Alternatives to Stillpoints

Ack chew ally, you cannot control the very low frequency seismic type vibrations with materials such as mahgister just mentioned no matter how exotic the materials or in what combination. If it was that easy everyone could do it. 🤗 And LIGO the project to detect and observe very low frequency gravity waves ♒️ would not (rpt not) have required the long 20 year program of vibration isolation development to be able to sufficiently reduce the effects of seismic vibration type noise on the experiment.

What is required for audio systems is a mass-on-spring isolation system of sufficiently low natural frequency Fn to be effective for the critical frequencies 8-20 Hz. For cables and power cords a simple suspension by strong thread from eye 👁 hooks in the ceiling will suffice. So I have just distinguished between isolation and damping. You can still use your exotic materials for damping. I am looking for people who want perfect, not just good.

Pop quiz,

Why is a 4” maple board better than a 1” or 2” board for isolation?

I actually make a dual layer mass on spring iso stand, the Nirvana, Revelation Audio has one, it’s two stacked layers of heavy masses on springs. The trick is keeping the resonance frequency of each mass on spring layer far enough apart to avoid any untoward interaction. It’s how the big boys do it.

I’m a big fan of bungee cords for suspending components. And of suspending all cables and cords from the ceiling. One spring can be quite interesting under a thing, since it can isolate in rotational directs as well as vertical direction and has a very low resonant frequency compared to multiple springs. Getting a thing of some size to balance on a nice springy spring can be quite a challenge sometimes.

I quite like Patent Pending stamped on top of the Critical Mass Center Stage footers. Nice touch.