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In praise of isolation.

Isolation as in components, not personal.

(although, that’s not necessarily bad either)

There has been much praise, and discussion on the forum with regards to spring isolation.

Well, all this praise, caused me to look into how to approach this for myself.

I like to try things before I pass judgment on an idea.

The whole coupling/decoupling thing has been of interest to me for a while.

I get the desire to couple (yeah, I know,,,) as it plants the gear firmly in the ground, and if the base is heavy enough and made of a material that absorbs vibrations, you should be golden.

Then there is the problem of 7.83hz. Nope, not audible, but that doesn’t matter. Anyone who has used a test record to check for tonearm resonance can see quite clearly how an 8hz frequency can make the tonearm shake like a belly dancers belly.

So, decoupling. Springs made logical sense. Except, there was the problem of vintage turntables with their springy/bouncy top plates/platters. That just didn’t seem right.

I made an isolation platform and put springs underneath it. Figured out the proper spring rate and ordered 4 springs to support the 90lbs sitting above them. 
It’s crazy the clear and obvious difference it made. For the nominal price of $100 for the 4 industrial springs, the sonic improvements were off the charts! When coupling, and making changes to the materials used under the TT, and the types of feet used, there was a difference with the clarity of the highs, their brightness and with the bottom end being muddy or lacking depth.

With the springs however, the whole presentation opened up. Everything sounded better, clearer and more defined. Faster, less shrill and I could go on.

Not only am I divorced, but I’m a firm believer in decoupling.

(see what I did there?)

Damned 7.83hz…
perkri
oldschool1948's avatar
oldschool1948
503 posts
 
As a follow-up to my previous post, I installed the Gaia III footers with Gaia footer spikes on my speakers (sitting on carpet over a concrete basement floor).  I immediately noticed improved accuracy and detail in instruments and voices. Soundstage not so much, but I still need to dial in my speakers again. 

The SQ with Gaia products is noticeably better than with spikes alone. For my power amp, I thinking of installing Butcher Block Acoustics spikes into my Butcher Block Acoustics amp stand and sitting the amp on isoacoustics OREA Bordeaux footers.  For all other components OREA Bronze footers or ingress engineering level 3 rollerblocks.

Anyone ever compared isoacoustics OREA products against ingress engineering level 3 rollerblocks?
relaks
63 posts
 
@perkri

Damping the bounce was going to be more challenging I figured.

Take a look at Townshend springs, they damp it with rubber enclosures.


tonywinga's avatar
tonywinga
844 posts
 
I stuffed foam inside the springs that I am using for dampening on my speakers and amps.  I believe you want the spring/mass system resonance to be between 3-4 Hz.  That seems to be effective at isolating the speakers, amps, etc from the floor. I am using butcher blocks for ease of fabrication and also because I want to use a combination of rubber feet/dampening with coil spring isolation.  
Another trial I made with only limited success were these spring loaded footers offered on the web.  I purchased some nobsound spring loaded footers to try on my CD Transport.  I am not totally satisfied with them.  While they were inexpensive the plastic upper and lower pieces cause the springs to squeak.  I wrapped the springs with teflon tape and that cured the squeaking.  These footers include 7 springs each but it is possible to use as little as one spring each.  I had to use 2 springs each to support my CD transport.  One spring is not strong enough to keep the footers from completely collapsing in my case.  That limits the lowest spring rate possible to use with these footers for a given mass.  In other words, a lower spring rate would require a longer spring to support a given mass.  Using the VibrationAnalysis app on my iPad, I determined that the resonance point of my CD Transport with these footers is about 8 Hz.  I can't make the spring rate any lower in order to lower the resonance point.  Because of that I also see that the isolation performance is not quite as good as what I have achieved on my speakers and amps.  
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