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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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In Reply to: Here's a can of worms posted by drclark on September 23, 2000 at 09:33:20:
Dave Clark has a valid point which I would like to address, but first some background. I think it is a mistake to place true isolation devices (such as high-end air tables, Aurios isolation bearings) in the same category as other products which intentionally induce variable resonance shifts and spectrally-selective vibrational energy transfers via a coupling methodology (elastomeric pucks and balls, wooden blocks, cones, etc.)By purest definition, a vibrational isolator is a device that attempts to DECOUPLE the component of interest from all external vibrational energies while preventing all the component's own internal vibrations from reaching the outside world. This is, of course, the ideal situation! Such an environment could be approximated in a temperature-controlled vacuum chamber in outer space where, free of gravity and air currents, a component could "float" blissfully ALONE, producing only its own sound unencumbered by outside influence. (This ideal is futher abstracted by the realization that we need to connect the component to others in order to pass along the audio signal!) When compared to this model, even the best of existing earthly isolators will allow some bi-lateral transfer of energy, but the best designs can minimize it.
Considering our gravity-bound status, all of us have tried to make do with our audio systems through selective use of couplers and isolators in order to achieve a sound that pleases us. As Dave suggests, even the audio designer/manufacturer has to contend with the same vibrational problems we suffer with, by whatever means he deems useful. Worse yet, we don't know what the designer set his component on while voicing it, so we can't readily approximate his setup conditions and achieve the sound he originally intended. We are caught in a circular argument from which there seems no ready exit, particularly since there doesn't seem to be any neutral point of reference from which to start . . .
A true isolator provides broadband and uniform isolation against vibrations, thereby (among many things) reducing the intermodulation distortion of the audio signal by those vibrations. Approaching the problem electronically or by another means will not produce the benefits of mechanical isolation, because it is a purely mechanical problem! Futhermore, a true isolator provides a more neutral support for any component to sit on, allowing the component to sound much the same in a variety of environments. The use of such isolators contributes to "leveling the playing field" between audio systems because of its enhanced neutrality; it allows the component to better speak for itself (because of less interference from outside disturbance.) Isn't that what we're looking for? A means of hearing each component on its own so that we can better tune the whole sound of our systems with fewer cross-coupling variables?
Sorry if I've gone on at length and technically so, but this is my first post on any forum and, frankly, there is more to say . . .
Craig Goff
Vistek Inc.
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Follow Ups
- Re: Here's a can of worms, SO ISOLATE THEM! - craiggoff 10:56:39 09/26/00 (0)
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