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Re:Isolation and room treatments

198.166.21.152

Bob:

The problem is microphonics (transfer of acoustic energy into mechanical energy)... when external acoustic energy is transferred into another device, affecting its operation.

The turntable would be the easiest example. Acoustic energy in the air moves the table, transferring energy from the record groove to the needle, causing it to track with varying degrees of force, or worse, skipping grooves entirely. DJs used to suspend their tables with "tuned" (properly stretched) pieces of surgical tubing to reduce this effect through isolation. The worst place of all was the high school gymnasium, where the "athletic flooring" (designed to absorb impact) would act as a conduit for acoustic energy - transferring it back up table legs and into the turntable, often resulting in skipping or worse - a feedback situation.

Tube amps are affected by microphonics as well - just rapping on the surface a tube amp is mounted on can result in audible output in the speakers.

CD sources, in my mind, would also be something you would not want to vibrate - unless of course your source performs real time error checking, which is not the case. A CD source is a glorified optical turn-table, and vibration is still a culprit. There are those who play uncompressed music from hard-disk storage, and claim they get superiour sound quality. With no spinning disc being read by an optical device, I find this very easy to accept.

So if microphonics are the problem, then we can either couple to something that is immune to vibration, or attempt to isolate the device.

Preston



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