Preamp Deal of the Century

Suspending a circuit within any given chassis will only serve to trap the resonant energy transmitted by the transformer and all internal as well as external wiring. Some of this errant energy will be electro-mechanical self generated by the circuit itself some will be airborne generated. So now the floating board has no way of dissapating this self perpetuating resonant energy. It is now trapped. Oh well.. By the way dampening will only compound this problem.. Tom

My sole motivation here is for people to get the lead out. Some things are only worth free. Mass loading is old school, dampening is old school,isolation is old school. I am old and have been to all those previous schools. Thankfully I'm not there anymore. Most people I would like to have drop by for a listen. It is very fullfilling to see a friend become excited about some new implementation and benefit of physics. My only payoff is the turn on I receive knowing a friend has now opened his mind and his ears. Tom

Theaudiotweak, I believe Lrsky has devised a very interesting solution. While I can only speculate from what I've read thus far, it seems that since the lead is contained or perhaps suspended inside the "fishing worm" goo, I suspect this "lightens the load" of the lead and allows it to move more freely than normal in reaction to vibration, hence dissipating the energy. Theaudiotweak is correct on many levels about dampening and the need to drain (the right amount of)unwanted resonant energy away from the component. From what I perceive thus far about Lrsky's design, it seems that it IS potentially draining energy. Making an assumption that it is only dampening simply because there is lead present cannot be accurate.

Bwhite, Respectfully this is but an 80lb.storage device. There are many others of this same school.. Resonant energy can only be suspended, stored with no place to go but up into the very chassis it supposedly will benefit. What about airborne energy it too will have no high speed way of exit. It will be slowed to exit by the material that it rests upon. Perpetuating the storage of resonance by such devices only regurgitates and continually amplifies the whole procedure over and over again. No way out...Tom

Theaudiotweak said he had no need for his 80 pound platform. He wouldn't take any money, but gave it to me. It was a very nice thing for him to do, but 1 man's trash is another man's treasure. I had 1 of Larry's smaller platforms and I am ecstatic about having a larger one. I'm not very technical but this thing works!! The music is smoother, richer, fuller with more low level detail and much less microphonic hash. My guess would be that what you really hear is the absence of that microphonics that makes everything better. When I got Tom's platform home, I noticed that the feet were recessed in to the platform. No suspension would account for much less improvement. The object of the game is to shunt the energy in to the platform and have it suspended on feet with a very small surface touching your shelf. Without that suspension I would guess you lose most of the benefits. I hope to fix the feet and invite theaudiotweak over to listen to the difference.

The world is full of isolation products. The Still Points do a great hjob and I'm sure others work well. My 30 pound platform is a big step up from the Still Points, and I can't wait to see how much the 80 pound platform makes when set up correctly. My experience has been that this thing makes everything better! I would strongly recommend trying to make one if possible. If not, I'm sure there are many other choices for isolation. I think the Still Points are good, and I'm looking forward to hearing theaudiotweaks device of choice.

Thanks to the tweak for the platform, and to lrsky for sharing a great design which can cure microphonic problems, and make your system sound much better for a small investment.