Effective vibration damping platforms for your Hi-Fi gear (200$-4000$)

In this video we explore three highly effective types (with various models and for all budgets) of vibration damping platforms. A fundamental accessory for non-suspended turntables, tube-based electronics or even your loudspeakers!

References:

Platforms (affiliate links):
Zazen I & II

Delos (various models)
(UK): n/a
(IT): n/a

For the Kuzma platforms check Hi-Fi stores

More Ana[dia]log groove here:

#vibrationdamping #vinylcommunity #vibrationplatform

[martinmerino]

I can vouch for the Zazen1 and the Zazen2! They have made the biggest difference in my set up. Have a heavy wooden cabinet that was giving off a horrible resonance and these have saved me from so much stress of trying to figure out what was wrong.

[rickmilam]

I use an HRS platform under my turntable. I have gone from a VPI Prime Signature at 70 lbs, a Rega Planar 10 at less than 10lbs and now my favorite, a fully restored Micro Seiki RX-5000 at 100 lbs plus 35 lb motor assembly. The compliance is, of course, related to the weight and I have replaced the feet with the appropriate compliance ones to provide proper damping for each weight range. All worked weel with the VPI most in need of help with structural isolation.

[yanivshef]

For my Turntable I use IKEA APTITLIG board which is a weighty nice looking and doing the job sitting on sorbothane feet . Suitable for my vintage TT but I’ll probably get it upgraded once I upgrade my TT. Thanks for this great channel, always looking forward for your next video 🙏

[vagrantsneaker]

I recently bought the Butchers Block Acoustics 3” black platform and it definitely helps. I put 4 Orea Indigo under it and the Block is holding my Technics 1210gr. So far so good

[Madmart]

Great video. Although not dabbling too much with audio too much recently, I did in the past. What did I discover? One of the first vibration mods was the offer of a replacement shelf of my old Sound Organisation shelf on my SO table by the HI-Fi News magazine. It sat under my series 2 Roksan Xerses turntable. What a difference! Now I think your comment about does it sound better or different is very wise! If I had a bright sounding system I might have thought it not so good. I would say that what you use is what you get. What I mean by that is the HI-FI News shelf seemed more ridged and so I got a brighter, tighter sound. This led me to put spikes into the stand and dispense with a shelf-later discovering that Roksan had a stand that did this also although maybe for adjustment underneath the deck. What was the sound effect? Well a much more dynamic sound- tighter and brighter but at the expense of some thinness ie vocals not so warm. That makes me think these things are a bit of a juggling act and fine tuning but had to add if you stick your turntable on top of a heavy old piece of furniture anything might be an improvement. My thoughts from experimentation( right or wrong) are-I think you need to keep a turntable as solid as possible whilst minimising vibration feedback considering the microscopic grooves of a record. With amplifiers the problem is somewhat less complex and so sorbathane feet work wonders under a valve amp. I’m not sure I would want to pay £1000s when you can buy a lump of blubber much cheaper-is the special shelf worth it-I can’t say but from the differences I’ve heard-may be a better turntable may be in order. Just a thought though-if you think it an absolute science-why didn’t the turntable manufacturer strap one of these shelves underneath their turntables and call it their premium model? Perhaps some do 🙂

[jackhastings]

I have the Project Xtension 10, the infidel of turntables. It weighs 65lbs. All I use is 2 X 1 Inch thick mdf, 1 x 1/2 inch thick mdf, in-between each mdf, place in 1/4 inch cork sheeting. I finished with 4 of inverted adjustable spike feet for a rack platform is dead silent for under $30.00, xcld feet. Board was cut at Home Depot for free. After painting, took 15 minutes to setup. I guess this is the infidel of isolation bases. Kiss, low cost, extremely high effectiveness.

[dulichion]

So let me share my personal experience. I own a modified Sl1200, completely rebuilt, blue leds, new motor, new arm, and silicone dampening tray, Funk Firm mat. Original I used ISO Acoustic feet in place of the standard Technics feet. My turntable sits atop my IKEA Kallax, however when I moved to my new home with beautiful cherry hardwood floors, and the turntable was no long on a concrete slab. I immediately got vibration transference and resonance everytime anyone walked or moved near the turntable. Was driving me nuts to the point of contacting a contractor to put a knee wall in my crawlspace to stop my floor flexing. ( This is normal btw) Was going to buy a wallnut wall mount platform for my turntable as well for around 500 USD. However I tried first some foam dense speaker pads under the ISO Acoustic feet, and that didnt help. I found on Amazon real Sorbathane feet. They have an adhesive back and cost around 30-40 bucks USD. Let me say it was life changing. No one single vibration was transferred to my Denon 103R stylus no matter how I jumped or stomped. It was mind blowing. Sometimes you can find very cheap alternatives. Just an FYI. Thanks.

[hoobsgroove]

a great baseboard is not really wood, if you want lightweight use paper mache and covered it with both sides balsa wood sheets. if you want it to move like your platform use moongel two stacked on top of each other and always 5 not 4. if you want solid use marble or granite worktop 12mm thick
open cell foam is very good as well minimum 60mm thick
use 6 + inches of open-cell foam if you have wobbly floors

[michaelfreiberg]

Let me sumarize the vibrations issues:
1. types of equipment that are affected, in order. observation: devices with moving parts are generally the most affected
- turntables
- valve amplifiers
- cd/dvd/bluray players. observation: vibrations are not directly audible, but they can make the laser to miss some bits, making the error correction to kick in and dirty the sound
- tape recorders
- amplifiers, dacs (to a lesser extent)

2. electrical parts that are affected, in order:
- turntable headshells
- valves
- inductors
- capacitors (to a lesser extent)
- variable resistors (to a lesser extent)
- cables (to a lesser extent)
- soldering and components connections (vibrations, if strong enough, could make soldering and connections to go bad)

3. Sources of vibration and solutions:
- vibrating (noisy) transformer. cause: the shieding becomes loose and the sheets of metal composing the core are vibrating. solution: fasten the shield with a pipe wrench and maybe put a zip tie around it.
- vibrating motor. cause: worn out ballbearings or screws becoming loose. ideal solution: change the motor. interim solution: dissasemble the motor, clean the old lubricant, put new lubricant inside the bearing, reassemble. for a motor in an horizontal axis position, it may work to mount it rotated at 180 dgr.
- random vibrations from heavy vehicles on the street, or just walking near the equipement. solutions: moving the equipement in a different position and use of dampeners or decouplers
- vibrations trough the floor from the speakers. solutions: moving the equipement in a different position and use of dampeners or decouplers
- vibrations trough the air from subwoofers and/or woofers. turntables are the most affected. solutions: moving the equipement in a different position, at a distance and away from the direct path of the air moving

[ridiculous]

Now I know this is outside what the video was strictly about but...
I have made various isolation platforms over the past 20+years but have recently come across a way of making a very effective one for very low cost.
Drummers use sticky pads to damp drum heads. The ones I have used are sold as MoonGel.
I paid $15Au for six. Easy to find online or any local drum store will have them.
Just take four and stick in the corners of a piece of MDF or preferably a bamboo cutting board (check Ikea) and that's it.
Works fantastically on a couple of tube amps I have and also on both a streamer and a DAC.
Anyway, it's so cheap...

[mostirreverent]

I use a piece of granite mounted on 3 inch rubber stoppers, then magnetic isolation legs than an acrylic board. All of this is on top of a Hi density fiber board on top of rubber stoppers a and a steel frame

[RodneyAllanPoe]

Excellent video. Hans Beek recently covered vibration dampening. I have a Zazen II under my CD player/DAC, which weighs about 12 kgs. I have tried adding more weight on top, but I didn't hear any difference. I might swap in my Orea Bronze supports to see if they make a difference as a closer weight match.

[tubefreeeasy]

Have you tried spring style (Nobsound) decoupling iso feet under your speakers?

OMG, I just discovered my speaker’s greatness!

Please give these a shot!

Of course the speakers will vibrate but the stands don’t vibrate.

If you use light speakers, remove a few springs. I removed four springs out of seven for my Kanto Tuks.

Please try these.

[gaetancharbonneau]

Great video! While the Kuzma TT appear to be of very high quality, the fact that one may have to use expensive anti-vibrations platforms raise the question of why not buying a suspended TT in the first place? In the end, that's what these platforms are all about, to compensate for the non suspended designed TT.

[sidesup]

I've done more experiments concerning vibration damping than anyone I know. Maybe I'm even THE expert, and don't even realize it. The first thing that should be said is that the devices that have been shown in this video, if effective, only decrease structure borne vibration. There is also airborne vibration which gets to our equipment & components and from what I would guess, its at least as troublesome as structure borne vibration coming from underneath your source and amps. The only way I know to lessen airborne vibration is to move your source and preamp further away from what's causing all the vibration; your speakers. We hear all the time, how important it is to move our speakers around and experiment with placement, but we never hear advice to move your source and preamp around and experiment with their placement. One time in my early 20's I had my turntable in a corner about 2 to 3 feet behind my left speaker. It was sharing the same cabinet as my preamp. I decided to move the turntable, preamp & cabinet all the way across the room, where it was 6 feet in front of my right speaker. Just those 4 feet or so further away made a difference for the better in the sound. With distance, both sounds and vibration decrease. Remembering this positive result, another time in a brand new different location, I moved my turntable and preamp around the corner and into another room that shared the other side of the same wall that was behind my speakers. I placed the turntable and preamp far back into the room using long cables. In other words they were no longer in the same room as the vibration producing loudspeakers. This was an even bigger improvement, not even being in the same room, and if a long tape measure could magically go right through the wall behind the speakers, into the room behind the speakers room, where the turntable & preamp were situated, the tape measure would have said 11 feet; between back of loudspeaker cabinet and source components.

There CAN be an immense improvement in decreasing vibration getting to your source. The sound is more confident sounding, less interfered with, cleaner, clearer; the works. I still have my VPI isolation base. VPI is known as a very good high end turntable manufacturer, and the VPI Isolation Base was their very first product before they started making turntables. It is a very heavy rectangular piece. It has 4 threaded holes, one in each corner on the bottom for four 3 inch high spring feet. I have experimented with removing the spring feet and tried using tennis balls underneath to replace them. At first I thought it was an improvement because the bass sounded obviously better. Bet the more I listened I realized that there was a certain magic that was gone. Call it continuity, seamlessness, flow or whatever, but the tennis balls underneath made my system sound mechanical or something. They want back into the can.The spring feet were screwed back in !

[patrickaguidissou]

Hello, Did you try vibration damping under you Telefunken M15/Studer 810?

[poetryonplastic]

Excellent run down of what's out there! Not enough people are aware of some of these, although I'm surprised you didn't mention the Gingko Cloud.

[colloidalsilverwaterppm]

Hundreds of dollars sounds good for some people. For exchange for some result. But, as I mentioned in past, I have terminal solution for acoustical feedback. It is change of perspective.

[Bob-ensw]

I’m being offered a custom base that is 100 pounds with feet that support up to 800 pounds.

I’m new to all this. Are these good metrics or should I stick with name brands?

[watchnut]

I make mine out of IKEA cutting board and sorbothane pads. $25 all in.