Isolation platform - Gingko vs Mapleshade

I have the Gingko (though I do not use it a lot). It definitely gets a few things right. For a non suspended TT like Aries it will do the tricks that a suspension does, meaning a very black ground and airy clean imaging. Thankfully it doesnt screw up the PRAT while doing so. My only complain about it is the use of Acrylic platforms and base. To me acrylic always sucks out some life from the music. The Gingko also does that a little but not a lot. You will never get such clean black backgrounds and grainless imaging from a mapleshade wood platform.

The Gingko absolutely ruined the sound of my VPI....took it off the platform and quickly sold it.

I agree with Pani about the effect of the use of acrylic in Gingko platforms. Some may like the effect, as it does seem to drain some resonances, but others may perceive the effect as losing a bit of sparkle or life. The same has been said of turntables using acrylic platters and plinths. I wound up using a combination of the Gingko and a device with which Stringreen (and other NJAS and former NJAS members) will be familiar, Pon-Tunes, under my old Forsell CD transport, which was very sensitive to what it sat on. Using the Gingko made the sound a little dull to me, but the Pon-Tunes by themselves made it a little too bright and thin. The combination worked well for that piece, the Pon-Tunes adding back a little sparkle to the sound while the Gingko doing a good job of draining vibrations. As to why it should do this for a CD transport, I have no idea, but I could not deny the effects.

03-30-15: Rcprince
... As to why it should do this for a CD transport, I have no idea, but I could not deny the effects.

Russ, anything that affects the "ease" with which the pits on the disc are tracked, including vibrations and mechanical resonances which may be affected by the platform under the transport, can in turn affect electrical noise generated by the servo mechanisms and circuitry in the transport, as it tracks the disc. Some of that noise may in turn couple onto the output signal of the transport, in turn contributing to timing jitter in the clock that is extracted from that signal in the DAC, in turn contributing to jitter in the timing of D/A conversion. The amount and the frequency characteristics of jitter in the timing of D/A conversion can of course affect the perceived "sparkle" and/or brightness, or lack thereof, which you referred to.

In the case of an integrated CD player, such as Akg_ca and Dopogue referred to, that noise may couple into unrelated downstream circuitry in the player via grounds, stray capacitances, power supplies, or other paths including the air. In turn not only causing jitter in the D/A conversion process, but possibly also having effects on analog circuitry. The degree to which that occurs will be highly dependent on the design of the particular player, of course, as well as on the condition of the disc.

From a post by Kirkus in this thread:

CD players, transports, and DACs are a menagerie of true mixed-signal design problems, and there are a lot of different noise sources living in close proximity with suceptible circuit nodes. One oft-overlooked source is crosstalk from the disc servomechanism into other parts of the machine . . . analog circuitry, S/PDIF transmitters, PLL clock, etc., which can be dependent on the condition of the disc.... One would be suprised at some of the nasty things that sometimes come up out of the noise floor when the focus and tracking servos suddenly have to work really hard to read the disc.

Also, in the case of a tubed CD player such as Akg_ca described using I suppose that controlling vibrations and mechanical resonances could reduce low-level microphonic effects that may occur in the tubes.

Best regards,
-- Al

Since the laser is suspended using a spring system with resonant frequency around 8 Hz, I'm guessing, then the laser itself is subject to structural vibration with frequency in vicinity of 8 Hz, no? So, there would be a good reason to employ an isolation device with a very low Fr, below 2Hz if you can swing it, since you want the mechanical low pass filter to kick in as soon as possible to reduce vibration at 8 Hz as much as possible.