So you are talking airborne vibration here, in which case an isolation device will obviously not work, unless it’s a soundproof cabinet you put the gear in. And I presume you are also talking vibration generated within the component itself, such as coming from a transformer or vibrating coils (coil whine). However, transformers and coils can be decoupled and/or damped.
So you're saying the isolation method is only good for the infrequent parties and heavy-set people dancing in front of sensitive TT? If so, I'll go along with that. But again, that's shock and impact and I assumed this thread was about alternative forms of vibration mgmt.
That aside, for air-borne vibrations you propose a solution of a sound proof booth. And for internally-generated vibrations you propose decoupling transformers and coils.
Is that it? What about all the other electrical wires and parts vibrating while current is flowing through them? And since you've now successfully decoupled any power supplies, coils, and say motors too, now that you've also successfully trapped all vibrations within those power supplies, coils, and motors how perverted and distorted has their performance become as a direct result of their now receiving the full brunt of the vibrations they themselves have generated?
And exactly for that I’d like to see some hard evidence: do parts of audio components vibrate when being exposed to airborne vibrations? The Doppler vibrometer will easily tell you. And if they do, does that have an effect on the sound? A controlled listening test will easily tell you.
Well, I never said air-borne vibrations cause internal wires and electrical parts to vibrate. But I just assume with your obviously vast knowledge you already know they vibrate and why.
Do these vibrating parts have any affect on sound? Well, clearly we have some really intelligent people here and elsewhere spending their entire lifetimes attempting to minimize some negative affect on sound, especially by isolation. I just assumed you were also on this same page.
A controlled listening test will easily tell? Whose ears do you recommend for that task? Shouldn't some sensitive measuring instrument be able to tell us whether the quality of sound is impacted by vibrating parts?
In cases where structural vibrations creeping up your rack into the turntable are the only source of vibration, isolating the TT is enough. Optical tables do just that. The allegation that airborne vibrations and vibration generated by the component itself are harmful still needs to be proven by hard evidence. So far I haven’t seen any.
In cases where structural vibrations creep up? For the isolationist, when are there cases they do not? I thought vibrations creeping up was the whole purpose for the vibration isolationist's existence? Perhaps you have confused me with a vibration isolationist as I never mention vibrations creeping up my rack. This is another falacy of the isolationist. It is the lightning rod that captures unwanted energy and redirects downward via grounding wire and spike. To the contrary, as one who adhere's to enery transfer, I propose vibrations are traveling downward from the component. But I can see why you think that may be impossible since your isolation method traps all vibrations already captured at the component.
You haven't seen any hard evidence of air-borne and internally-generated vibrations affecting our components' performance? How long have you been looking?
You seem intent to keep the sources of vibration seperate and now seem to suggest that some sources of resonant energy are relevant to quality of sound while other sources of resonant energy are irrelevant. Whereas, I've always been under the impression that resonant energy's distortive harm is indisciminant regardless of its source once its captured at / in the chassis. How about you provide some hard evidence to substantiate your claim that some resonant energy types are benign while others are harmful?
During my college time I lived in an old house with wooden floor, the cartridge was jumping all over the place when I moved, so I provided cheap (DIY) but effective mechanical decoupling. Why other people do other things when confronted with the same problem, you should ask these other people.
Klaus
No doubt. I suspect it's shock and impact experiences like this that lead many to believe they are now vibration experts.
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BTW, you neglected to answer my four rather simple questions below. Perhaps you'd like to take a stab them here?
1) As one committed 100% to mechanical enery transfer, I use hard rigid materials and designs only and all tightly coupled. Why would a true isolationist (is there any other kind?) use even a single piece of material that was harder or more rigid than say Sorbathane? And why would they have even one connection fastened tightly?
2) If as the isolationist says, the floor-borne vibrations induce the most harm and that's what we need to protect our sensitive components from it, why do their solutions not follow their mindset? If I wanted to severe / decouple any electricity from reaching a lamp's light buib, I'd cut the electrical wire and I'm done. What's so difficult to understand and how much science is required to make that happen?
3) Water is intended to exit out of the bathtub's drain. Let's say you had sewage water coming up out of your bathtub's drain so you wedge a rubber stopper in there to prevent that from happening. Then your 3-year-old turns on the bathtub faucet? Where's that water from the faucet going and what will happen to that bathtub?
4) You're at a stoplight and suddenly your stomach wrenches with vibration as is your entire car. It's the car behind you with his four 18-inch subwoofers cranked. You look in your rearview mirror to identify the culprit, but the mirror is vibrating so violently, it's all just one big blur. From whence are the vibrations entering your car?