Medical Isolation Platforms

I've tried plenty of shelves, feet, ect... For me the Vibraplane was the best of the bunch followed by the Grand Prix Audio stuff. I think if you are just looking for one platform for say a turntable or CD player the Vibraplane is great. You do have to mess with it every say 2 weeks as they do slowly leak air, but man o man does it ever improve a turntable or CD player immensely. It probably requires about 1 minute of your time every 2 weeks to keep it level and pumped up the right amount. Grand Prix stuff is almost as good and it is totally no fuss. After having a Grand Prix rack and not having one and then having one again, I consider it a pretty important piece of the system if you have a good one.

What accessories do you need to maintain its performance? Is there a specific compressor type? I take it you (Ejlif) use the passive platform type.

Minus-k and Halcyonics are comparable in vertical-isolation performance and both are superior to the Vibraplane. The Minus-k systems are passive and have resonant frequencies (0.5 Hz) that are an order of magnitude lower than pneumatic isolators. Once set up, a Minus-k table needs no maintenance. In contrast, the Halcyonics units are active and require 110 V; they are also much more expensive. The extra $$ buy you somewhat better horizontal isolation compared to Minus-k; however, it's not clear that this offers much benefit in audio applications.

I have Minus-k systems in my laboratory for an atomic-force microscope and a surface-plasmon imaging apparatus. The effectiveness of the isolators can be readily measured with those instruments. What motivated me to buy Minus-k units for the lab was the obvious sonic benefit of mounting my turntable on a Minus-k BM-8 isolator at home. In my view this remains the most cost-effective upgrade I've ever done.