Background vibration and your system.


I have been interested in vibration and its effect on my audio system for probably forty years. I remember getting some platforms with inner tubes that had to be pumped up with a bicycle pump very early on. Well, I think they may have helps a little... but pumping them up drove me crazy. Since them I have used pucks of all kinds, and Black Diamond Racing composite platforms and cones, springs, and the best has been the Silent Running Audio Ohio Class vibration platform that I had made specifically for my Linn LP12... which was well worth the price. 

I used to be a geologist. So, I have wanted to get a seismograph for a long time. About a  year ago I purchased one. It is on the Raspberry Shake network with thousands of others. They have confirmed the correlation between times of day and remote events being transmitted into the house. Evenings and especially Sunday nights tend to be the quietest. I have seen thunder claps, cars and trucks driving by being recorded as well as not too hard footfalls on my concrete floor.  

On the map below, you can see the Pacific Northwest. Each icon is a seismograph that can be viewed.  The red dots are small earthquakes which can be seen and correlated with the recording of any of the seismograph by clicking on a red dot and then the seismograph. This page has a tremendous amount of different functions if you just explore it. 

I recommend folks that are interested, move around the map and find one close to your house. You may be surprised how much activity there is. 

 

https://stationview.raspberryshake.org/#/?lat=45.65013&lon=-122.52066&zoom=8.511

 

ghdprentice

Showing 2 responses by jallan

Wonderful post (I am also a geologist). Some of the biggest benefits to my stereo system were through vibration control. My HiFi Racks rack with two inch oak shelves and point plate isolation made an astounding improvement, as did Stillpoints under my source compnents.

 

George, you might be interested to learn that the Scanning Electron Microscope on the JOIDES Resolution drillship was originally isolated from the custom wooden lab bench by an inner tube suspension. Vibration control for a number of the instruments and microscopes aboard that ship during the Ocean Drilling Program and the two later IODP programs was always a challenge! My favorite problem that was addressed was how to do high precision weighing on a moving ship!

Just went on the Silent Running website-what an interesting company! The most recent picture of the JR SEM (before it was demobilised last year) showed the SEM on cork+rubber isolation feet on top of what looks like an isolation platform, not si dissimilar but thinner to the cheaper Silent Running platform. I wish that I knew of the company earlier (several decades ago I had oversight of the JR labs, and for nearly two decades I oversaw funding of JR operations at NSF), as I could have suggested them to Texas A&M (as science operator of the JR).