Energy damping or energy transfer?

Cbrentc,

LOL ....your thoughts make me think that someone should extend their noise cancelling headphones into a device to cancel vibrations....all you need is a 3 axis accelerometer tied to the device you want to stabilize and then a negative feedback loop to a 3 axis vibration servo that actively vibrates the device in the opposite way and cancels out all vibration ...airborne or otherwise.....this is the kind of stuff which is used in inertial guidance systems...it would not be cheap! (Of course the device would need its own internal damping...but this is common already)

Worth a patent perhaps?

Shadorne, in fact the vibration servo device could be another small speaker installed in the stand or support device! Brillant idea!
Bob P.

It's been our experience that all different products perform differently, and even can be different in various applications.
Primarily, the idea of vibration transfer would be aimed at taking the vibrations away from the equipment and down into a larger mass which is capable of dissipating the vibrational energy.
The idea of local damping would be aimed at trying to dissipate the vibrational energy right there at the equipment.
Basically, the difference in need would dictate the product used, because if the need is greater than the local damping product used can provide, then the overload of vibration will be reflected back into the components as the Zener Viscoelastic Model demonstrates.
In a highly vibration-laden environment such as an audio listening room, it is very likely that any small viscoelastic product would be overloaded very quickly, and thus return the vibrations into the components, causing smear.
To deal with large amounts of vibrational energy, a means to transfer the energy to something which has the capacity to dissipate those vibrations more effectively(large mass, house, earth) might be a better choice in many applications.
There are products which are designed to do this.
Some are more effective than others.

Shadorne,

I'll check the Patent Office website & get back to you. . .

As to my thoughts above, it's all speculation. I do prefer the way my TT sounds when it's 'suspended', though. Maybe it would sound even better with the listener suspended too. I'll look for patents of 'audiophile swings' while I'm on it.

Brent