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Re:Isolation and room treatments

Hi Bob,

"I don't mean what aural effect do you perceive, but instead what do your measures do to the components?
Conversely, what do vibrations do to the components?"

What I found is that anything you place atop a component and also anything you place the component upon, which alter how that component sounds. Why? I can't say I know for sure. Perhaps changing the resonant signature of the component's chassis has something to do with it. Is the effect "subjective"? I would say not because I feel "subjective" is how one feels about a given sound. I describe the phenomonon as "observational" because that is how it is perceived.

Having experimented with both coupling and isolation, my experience has been that coupling changes the sound of a component, sometimes for the better other times not and still other times for the worse. While I know a number of folks who like coupling their gear using cones or spikes, to my ear the effects are somewhat random and more akin to what others have called "painting" the tone, that is, "adjusting" the tone to suit one's taste. I have no argument against this but it is not my personal preference.

Isolation, on the other hand, as provided by well designed and implemented mechanical low pass filters, can provide results that are consistent from component to component (although within degrees) and from system to system. Using roller bearings to support a component will isolate that component in the horizontal and rotational planes from frequencies above the resonance of the rollers, optimally low single digits. When combined with air bearings, often in the form of a minimally inflated bicycle tire inner tube, vibrations are blocked in the vertical plane as well.

What are the effects?
Bandwidth extension at both ends of the spectrum, seems enhanced. The same can be said of dynamic response. Images upon the stereo soundstage take on more "solidity" and overall focus and clarity are markedly improved. The soundstage expands in all three dimensions. Silences are "blacker". With video components, grain is diminished and focus is improved as is detail retreival.

To be clear, the application of seismic isolation techniques isn't creating these benefits, it is blocking the effects of the vibrations which it would appear, are causing compression of bandwidth, dynamics and soundstage dimensions as well as the loss of focus and overall clarity.

Why doe this happen?
I'm still trying to figure this out, despite the theories I've read so far. Components are subject to three types of vibrations: those they generate internally, those from the loudspeakers and those originating in the ground and entering the components via their supports. While all have damaging effects, to my ears, the ones entering via the ground seem to do the most damage. These so-called "seismic vibrations" often occur in the horizontal plane as well as the vertical. (Look into "P waves" and "W waves" for more on this.) Well designed and implemented mechanical low-pass filters help block these seismic vibrations from entering the conponents.

Aside from the microphonic sensitivity of tube gear, the clock chips in digital components appear to be very sensitive to vibrations and show some of the greatest degrees of performance improvement when seismic isolation techniques are applied. What I've found interesting is that the effects of seismic isolation are cumulative and are audible as more components in the chain are isolated, even the solid state components (although I don't know why) and especially loudspeakers (perhaps because of some sensitivity in their crossover components).

While I'm having a bit of difficulty accepting that (as some have said) the ocean tide or a truck changing gears 1/4 mile away are messing up my audio playback, I have no difficulty with the audible results of isolating my components. I would never have believed the magnitude of the change had I not heard it for myself. And the effects are consistent and repeatable.

The only system I've experienced in which the application of seismic isolation (in this particular case roller bearings) did not make for immediate performance improvements had all of its cabling (interconnect, speaker and AC) all jumbled up behind the rack and all components were plugged into an inexpensive power strip. From this experience, I surmise that careful cable routing (separating AC and audio lines) as well as clean AC power are pre-requisites for the successful application of isolation techniques.

Perhaps the improvements offered by effective isolation are best revealed by the fact that sonic differences between recordings are easier to hear. In my experience, the better systems reveal the greatest differences between recordings. Conversely, the lesser systems shrink the apparent differences, with the recordings have more "in common". The commonalities are the colorations superimposed by the system.

If you are interested, search on "Isolation" over in the Tweaks forum for lots of posts on the subject, many (but of course, not all) of which are quite informative.

Hope this helps answer your questions.

Barry



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