Do equipment stands have an impact on electronics?

reading through this thread i did not see any mention of 'active isolation'.

passive isolation/decoupling can get the job done in most situations, which was where i was at. then I switched speaker systems to a 2 tower system which was -3db at 7hz and -6db at 3hz. and this bass tower was 6 feet from my turntable. it took me a couple of months to understand that the sudden occurrence of noticeable groove distortion on female vocals, cello's, and other previously wonderful passages was feedback from these massive 750 pound, 7 foot tall bass towers.

so I purchased 2 different Herzan TS active platforms. a TS-150 for my preamp and digital and a TS-140 for my Wave Kinetics NVS turntable. http://http//www.herzan.com/products/active-vibration-control/ts-series.html

since active isolation needs a grounded rack with zero compliance and some mass loading I also switched my rack system to the Adona GTX.

active devices are stiff and very fast. they use piezoelectric sensors and actuators, and sense resonance and compensate for it. and that happens in real time. they are designed primarily for using electron microscopes in laboratory conditions. which happens to be the same job we need done for our electronics. the feedback from music and background hash of reality needs to be eliminated from our reproduction chain so it does not overlay our music.

passive devices settle and overshoot since they are soft. an active device is stiff since they can stop and start. active is 500x stiffer than passive devices. they can attenuate noise down to .5hz. there is a graphical display on the side of the Herzan TS platforms that displays noise in horizontal lines that is being attenuated. if you clap your hands you will see the lines get squiggly and get sensed and compensated for. it's that sensitive. these active devices are built to also auto level. when you turn them on they first level the top platform. after that they just do their thing.

while not cheap to buy, when combined with a modestly priced grounded rack they are not much more costly than the more spendy racks used by many audiophiles and in the context of uber systems they are sensible products. and science and industry proves that they really work.

any system will get a boost with an active shelf since they objectively out-perform any passive device. period. OTOH some systems and specific situations actually 'need' active to solve specific problems like I had.

ive had both my Herzan's for 4 years now and they have been flawless. they bring a level of nuance and solidity to the music in the ultra dynamic system that must be heard to be believed. coherence on musical peaks at warp 9 is outstanding and allows the music to have an ease and authority not otherwise possible. they do require a good foundation ideally; I have 6 inches of concrete as my floor. a suspended wood floor might compromise an active device as it would be continually compensating for the sensed compliance and burn out.

Andrew,

yes; for a few reasons the active isolation does yield a greater payoff on the vinyl. obviously the most significant issue is the mechanical nature of the stylus in the groove and so the delta of improvement is greatest, then you have simply more information and nuance from the vinyl so further to take things. the true payoff has to do with a sort of spooky level of ’suspension of disbelief’ that happens with voice, cellos, piano’s......or musical peaks.....you hear farther into the music. decays and ambient information seems unlimited. like a light turned on rendering more info on familiar tracks. and at spots of musical peaks where you might otherwise cringe expecting things to get hard and edgy the music just sails thru with ease. this retains the musical flow with large scale music which tends to make you play more of it.

the more dynamic and vivid the pressing the greater the degree of improvement. direct to disc pressings seem to particularly benefit.

digital dacs do benefit, while silver disc playing benefits even more (again, a mechanical process).

obviously the better the passive isolation that it replaces the less the improvement that is heard. there are some very good passive devices out there.