i was involved in a thread about stylus drag on turntables where my use of active isolation came up. it was asked for me to discuss my views and use of this approach for system optimization. i mentioned it likely needed it's own thread to do justice to the topic. here it is.
excuse me if i get too basic here to begin with. i've not seen this subject discussed in depth on Audiogon before.
active isolation devices use piezoelectric sensors in 6 axis to sense resonance and piezoelectric actuators in 6 axis to compensate for that resonance. in essence it's a feedback loop of read and compensate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectric_sensor passive devices are more or less springs to one degree or another. springs float, settle and overshoot. active devices are relatively stiff; 500 times stiffer than passive since they can STOP and START. passive can't stop and start. you do see passive devices with automatic leveling, but otherwise they can only act passively as a spring.
an example of an active device; the Herzan TS Series;
http://www.herzan.com/products/active-vibration-control/ts-series.html the limitations of active devices are mainly as follows;
---they are only really effective under 200hz.
---in stock form they typically have signal path corrupting switch mode power supplies.
---to be effective they need a solid base. which means a solid rack grounded to a solid concrete floor. suspended wood floors, or non-solid racks are going to compromise the performance.
---the gear being isolated cannot have it's own self resonance that might excite the active sensors. and not every piece of gear will benefit from active isolation. so active is very system context dependent. you can't just use it anywhere and expect a particular result.
there are very very good passive devices that approach what an active device can do; the Minus K, Stacore platforms, and Vibraplance are three popular examples. i'd recommend investigating these before considering any active devices. those examples do need the same solid floor and rack as active to be effective.
and another consideration is a passive isolation rack; the best example i can give is the Artesania decoupling rack systems. likely the best passive rack. again; a solid floor is going to allow the Artesania to perform at it's best.
finally; there is a website tutorial which can really get granular with deeper levels of information on active devices for those interested.
http://www.herzan.com/resources/tutorials.htmllastly i will say that active devices are something you consider when you've mostly done everything else you can do and want to take things further. cross otherwise impossible thresholds of performance. you have a system that is where you want it to be. active is the bleeding edge. it will allow the music to escape the confines of resonance in a way nothing else can do. it's just physics.
