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Re: inner tubes and weight loading

Peter,

The tube acts like a spring with its own resonant frequency. You want that frequency to be as low as possible.

The easiest way to get a handle on the frequency is to lightly push the component on top of the tube and see how fast it rocks. The more the tube is inflated, the faster the component will rock. You want it to rock back and forwards slowly, only 2 or 3 times a second at most.

How much air will be required in the tube to achieve this will vary depending on the mass of the component. Heavier components will require more air.

I would NOT use Vibrapods with a tube system. They are both 'springs' and I have never been able to achieve the best result using 2 different springs in an isolation setup. I also don't like adding lots of mass, especially below the spring. High mass bases resonate at low frequencies and spring systems actually transmit and magnify vibrations at frequencies lower than 1.4 times their resonant frequency. You may actually end up creating a low frequency vibration source that the inner tube can't deal with and may actually magnify. I'd go for a much lower weight but very rigid base for the tube. An inch thick layer of ply or MDF, perhaps with aluminium sheet on both sides of it, would be preferable to the pavers and granite in my view and I would use spikes or cones beneath it to couple it to the floor. The tube, properly set up, should work more effectively on a much lighter bass actually coupled to the floor.

David Aiken


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