Vibration and Isolation at a budget?


Hello,

Well, my system is nearly complete (for now), except for vibration isolation control.

I'm running a MMF-5>Slee Era Gold>Onix SP3.

Speakers: Onix Ref 1's and actually using a small musical x-sub right now (may or may not go away while comparing).

I'm in medical school, so budget is key. So, I"m wondering what some good tweaks are for this system. My speaker stands are solid and sand filled. My stand is a Salamander Archetype. The MM5-5 is a dual plinth with some vibration feet on it. I"m getting a cabinet builder to make me a 2" Maple Stand for the TT.

What else should I get? Are the vibrapods better than a maple stand? Anything for the Era Gold? Sub? The SP3 is on points right now, should these be placed in a vibrapod or something similar?

Thanks y'all!!
pablo16
"I wonder if this is what Mapleshade uses as the source material for their Isoblocks?"

You can bet on it...at many times the cost of the same ones sold at any HVAC supplier. Call it an audiophile tweak, make silly claims of proprietary design, add a little voodoo and there you have it.
Here is a great site for different tweaks on a budget:
http://www.audiotweaks.com/collection_ascend.htm
Also, click on "footers" at
Herbiesaudiolab.com
where there are many affordable products to handle vibration.
The economical, and wonderfully effective, Big Fat Dots for beneath a speaker, and Tenderfeet for beneath a component, come with Herbie's usual, and remarkable, 90-day no-risk trial period.
Mapleshade uses two, glued double decker but crossways, for heavier units, and the same but cut into 2" blocks for lighter units. If you do the math you'll see their mark up is only normal amount necessary bring anything to market. It is a testimony to Pierre's commitment to offer real world improvements for reasonable cost, that he goes to the trouble of exhaustively researching cost effective tweeks that work and marketing them for the benefit of you and me. It is also a testimony that he believes in his products that he offers a 30 day money back guarantee. He is also VERY generous with his time helping folks on the phone. Projecting cynicism on him and others like him is unfortunate, unnecessary.

Dealer disclaimer.

On a slightly different note. There are two different issues with vibration control. One is to isolate components from externally generated vibrations such as airborn music sourced vibrations and foot falls with turntables. The other is evacuating subtle vibrations generated within the components by the circuitry itself as well as any vibes taken in from the outside. Many people believe that the priority is to evacuate with rigid cones rather than isolate with soft material and that the latter traps vibrations within the component, muddying the sound. The ideal seems to be a combination of evacuating with brass cones such as the Mapleshade Heavyfeet or Walker Valid Points, into a massive platform such as hardwood or granite, etc. which in turn is suspended by soft material such as sorbothane, the above mentioned Isoblocks, or a sand box arrangement such as Brightstar offers. This effectively evacuates, dissipates and isolates and can be quite affordable. At the least, experimenting with cones will yield surprising results if you've never tried them. There seems to be an advantage in bigger cones, thus the Mapleshade Mega Mounts.
Piedpiper,

It's not cynicism if it's fact. What Mappleshade if trying to pass off as customized vibration pads are the same gizmos available for much less at HVAC supply stores. He hasn't even changed the basic ribbed surface. It's cork and rubber, period. Custom-cutting them into 2" blocks is hardly worth the added cost, or justifies branding them as something different than what they are. The cynicism lies in companies overpricing products and pretending there's some special magic behind them. PT Barnum is smiling.