2. misc-audio
  3. 175194-164950

Isolation Feet for Laptop

It seems fairly common knowledge that vibration is a form of distortion in many electric components, not just for turntables and speakers. Isolation feet seem to work well in most applications.

I searched around and I didn't find any information to suggest that folks are using isolation feet on laptops or desktops, despite increased streaming usage. In a great many cases, there are indeed heavy vibrations coming from within the computer.  Whether it is the fan for the CPU or even GPU to the all the various chips/transformers, etc or even power supplies and batteries. If adding isolation feet to a streamer, DAC or power supply makes sense, then wouldn't it also make sense to apply isolation feet to your laptop; if you use it for music?

Well, I am going to find out. :)

I ordered some IsoAcoustics Orea Series Audio Equipment Isolators with a max weight of 16 pounds. The laptop weighs about 6.7 pounds, so it shouldn't be that much strain, even with all the cables creating some measure of down force as they dangle over the edge.

My expectation is that the DAC will be able to perform slightly better due to reduced vibration across the USB port and power filter. The DAC is a USB stick (Dragonfly Cobalt) so it has a very rigid hard connection to the laptop; so vibration is very easily transferred.

Has anyone else tried this?

128x128guakus

Showing 1 response by oldtechguy

oldtechguy
5 posts
 

I suppose we all follow a different path on our journey to audio quality.

The only isolation I use in my current system except for rubber feet on various components are paving blocks I purchased at the local Home Depot, i use them under my speakers. I think the cost was 0.89 each.

I used a laptop as source into a Schiit DAC for quite some time, but the idea to remove the laptop from the equation seemed to be the best step I could take on this journey. 

I wanted a streamer, but couldn't afford the one I wanted, decided to go the raspberry pi route. I now have a raspberry pi 4gig with rune audio (not related to roon), a 1TB ssd storing flacs and it is connected to my Denafrips DAC via a decent USB cable, then the next step in my system is a passive XLR preamp then XLR into Bryston mono amps. then onto Von Schweikert speakers. this cobbled up system is near audio heaven for my ears, I don't see myself changing anything any time soon. Well, except perhaps selling a cd transport I have not turned on for almost a year.

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