Isolation/coupling: basics?

Eldartford, do you mean that for SS gear this issue is not really an issue? Do you use any kind of isolation/coupling yourself?

In regards to CD players, I just don't get it. Optical reading mechanism reads data, and it doesn't really know what kind of data is it: audio or data files. Processing of that data actually determines it. And optical systems of CD drives seem to be tolerant enough to vibrations to be able to read the data with no errors even in computers, where drives vibrate like crazy. The only explanation I could throw is that in spite of the fact that vibration defocuses the optics and causes read errors, a computer, reading data in X speed, is able to read, check CRC, re-read again and again until he gets the perfect read. Audio CD player has only one attempt, and if it isn't lucky there will be a error. Do I miss anything?

Eldartford, just to make sure, are you sure Reed-Soloman error correction is implemented in regular CD players? It seems that CDP and long distance signal transmission are very different applicaitions; this method seems to be good when you need to recover the most possible info when retransmission is not possible, but not when you need to get absolutely 100% of information or to report a error. So, I'm not really sure this method is being used in data storage techniques, when re-read attempt doesn't cost much. When CDROM reads a data file (I'm not sure if the data is retrieved using Reed-Soloman error correction or not) and detects CRC error, it does perform re-read on lower speed. Just because of that it is possible to get a bit-perfect copy of CD using digital audio extraction, which is generally impossible using audio CD player.

Whoever is right, it leads us to conclusion that CDP is error-protected enough to be immune to vibration too. But it conflicts with a practical experience: people claim, at least, changes in dynamics when isolation/coupling device used...

Guys, extraction/write speed doesn't directly relate to a sound quality, it depends on HOW do you extract the audio data to HDD, and what CD-R drive you use to write it back.

Getting back to the subject :)...
Sean, you play a lot with isolation. You haven't find any satisfying explanation of the phenomenon (impact of vibration to a CD player other then just data read error which may not be a problem if Eldartford is right) from engeneering perspective?

Sometime before I made quite a lot of searches in internet about DAE issues. My observations show that even the most modern CD players/drives have a lot to do with data reading errors, and it very varies from drive to drive. And that normally CD players (it's actually their firmware) don't check data integrity as good as CDROMs do, which, however, have got improved with the years. The reason of why that indication almost never came on might be a 'weak' criteria when interpolation is really required. While interpolation methods also got improved, on 16/44.1 they still may not be refined enough comparing to the 'original' (otherwise all transports would sound the same). You can't get the 'original' when playing CD in CDROM either. So, it seems that the only way to get the 'original' is proper DAE onto hard drive that doesn't have reading issues, and then playing it from there., which is another story with other issues.