Advice on....Snake Oil

I think my analogy held up as good as comparing an LP cutting lathe to an amp.

You might think so, but in reality it does not. Its obvious that a lathe will need to be vibration free. It should also be obvious that a vacuum tube needs to be vibration free as well. Two things in audio that need to be vibration free. Your analogy really tried to make it something other.


Snake oil is not going to be measurable- and the effect of removing vibration from audio gear that is sensitive to vibration will be. However just to be clear, I've tried to point out to people many times that wire and fuses are not directional- I'm sure you would not be surprised at all at how much guff you have to take for such a simple obvious thing. I'm with you on most of this stuff; my participation here was simply to point out that vibration control isn't snake oil. I like to be able to prove things with measurements; the trick is solving how to do it. 

Is there a difference between cutting LPs and consumer amplifiers as far as vibration and leveling? I think you're comparing apples to sardines.

@djones51
There is of course a difference but your analogy does not hold up. Amplifiers respond differently to 'feet' and by this I mean vibration transfer or damping devices such as points or sorbathane feet. If the amplifier is solid state it likely will respond less; if tube the difference will likely be easily both measurable and audible due to the difference in microphonics produced. When you can both hear it and measure it, its real.

Snakeoil is like feet under amps

I run a small LP mastering operation, using a Scully lathe. It uses a table which is mounted on adjustable pointed feet; in turn a damping platform sits on top of that which is where the lathe hardware is mounted. This was built in the early 1950s; apparently the LP mastering industry does not think pointed feet and damping platforms are snake oil.