.

1) vibratory tuning

2) springs

3) dampening

4) mass loading

The reason I start my post this way is because it’s easy to lump these together if you are not very experienced in "voicing" your audio signal.

When you start down the vibratory control road one of the first things you’re going to learn is "your audio chain is interconnected". I’m not talking about wire, I’m talking about the Audio Code (audio signal) itself. What you do to one part of your system affects the whole. It affects the whole, because the audio code is a continuum of motion (force interaction). If you look up the "four fundamental forces" it breaks this down. In other words, you’re not so much treating a component as much as you are treating the actual audio signal traveling through the component. If you look at your system as a series of conduits connected carrying the audio signal it’s easier to manage the sound, and that’s what you’re trying to do "manage the sound" (vibration).

There’s a few tips I’d recommend thinking about. First, when you dampen vibrations you’re also dampening part of the audio signal. At first listen you might think things are tighter sounding but after you play a few recordings you will discover you have selectively removed part of the music content and the system will sound strained (smallish squeezed) on some recordings. Second with dampening, what ever your using to dampen with, this material’s character will be introduced to the audio code. This holds true with the AC, electronic audio signal and your acoustics. In audio the phrase "you are what you eat" is exactly what happens. Everything you use as a material with your system adds to the chemistry of the sound you hear.

Another tip. Low mass frees the sound high mass squeeze the sound. The more weight and compressed mass your system has the more squeezed the signal will sound. The lighter mass you have, the more open the sound will be. Both of these can be good or bad depending on how you use them or what you want to hear. Most audio systems to me sound very squeezed so I get rid of as much of the weight and mass that I can to start with. From that point I apply variable tuning to parts of the conduits using controlled mechanical transferring as a means of adjusting the signal.

Others like Geoff Kait will use spring (isolation). He and I kind of have a difference in the absolutes of the term isolation but we both believe in springs, we both use springs. If Geoff comes up he’ll explain his idea on spring control.

So these are just some basics to tuning your mechanics up. Main thing is to keep in mind that the signal is made up of fundamentals and harmonics. Squeeze these harmonics too much and you will squeeze the sound, open them up too much and your sound will become mostly air. Finding that balance can be done to give you a general sound or you can even tune per recording if you want to go that extreme (you’d be surprised how many do).

My suggestion is to explore both tuning a springs and lean away from dampening. However the more experience you gain on your own and from others will help you make your own method work for you. I've used all of the above because I tune for many people besides my own listening.

Michael Green

This is my chance to apologize to Michael Green. Because way back 30 years ago I was so sure stuff like this was bunk that I wrote a letter to the editor telling him to quit wasting my time with these silly Michael Green racks.

I still never have tried one of his racks. But I know everything he says above is right and true, because not long after writing that letter I began trying and listening and learning and all that experience the last 30 years says what he wrote above is spot on.

Including especially the part about tuning. Because while my feeling is high-fi dom as a whole has moved too far off to the fast and light end of the spectrum, that's fine. If that's what other people like that's just fine. Because with that same understanding I'm able to make my system sound spine-tinglingly fabulous, and that's what counts. Because it means you can too.

So sorry bout that, Michael. And thanks!

Michaelgreenaudio
Others like Geoff Kait will use spring (isolation). He and I kind of have a difference in the absolutes of the term isolation but we both believe in springs, we both use springs. If Geoff comes up he’ll explain his idea on spring control.

>>>>>Springs by themselves do nothing. They need mass to perform. The isolation devices that are based on Springs or airsprings employ mass to produce a low pass mechanical filter. It’s called mass-on-spring isolation. The objective is to achieve a very low resonant frequency for the isolating system to reduce the transmission of vibration as much as possible to the item being isolated. For an iso system with a resonant frequency of 5 Hz quite a bit of very low frequency vibration will still be transmitted since the low pass filter is relatively inefficient for those frequencies and will allow ALL frequencies below 5 Hz to be transmitted.

Very low resonant frequencies can be easily achieved using this method. “Mass-on-spring” isolation is the primary method of seismic vibration isolation for audiophile iso devices and for LIGO, the project to detect and observe gravity waves, which requires extreme isolation measures to reduce background vibration to the absolute minimum, isolating the super sensitive optics from seismic vibration.

My Nimbus Sub Hertz Platform, Townshend Seismic Sink, Vibraplane, Ginko iso stand, Vibrapods, bicycle inner tube, Gaia isolators and other speaker isolators - they’re all mass-on-spring devices. Anywhere a spring is used between object A and object B less vibration will be transmitted. You could even call it a damper.