A Subject that should get more attation: Vibration Isolation

[cdsang]

I bet most of you if not all of you have seen some sort of vibration Isolation device(s) You may have past it off as nothing important and continued looking at your normal equipment. I have spent a good deal of time, energy, and money finding what works and what effects it may have. I belive this stuff works and works very well. My RF-7s were bright and harsh at the top end. Then I decided to do my own DIY of something that exist that only cost me $8 at lowes and about 10 mins of cutting. Belive it or not, I put 4 4'' by 6'' by 1'' pieces of oak each under my DVD player and reciver and noticed more detial and the highs a little easier to listen to as well as better focus of the soundstage. Althought note the difference was small it was there. So I read reviews about and found one on a $9000 rack that was considerd one of the best ones. The shelves were made of granite. Well I won't spend $9000 on a rack so back to lowes I granite and paid about $20 each for 3 18x18. I noticed the sound became more solid and had more detial. So $68 is not bad considering the improvment. But some things were alittle off but I didn't realize it until I got my Gingo Mini Clouds. Its basicly 3 footers for $100. This was actually worth spending. The sound was cleaner without changing treble but added a little bass.The highs were easier to listen to and more detail. So after that, I decided to bite the bullet and get 2 Ginko Cloud 11s. They are a platform that you equipment sits on.Alone it improved over the Mini Clouds and other stuff. Then one day when I had the house to myself I made what I call the 850 tower. So starting from the bottom up. I had 5 pieces of the oak in what look like a 5 on a dice. Then I put the Mini Clouds on top of the wood. On top of the Mini clouds went 1 tile of granite. On top of the granite I put 3 mini Clouds with the 2 closer to the back and one stright under were the transport would sit. And on top of all that went 1 of my Cloud 11s. All this was about 5.5 inches tall. I put my DVD player on it, put in a disk and never heard it sound this good before. To bad I couldn't keep it set up. The music was very enjoyable. The reason its called the 850 tower is because it cost $850 of vibration control stacked to make. So if you don't like your equipment, just spend $100 on somthing like the Ginko Mini Clouds or other footers. Great thing is, this stuff can be used on just about an gear you own.and it won't be outdated or unuseable 5-10 years from now. One last thing I got but is discontinued but you still may be able to buy are Gutwire Notepads. They bascily added more focus to the soundstage when put on my DVD player.

For anyone who is still with me at this point this is how I have set up now.

My Reciver is set up with the 5 peices of oak,5 Mini clouds,granite,then Cloud 11

My DVD Player 3 Peices of oak, 3 Mini Clouds,then Cloud 11

RF-7s each with the granite on the bottom and game guides on top(yes they actually help)

My system sounds more natual and the highs are much easier to listen to. I notice I can play louder without strain and my speakers tend to disappear. One disk I tried with this set up that dissapears well is a CD by Tina Arena titled don't ask. Others I have tried are songs from Hilary Duff,Jonas Brothers and few others. To be honest at first I was sceptcal. Then, the more I tried and spent, the more I belived Vibration Isolation can make a big differnce. I think everyone who cares about how there system sounds should at least look into it and learn what they can about it. Here is a review thats tries to teach alittle on the subject. http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/hrs/m1r.html

I do realize the spelling errors, but I am tired. Thanks to anyone to read this.

cdasng

[oldbuckster]

Interesting ........ but a sales pitch none the less ...... if it works for you, that's all that matters !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a new batch of Audio-Leaves for sale !!!!!!!!

[cdsang]

I am not a salesman. Just a guy with a hobby sharing my findings with others. I only talked about the products I used. Other compies do a good job to. Examples would be Gran Prix Audio,Solid Tech and Sanus I read makes good speaker stands. My main point of my post was to get others into vibration isolation. It really works., but somethings out there are trash. Some compines go the distance and makes things that work, others are just trying to make money. I have been lucky to find things that work. I am not saying vibration isolation should be on top of your list of things to get. The equipment itself should be the bigger priority. When your happy with your equipment, then you buy vibration isolation. One good example vibration isolation is a brace in a speaker. Anyway, I found something that works and I thought it would be nice to tell others my findings.

CD

[Guest srobak]

Isolating a receiver... got it. If it had a reverb coil like back in the day - I could see it having a minuscule impact on sound quality.

I have some directional inter-connects and speaker cable for sale if you are interested... The cables must be used in a "power dive" configuration.

[jbsl]

Last year I read about a DIY vibration reduction platform, wooden base for tennis balls with a thin block of concrete on top. Made the platform and really did not hear any difference and left the cd player on it. I painted a piece of wood black and put it in front of the DIY platform so it did not look so bad.

Well moved my stereo and cabinets into my bedroom and left the speakers in the living room. When I hooked the stereo back up I did not put the DIY platform under the cd player. Turned everything on hit play on the cd player and closed the cabinet doors and the cd player skipped. I tried closing the doors again and it skipped again. Now I was not gently closing them but I was not slamming the doors shut either.

So I put the DIY platform back under the cd player closed the doors and no skip. Slammed the doors and it did not skip. Slammed the doors a couple more times never skipped.

While putting the wood in front of the DIY platform I hit the bottom of the cd player with the wood and it skipped.

So while to my ears I did not hear much of a difference the DIY platform does prevent vibration from reaching whatever component is on it.

So if you feel vibration from your speakers is causing problems with your system then give this a try. It may not improve the sound or maybe it will but it stops vibrations from reaching the component.

[jbsl]

I painted a piece of wood black and put it in front of the DIY platform so it did not look so bad.

[Guest srobak]

See - that kind of isolating makes sense. Especially if you live in a violent household.

But isolating a receiver...

?

[oldbuckster]

cdsang, not bustin' on you, if I had the spare cash I might buy one, and my comment about "audio-leaves", 3 years I've been sellin' and not one sale yet, Go Figure !!!!

[HarryO]

"So while to my ears I did not hear much of a difference the DIY platform does prevent vibration from reaching whatever component is on it.

So if you feel vibration from your speakers is causing problems with your system then give this a try. It may not improve the sound or maybe it will but it stops vibrations from reaching the component."

I've been using dampeners for over a year now with semi-noticable results that seem to depend on my equipment location. I used to run a Denon DCM-444 cdp and it was prone to skip because of location to my speakers. I used isolation cones and noticed a heck of a difference. The upper end was much clearer and defined. Simply attributed to the isolation of vibration. Once I moved the cdp farther away from the speaker there was no need for the dampening. It all depended on the vibration/location.

I still use dampening blocks on my preamp. I get a bit clearer top end from my tubes. Again, the location of components seem to be the determining factor. I also like the spacing for heat dispersion between amp and preamp. These do generate quite a bit of heat.

There are situations when isolation is called for but not a magic "cure all" by anymeans.

Harry

[Guest " "]

Some vibrations woke me up this morning....one of my lamps was shaking...all in the house was good...maybe someone on the block was using a blender