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Component isolation

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? 
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twoch
429 posts
 
Jimmie,  this topic will drive me nuts   i only needed to read two   good luck
toetapaudio
474 posts
 
@select-hifi, how do you justify saying "there are no better products" than Townsend isolators? What else have you tried? Have you tried Stacore or Vibraplane for example?

I am not knocking Max Townsends designs, I am sure they are very good but to say there is nothing else to compare, is unjustified.

Currently we are testing an air spring/slate platform/ Ingress cup and ball set up which is giving very good results. Ingress footers are now available through us in the UK.
papafrgog
102 posts
 

This s a great post...I'm really a novice trying to better understand the intricacies of damping and isolation, etc.  My takeaway is that there's no one solution, but rather a combination of solutions dependent upon one's system and environment.  A lot is devoted to reducing component internal vibration, which makes sense to me because its the closest to the signal path, sometimes actually in the path. 

So does room acoustic treatment come into play, in terms of reducing airborne vibration that can find its way into the audio signal? Can this vibration enter the cable or component and disrupt or alter the audio signal?

Probably a really stupid question, but like I said, I'm trying to learn first - spend later.

 

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,853 posts
 
I have roller bearings by both Ingress Engineering and Symposium Acoustics, as well as Townshend Audio Seismic Pods. Roller bearings provide good isolation in all planes but vertical, in which they act as not isolators, but couplers. The Seismic Pods are very effective in all planes, a great product imo. Available in many load-specific versions, around $100/pod.
jhills
615 posts
 
I spent a good portion of my professional life dealing with the, sometimes catastrophic, effects of vibration in rotating industrial machinery. Aside from out of balance, many of the same problems with many of the same solutions as involved with audio - looseness and resonance - excited by internal and external forces including frequencies, resonate frequencies and their harmonic and sub-harmonic frequencies with solutions being accomplished through tightening, dampening, isolating, or coupling.
Generally solutions in audio are a matter of working individually with each component and does not/should not have to cost thousands of $$$.
While I agree with the importance of eliminating vibration and resonance in components, I also agree with what some others have said here - sometimes things (dampening, coupling, etc. etc.) can go to far, leaving everything sounding dry and sterile. I've never heard a live performance that sounded sterile. The world is full of harmonics and resonance - just gotta to know where to draw the line, to help your system produce something that sounds like music.....Jim
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