Isolation for tube amps

I use Herbies Halo rings and isocups and acrylic balls on my tube integrated. The Isocups are cheap and made a real difference. I am sure as Cincy bob says, a dedicated platform would be better, but costly. The other problem, not oftened mentioned, is clearance above the amp. If you put the amp on a rack, you need significant clearance above for isolation. A high amp stand may reduce that clearance, unacceptably. I use 845 tubes and need 10" above for ventilation. I know many do'nt put tube amps on a rack with other equipment.

Cincy:
Does the TVC you've ordered come with remote volume control? How are you liking the Living Voice? I'm interested in both products.

I am using the Ceraballs under my ARC VT100 MKII with excellent results. Improvements in clarity, focus and bass definition were not subtle. Also, the soundstage opened up considerably.

Fundamentally all your equipments is attacked by vibrations emanating from three separate sources ... and requires 3 different approaches to dissapate them.

Air Born (Speakers) ... Self Generated (motors, transformers, and chips switching on, and off within our equipment) ... Structurally Coupled (HVAC motors, Cars and Trucks passing your location, and don't forget the Geo-Seismic shudder generated by the earth's shifting tectonic plates)

IMO the most deliberating of all the different forms of vibration is the equipment's self generated vibes, which need to be drained into a higher mass platform or rack ... vibrations will migrate from lower mass (CD/Turntable) to higher mass platforms and racks.

Your component's stock feet are an attempt to provide a path way to drain the component's vibrations ... as are after market cones (Wood, Brass, Carbon Fiber, or Roller Bearing set ups) ... the reason all these draining devices sound differently is you are now introducing the resonate frequency signature of the draining diode into the mix,

Air Born ... which seems to be the focus of this thread, can be defeated by "Mass Loading" or adding weight to the component ( which can be tricky with exposed tubes) to lower the component's "Resonate Frequency Point"

When a speaker pressurizes a room ... it pushes on your equipment, causing whatever is inside to vibrate. If your equipment weighs more ... it's harder for the Air Born pressurization to move your equipment around.

What would be easier to push around ... a 12 pound OPPO DVD player or my 40 pound Denon DVD5000 mass loaded with a 40 pound Bright Star Little Rock.

All the speaker pressurization sees is 12 pound OPPO vs my 80 pound Denon set up .... "Did you all skip class the day we talked about MASS LOADING" (;-{

The last area of deliberation is Structural Born Vibrations which couples to all the walls and floors in your home and are transmitted to your rack and eventually your components.

You must decouple these vibrations so they never reach your equipment.

To understand decoupling you must know a little about "Resonate Frequency Point" of a component and how to lower it.

The R/F/Point is your component's point above which it can handle and dissipate the attacking Structrual Vibrations .

"ABOVE" the components R/F/Point it will/can dissipate the vibes ... unfortunately below your components R/F/Point ... instead of Decoupling the vibes it actually gets overwhelmed by the vibes and "LOCKS UP" coupling instead of decoupling and allowing the vibes below the R/F/Point to pass right through to your equipment.

The easiest way to lower the components R/F/Point is to MASS LOAD ... add extra weight to it.

Pre Load your Viberpods, Ginkgo Cloud, Superballs, Isopods, or any other type of Elastomer decoupling device incorrectly and you will do more harm than good.

I've provided 2 links to pictures my setup .... ignore the pi$$ing contest about the solid core wires I'm involved in and view the setups

Bright Star (Mass loading) .... Denon 5000 (source) .... Symposium Double Stack (GR3) Roller bearings (Drains internal vibes) .... into the Audio Resolution/Vibraplan 120lbs combined weight for vibes to migrate to and finally the Vibraplans decouples everything down to about 10 or 15HZ

My set Up

House and Gardens meets Depths of Mordor

Pop quiz on Friday ... no more skipping class.

Fla, the various Promitheus TVC models are all minimalist designs and none of them have a remote volume control. That's not a problem for me personally, but I understand that many others feel very differently about the importance of remote control.

The Promitheus TVC I am currently using is the Reference model dual-box pure dual-mono unit built around the Promitheus rev 3 EI-core transformers. The Signature TVC that I have ordered is an identical dual-box configuration using much larger double C-core transformers with very fine core laminations. The dual-box TVC design consists of a separate chassis for each channel, such that the right channel signal is completely decoupled from the left channel signal. Each box (i.e., each channel) has its own input selector and volume control.

I lived with the Lamm L2 preamp for years, which also uses a separate volume control for each channel. As long as the volume control knobs have distinct "clicks" as you rotate them, it's not a problem to keep the left and right channels at the same level of attenuation. You just count the clicks as you turn the volume up or down.

As for the Living Voice speakers, I am very pleased with them. They are very musical, non-fatiguing, well integrated two-ways that have paired up very well with my SET 300B monoblocks. The LV speakers render the timbre of acoustic instruments in a very natural, relaxed manner. The speakers also have a big, dynamic, weighty sound that is amazing given their diminutive size. The treble is a bit laid back and very refined - basically, just what you would expect from a first-rate soft dome tweeter (i.e., the ScanSpeak Revelator).

The LV speakers pair very well with tube amplification. Your music preferences, the size of your room and your preferred listening levels will dictate how much power you need to drive them. In most situations, I think you will want at least 10 high quality tube watts per channel to drive the speakers most effectively.

Keithmundy, sorry for hijacking your thread. Fla, if you would like to continue the dialogue, we should probably move the discussion over to my SET virtual system thread:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vscnd&1187064942