Isolation stands: snakeoil?

There’s a lot to be said for very massive granite slab type set ups in terms of resistance to bending forces and plain old inertia. Yet, the fact remains the entire house is vibrating according to the local seismic type forces like traffic, subways, Earth crust motion. Therefore, the granite slabs are also obviously moving right along with everything else at low seismic frequencies. For this reason using springs along with the granite slabs is suggested. Mass-on-spring. Yeah!

The big Basis TT has proper isolation built in but it’s $100K. The Rockport TT if it’s still made has a dedicated isolation system built in but it’s $80K. All the rest of them, the squishy feet, the springy feet, are Masquerading as built-in isolation as their spring rates are too high to do anything. The resonant frequencies of the platter, the tonearm and the cartridge are quite low, so it’s the very low frequency vibration that’s the real problem.

I don’t like pneumatic systems either for the same reason. Once they develop a leak they will never sound right because there’s a certain design pressure that obviously goes bye bye once a leak appears. And if you have to prop one side up then the thing isn’t really isolating, is it? However, if you or anyone you know is good with Teflon tape, the type for air fittings or the paste for air fittings the leak can be fixed. Both are found at Home Despot. No reason to live without isolation. That’s no way to live. 😬

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Untreated CDs on untreated CD players almost always sound thin, wiry, airless, synthetic, boomy, rolled off, unnatural, bland, two dimensional, undynamic, metallic, electronic, congealed, uninvolving, unmusical, cold, tizzy, irritating and like paper mache. But I can certainly understand how some folks can get used to the sound and think, well, that must be the perfect sound they were talking about.

And the Laughing Goat Award for the funniest post of the week goes to....

Baaaaaaa!  🐐

What’s shakin’? Uh, the whole house is shaking! Not just the listening room. You know, due to all the traffic, Earth crust motion, wind, ocean waves hitting the shore, what have you. Besides it’s a no brainer to isolate the speakers these days, it’s really quite the fad. Saves a lot of time and effort.

The problem with thinking you’re safe if you’re on a concrete slab is the entire building is shaking due to very powerful seismic forces, including the cement slab. And shaking in all six directions. The very stiff cement slab helps relative to suspended floors, nevertheless....That’s why a very stiff top plate is recommended for whatever isolation stand you want to talk about, to help deal with bending forces.

If they’re based on mass-on-spring you’re good. Or negative stiffness. That’s what the big boys use. Everything else is a big compromise. There is no harm in using damping for the top plate and isolation.

The expense of isolation stands is often, but not always, a function of the resonant frequency and to some extent appearance.