Audiophile Audition - August 2012
Streamlined Vibration Isolation for Sensitive High-End Audio Devices
Vibration isolation has become crucial to preserving the highest quality audio playback. Turntables are especially sensitive to even the most subtle vibrations (in the range of 2Hz to 20KHz), but any playback or electronic components can be affected by vibration. Also, those engaged in audio restoration and archival work need to experience sound as it was originally recorded, without further coloration. Third-party air-based vibration isolators have become a popular accessory, but the more high-end versions of these have a power pump (usually in another room) to supply the pressurized air to the isolator. Special professional vibration isolators used mainly under electronic microscopes are being used by some audiophile users. Others have used less expensive maple wood blocks, but they can have their own resonances. Minus K Technology has developed a simpler, more reliable and better system which operates in a purely passive mechanical mode without motors or pumps. Their approach is called negative-stiffness, and the devices promise a significant advance in high-end audio sonic quality. The isolators are handled by Minus K Technology, Inc., Inglewood, CA, and pricing is in the $2000-$3000 area.