Isolation Feet Upgrade

@astolfor  I’d like to know more about these. Like the OP, I am looking at Iso pucks and have Herbies Tenderfeet currently. 
 

@gochurchgo Let me preface my answer with,🤣 Excuse my English not my first language.

• I measured using laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) from my lab that can measure vibrations in all axis to less than 0.0001mm
• I own and paid for each of the products because I want to find the best for me and can afford the best, you will see why this is relevant later. 🤣
• I am not a reviewer, nor I want to be 🤣
• Everyone’s ears and setups are different, I am happy with mine and discussing whose system is best sounding is nothing short of arrogant.

I tested and use(d)

• ISOACOUSTICS ISO-PUCK,
• ISOACOUSTICS Orea,
• Herbies a few different ones,
• AudioQuest SorboGel Q-Feet
• Nobsound,
• NORDOST SORT FUT
• Townshend Podium and pucks,
• Credo platforms.
• HRS S3 platform,
• HRS racks
• HRS M3X2.
• Solid Tech Rack of scilence
• Solid Tech Discs of Silence.

I tested vibrations and sound from one of my TechDas Air Force Three Premium with a Etsuro Gold cartridge.

I did 4 mechanical different tests,

1. Was hitting the base/platform where the isolation device rested with 100grm brass ball hanging from a 50cm pendulum.
2. Was hitting the base/platform where the isolation device rested with 2 100grm brass ball hanging from a 50cm pendulum. 2 horizontal directions.
3. Was hitting the base/platform where the isolation device rested with 3 100grm brass ball hanging from a 50cm pendulum. 2 horizontal and one vertical drop from 30 cm
4. played music at the same level same entire song, and measured vibration all throughout the song and averaged vibrations in 3 different frequency bands. I did not do this for the Orea, NORDOST, AudioQuest SorboGel Q-Feet and Herbies because I am not an idiot and would have broken my stylus.

Then I ranked them and listen with 2 friends, one of them is the founder of a company that designs and updates symphony halls, like Munich, Vienna, and Teatro alla Scala for example, and ranked and selected. This is all personal, but if my friend is good for discerning true sound for the best Symphony and Opera houses in Europe he is good for me.

The Orea, NORDOST, and AudioQuest SorboGel Q-Feet are as good as the Herbies, but measured and sounded the worse by far and to me they are not worth the boxes they come in.

Now comes the tricky part, how close to perfection you want to afford?

By far the Nobsound pucks give you the best results per $, they rank in vibration so close to the Discs of Silence that is almost not discernable.

Both the Nobsound and Solid-Teck Discs of Silence get you close to 80-84% in vibration isolation of the products that cost thousands.

I am using the Nobsound under my darTZeel NHB-468, my RHEL subs and my AS Montana.

The difficulty with the Nobsound and Solid-Tek disks is that you need to finetune and it is time consuming.

The next best I would place the HRS S3 or M3X2 not much mechanical difference between the 2 along with the Townshend Platform, the Podium for speakers.

Then I would place a home made TT self I had made for me that uses a couple of things to combine multiple material and technics.

It is a sealed marble* box with the inside filled little lead and brass pellets and then the empty space filled with supper fine sand**, the top marble floats in the sand/brass/lead and supported by the Townshend Pucks on to of a HRS SRX rack. in another SRX rack I have another similar custom marble box on top of a HRS M3X2.

* I tried concrete but marble did better mechanically, but sound wise we could not detect a difference.

**the sand/brass/lead is sealed in a flexible flexible Kevlar/synthetic rubber bag. So no dust or lead on the air. Just to have fun, we also did some vibration tests and the entire box got hotter and hotter depending the frequency, which is one sign of good isolation as vibrations get converted in heat. I am an EE, and work with a few Mechanical Engineers that helped me to find the right lead and brass size tiny balls and sand.

For speakers the best are the Credo, which are mechanically a little ahead of the Townshend Podiums but they sound different so it will be up to you which one to use.

To summarize, mechanically at the most logical $ the Nobsound and Solid Tech Discs of Silence are the winners.

Then if $ is no cost the Townshend, Credo and HRS products in some combination.

The Solid-Tek Rack of Silence is just too flexible, even with supper fine sand and lead it resonates like Spanish guitar. Just plain waste of $ IMHO.

I posted some numbers in another thread, if you are interested, but I tested quite a few more after.

@astolfor thanks for your findings! Towards the end, you cited Townshend and HSR as being comparatively the same. The HSR Vortex footers are twice the price of the Townshend footers so I'm wondering whether you have a preference between those two? Also, would you say that better footers are more critical with heavy components such as amplifiers versus a small DAC?

@goofyfoot in my opinion, the most critical thing to isolate is the turntable, then anything with vacuum tubes (mainly because it helps them to last longer) , then speakers (doing this is like treating the room and your gear everyone benefits), then your choice, as to me isolating solid state DACs, Amps, and preamps is alike power cables and HiFi Ethernet switches and cables. If you want and makes you feel better then do it, but by electrical definition they can't make any difference if they meet the appropriate specs. I buy expensive "HiFi" power cables just because they sure make an esthetics impact but I consciously know that they cant change the sound as they are completely different domains.

What are you trying to improve? What components? 

I do not want to start a war here, if you want to discuss further send me a message please.

I have an Ayre DAC  and an ASR Emitter II Exclusive amplifier using Herbie's Tender-feet and I'm thinking that better feet on those two pieces might render better results. My next upgrade however will be a better power chord for my DAC. As far as my turntable, I'm still modifying it and need to replace the tonearm before anything else.