GREAT Overview of (Virtually) All Vibration Isolation Products

musicfirst1

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I learned more about the state of the art in Isolation Products in 30 minutes than I have in the last...forever?

This is so well done, I didn't want to bury it in the Tweaks forum.

 

Mike Lavigne

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Apr 25, 2010
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For my own discussion of these vibration issues, see: https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/a-v-room-service-equipment-vibration-protectors-evps.27475/

The foundational (and long!) article that everyone should read is Shannon Dickson's 1995 "Bad Vibes" article in Stereophile. See: https://www.stereophile.com/reference/52/index.html
except Dickson's article pre-dates active isolation. in 1995 the most capable isolation choices were still passive air bladder type products or passive springs like a MinusK. now we have various active isolation choices that when used properly, attenuate resonance at a level not possible back then. active does not work in every application, and it's effectiveness needs to be combined with passive to cover the whole frequency range of resonance attenuation.

other than that, i agree about Dickson's article.

if you want to learn about how science, academia, and industry approach isolation and resonance control here is a resource that covers it;

 
Last edited:

tmallin

WBF Technical Expert
May 19, 2010
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I said "foundational" article. It explains the physics much better than the video which started this thread does.

My own article mentions the active isolation products. Most of the products mentioned in the video aren't even passive air bladder types, but mere "rigid body" coupling devices, including the "constrained layer damping" products.
 
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musicfirst1

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Mar 8, 2015
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www.musicfirstdistribution.ca
For my own discussion of these vibration issues, see: https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/a-v-room-service-equipment-vibration-protectors-evps.27475/

The foundational (and long!) article that everyone should read is Shannon Dickson's 1995 "Bad Vibes" article in Stereophile. See: https://www.stereophile.com/reference/52/index.html

This is all great stuff!! I didn't come across your thread as is searched 'isolation' instead of 'vibration'. Keep it coming guys!!
 

tima

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Mar 3, 2014
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I learned more about the state of the art in Isolation Products in 30 minutes than I have in the last...forever?

To his credit, the fellow in the video can speak without a lot of hemming and hawing.

But this presentation would be much better in written form with product pictures and diagrams. Even though he shows a few products in the video it is difficult to imagine what he's talking about from his quick verbal descriptions of product construction. Since he focuses primarily on constrained layer damping, showing a diagram of a product that identifies the layers and materials and the order of those would obviate the need for lengthy verbal descriptions of products that we cannot see as he describes them.

Product descriptions include a fair amount of "covered with rubber". Given the variation in materials used, "covered in rubber" homogenizes products rather than differentiating them. Much of the "rubber" is actually a viscoelastic; getting manufacturer information on what is used - even if identified as "in-house proprietary" - would further help in product differentiation. Sometimes he mentions as speculation that the rubber might be sorbathane. One thing you won't learn from listening to 'The Audiophile OCD' is that products using Sorbathane(tm) have a limited life span.

There are other classes of products he does not cover, so this is definitely not "all you need to know" as the video describes itself.

I"m sceptical of anyone who proclaims product X is the best in the world and product Y is the second best in the world.
 

tima

Industry Expert
Mar 3, 2014
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This is all great stuff!! I didn't come across your thread as is searched 'isolation' instead of 'vibration'. Keep it coming guys!!

There is lots of information on the topic of vibration control for audio components at WBF. But sometimes it is scattered about and takes a bit of digging to discover.

Here is one I ran across recently:

There is a sub-forum within the Vinyl Forum named: Isolation Devices/ Stands:


And there is a Vibration Control Forum:

 

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