vibration control

i don't get it with all these "vibration control" devices: is the idea that they prevent the vibrations from shaking up the electrons, which would (presumably) affect the sound? the idea of it all just sounds ridiculous to me. but many of these "tweaks" sound ridiculous to me. the only component in which i can see a legitimate need for vibration control is a turntable.

09-05-11: Roxy54
Paperw8,
I think that what is ridiculous is making the comments you make without having tried any of these devices. It isn't always possible to explain why something works, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't work. That isn't to say that there isn't good science behind some of these devices.
Anyway, why don't you give it a try? You may have a pleasant surprise.

believe it or not, i actually have experimented with different components (although not "tweaks") and have found that there wasn't a lot of difference. on the other hand, i have made substitutions where i was able to tell a difference, really served to establish in my mind that there is a difference between high end audio and some run-of-the-mill audio equipment. but in general, my take on high end audio is that you rapidly get to a point of diminishing returns to scale.

for example, last year i bought a wadia 381 cd player to replace a krell kav-300 cd player. since i decided to sell the krell, i felt that i owed it to a potential purchaser to send the unit to krell for reconditioning. when i got the unit back and did side-by-side comparison between the wadia and the krell, i had a hard time telling much difference. in fact, if it had been a blind test, i don't know if i would have guess correctly which was which.

but my experiences, and general way of looking at stuff, leads me to discount statements that rely upon "magic" for their operation.

09-05-11: Roxy54
I don't believe in magic either Paperw8, and I have tried several tweaks that yielded little or no positive result for me. It is really too bad that we need to waste sometimes substantial amounts of money to find out that it was for naught. I have had sidesteps as well as backsteps with amps, speakers etc., but we were talking specifically about isolation/vibration devies here, and I was saying that I have had very positive results in some cases.
The most extreme case for me was Starsound platforms underneath my speakers. Expensive, but worth every cent.

speakers are mechanical devices, so i can believe that vibration control devices can be useful (i don't know this for a fact, but i can see some plausibility in that case). so let me revise my previous remarks to include both turntables *and* speakers. i guess what i am getting at is that i just don't see any reasonable explanation as to why vibration control devices would have any impact on a purely electronic device like a solid state amplifier. some have claimed that tube devices are influenced by vibrations, but i don't know enough about the matter to debate it one way or the other.

09-06-11: Geoffkait
It seems pretty clear than any wire or cable or electronic element such as a capacitor or resistor is subject to vibration. Tonearms and cartridges as well as the platters of turntables are also subject to vibration, since they resonate at their natural frequencies. The chassis of any electronic component is also subject to vibration. It is less obvious that transistors, ICs, the CD disc itself as well as CD laser assemblies are also subject to vibration. A spring system is used to provide some level of vibration isolation for the laser assembly but the spring system is not a perfect. Lifting cables and power cords off the floor is often effective in reducing the effects of the floor's vibration on the sound. Isolating a solid state amp will usually produce better sound, a rather unexpected result compared to tube amps, which seem like an obvious candidate.

i don't understand these comments at all. let's say that a wire or cable does indeed vibrate: so what? are you suggesting that you believe that these presumed vibrations will somehow affect electronics signals as they travel through the cable/wire? if so, what is the basis for such belief?

the only case in which i can even remotely see a potential legitimate reason for using "tweaks" that lift the cable/wires off the floor is if the cable/wire is running over carpet, because in this case it is possible that the carpet can accumulate static charge, which would potentially induce an interfering electric field within the cable. but even there, if you have a problem like that, then your cable if probably poorly shielded, but at the price of audio cables, you have a right to get well shielded cables. furthermore, if you've got poorly shielded cable, the bigger problem that you are likely to face is that adjacent cables are going to cross-induce interfering electrical fields.

you write of "the effects of the floor's vibration on the sound". i certainly can believe that the floor (and walls and ceiling) can have an impact on what you hear, but the vibrations in the floor/walls/ceiling are the result of energy from the acoustical wave (i.e. sound) produced by the speakers. so i can believe that the vibrations in the wall affect the sound that you hear. what i don't believe is that the vibrations in the floor affect the electronic devices. if that is what you believe, then would you explain exactly how this is supposed to work?

09-06-11: Geoffkait
An electromagnetic field is subject to a number of things, including as you suspect, static electric fields. But we have learned that the electromagnetic field - the audio signal carried through wires and cables is also subject to magnetic interference as well as mechanical interference.

i have to admit that this is a *truly* creative explanation.