Good morning!

Very interesting observations. I am going to try the "O" ring decoupling on my setup. My Crystals are set ontop of 8/4 oak slabs that are pegged to the cement floor. I've been shock in the past on what little things can do to give very noticable improvements...this may be one of those.

John

I've built platforms on springs for my speakers to sit on for really good isolation.  I doubt the O-rings really isolate much.  I've found speaker isolation versus floor coupling to be speaker dependent.  I liked my HR1s isolated but not so much my F15s.

Archie don’t be so quick to underestimate the power of a o-ring.

The weather did me a favor yesterday by delaying the trip to the hardware store. I found a couple of plastic organizers full of o-rings tucked away in a parts cabinet. It took a night’s sleep to jog the old noodle of its presence in my shop. It’s a bitch getting old!

Anyhow, the rings that were used yesterday, found in a loose assortment drawer, are 3/8” x 1/8”. The ones that are going to be used today will be 1” X 1/8”. This makes the ring’s outside diameter 1 1/4” which will fit completely under the 1 1/2” front and back panels that serve as legs on the speaker cabinet. When placing the new rings under the cabinet it was noticed that I forgot to replace a shim that was used to compensate for a slight warp in one of the oak platforms. This is most likely the cause of smearing mention in my former post here.

After your comment about the o-ring not having good isolation it got me thinking that maybe your right. Basically a o-ring is just a piece of 1/8” rubber that seems to be fairly hard but the bass and attack improvements were real and got me excited until the slight loss in vocal clarity was apparent. So, I got my trusty stethoscope out used many times to isolate noise in machines, replaced the o-rings and started to play doctor on the speaker cabinet.



One speaker was without o-rings and the other with (4) 1 1/4” o-rings each placed at the outside corners. The cabinet without the rings was tapped on the side with my index finger knuckle and the diaphragm of the stethoscope placed on the oak platform with light pressure on the stethoscope’s bell with the other index finger. A ringing sound was produced and could be clearly heard through the stethoscope. The other speaker with the rings, performing the same scenario, eliminated the ringing sound and became more of a muffled thug sound.

I will definitely do some serious listening later today after the system is thoroughly warmed up

John

I was just commenting based on the "mixed result" from the O-ring.  Look at it from the perspective of solid coupling passing ALL frequencies, complete isolation passing NO frequencies and then everything in between by tuning with "soft coupling/isolation" devices.  I typically concern myself with keeping all vibration out of my amps and TT.  Speakers are completely different but with an understanding of how the materials might affect vibration isolation, tuning won't be hit or miss.  I've been amazed at how poor certain "isolation materials" such as Sorbothane really are at isolation.

Well, if isolation is the goal there is good enough.  lol  

It's like the old joke of the mathematician and the engineer being told they can only approach a beautiful woman by halving the distance each time they advance.  The mathematician says it's impossible to reach her and gives up while the engineer says he'll get close enough for practical purposes!

When I first looked at the TT stands a build up corner of a framing wall came to mind. Have to agree with Brian that darkening the center of the post would be beneficial.

On the other hand a swell from all corners of the base tapering towards the center of the post then transitioning up to the platform towards it’s corners would be exotic.

John

Townshend Seismic Vibration Isolation Platforms

They use springs wrapped in semi sealed envelope with a pin hole to control the dampening.  

Springs need to be sized accordingly like Goldilocks not to firm not to soft.

There are also some companies that use pods and removable springs to control the weight.

Interesting article IsoAcoustics Testing at the National Research Council of Canada

https://isoacoustics.com/isoacoustics-testing-at-the-national-research-council-o...
f-canada-nrc/




Have you tried Blue Tac?
Any update on O rings being tried on the 3 ways?