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How do you deal with vibration?

Greetings all,

Many of us work very hard to keep vibration out of our equipment. I was hoping we could share our experiences with each other. I was wondering what other DIY methods people are using?

I personally have had good luck with shipping open cell foam under plywood. I find that about 60-70 percent compression works best. I place the foam underneath some plywood (Using spruce 3/4 inch). Then I place the component on the plywood. However, I think this more isolates the component from outside vibration. I don't think it does much to drain internal vibrations, especially in a CD transport.

Also I can not find open cell foam in town any more. I am ashamed to say that I actually went to Wal-mart to buy some. Now they don't carry it any more. So I was wondering where else I can get some?

I am currently thinking about building a Sandbox for my CD player and amp. Then putting the sand box on top of some sort of isolation material (open cell foam or cork rubber etc.) My thoughts are the foam or cork or etc should help keep the vibrations from getting into the equipment and the box should drain the internal vibrations.

Also, what are peoples experience with different woods. I live in BC so I can get most wood fairly cheap. I imagine every wood has it's own sonic signature due to it's resonant frequency. What works best? Solid maple, birch ply, MDF, walnut, mahogany etc...?\

Anyways, feel free to through ideas and experience (both good and bad) out there. It would be good to know what works and what doesn't.

Happy tweaking,
Nick
nickway

Showing 1 response by piezo

piezo
304 posts
 
just my 2 cents on whether vibration control works; in some cases an unreserved yes.

I had a pair of silver/copper pro silway IIs that had some nice bass control and openness qualities when used with my CDP but they also had a horrific tiring glare. No getting around it. They sucked in that role to the point of being unlistenable.

I had some mixed metal chrome/sorbathane feet deals (about 1.5 in dia at the base) under my tube pre to help control vibration impacts to the tubes. I'm not sure if they really help out all that much under the pre but when i put them under the CDP the glare from the Pro Silways was gone and the whole shebang tightened up top to bottom. Points up vrs point down...no significant change that i could tell. would other vibration controls work better...can't say and don't really have time to try these days. However, controlling the vibration at the source at the macro level helped unquestionably. On a detail tweak side of things it did seem that the sound was a tad better with the cages off my amps than with them on but the arrival of toddlers ended that experiment.
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