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ENGINEERS: State your cases for or against isolation devices

Posted by Kristian85 (A) on October 1, 2003 at 14:12:09

Seems to be one of the great, unexplored, and largely unsupported by actual, scientific evidence, areas of tweakery.
While the THEORY of why isolating audio equipment from vibration is beneficial is painfully obvious, I have not seen any testing that confirms that isolation devices reduce vibrations in equipment, and why doing so has benefits. I have never seen testing showing that sound, vibrations transmitted by air, is capable of causing small electronic parts soldered to circuitboards to actually vibrate. I have never seen any explantions as to how, precisely, vibration alters a diode's (sub any other small part) function.

How does placing a 25-Lb. preamp on some special stand make it sound better? Which internal parts, when vibrating, cause distortion? Who has ever shown this? Do we not have accelerometers sensitive enough to measure differences in vibration levels of a preamp with and without some high-falootin' stand?

How come Stereophile, who takes so much pride in measuring stuff, has never measured the effects of isolation devices by simple use of an accelerometer? You know, fastening it to the side of a CD player, cranking the tunes, see the result--repeat with unit on isolation device(s). Do a CD player--seems to be a favored recipient of isolation equipment. Don't even need an accelerometer. Play music, measure the amount of jitter, repeat with Isolation device. The test shold clearly indicate that the isolation device reduces jitter. Is Stereophile afraid to? Would we get into the usual coverall "measurements don't correspond with subjective listening results"?

Are audiophiles (again) just blindly believing in isolation devices because "it sortof makes sense," and "seems obvious"?

Yes, isolating transcription devices (turntables, CD players) are obvious beneficiaries--the latter theoretically, mind. But, don't say that it's the same thing with electronics w/o moving parts--because it is not.

Finally, the big question: Why spend money on equipment isolation, when many objects in the listening environment are undamped and supposedly merrily swinging along to the tunes..?

So, you persons of the mathematical, physics, and engineering persuasions, please enlighten me.

All the best,

Kristian Soholm

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