|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
76.115.217.131
In Reply to: RE: Insulating AC Outlets from Wall Vibration posted by Dryginger2 on November 10, 2014 at 15:39:04
Sure the walls are vibrating, but so is everything else in the room, including your speakers and components.
It's a given cables themselves vibrate when current is passing through them as would the AC outlet, the power cables, etc.
Moreover, you use the word insulate when you should be using the word isolate.
So you install this material against the outlet box. The box is mounted to the studs using nails or screws which act as mechanical energy conductors so the vibrations are still entering the box and since the outlet is screwed into the box, the outlet is still receiving vibrations.
So you still probably have the same volume of vibrations entering the box and receptacles via the wall studs and screws/nails and also by the Romex wiring.
I would not even consider this a good start but rather a misunderstanding.
And if you think your performance is affected by vibrations at the smallish wall outlets, what do you think could possibly be going on inside your sensitive component chassis'?
What are you really trying to accomplish here?
Follow Ups:
Stehno,
Thank you for your post.
Michael Percy's $3.50 Hexiflex pad proved much more effective than a Spectra Dynamics Deflex damping sheet or cork in isolating the rest of the amplifier from the vibrations of its internal Toroidal transformer and lightens the rest of the isolation task. Nevertheless I found using Teflon tape to isolate the Interconnect unit from the case and 0.125" of cork between the speaker outputs and the case significantly increased sound image focus. Isolating the circuit boards with cork proved advantageous too. Have you tried isolating the bottom, sides, front, back and top of your amplifier case from each other with three layers of Teflon tape in order to reduce the energy-drain from frequency mis-matching? The release in power thereby is surprising. Substituting nylon or brass for stainless machine screws then eliminated much of the related EMI distortion. Approached each component using similar techniques.
Each component gets its own audiophile AC wall outlet on a separate analog or digital circuit and each box is isolated from the wall by a thin layer of 85% wool-felt which is audibly more effective than previously-used cork. The amplifier and CDP are in the same room as the speakers but isolated and the other components are in an adjoining room. This helps keep the power and signal cables apart as much as possible and minimize speaker vibration exposure.
Tried power conditioners up to $3,000 when I had the money but found amplifier dynamics from the wall far better. Wrapped the Mac Mini internal power supply with MuMetal (UltraPerm 80) and suspect that provided much of the external supply benefit. No question the iUSB power supply scales up the sound stage of an iDAC. 3M AB 5100S on the internal amplifier ground wires adds clarity. Have you tried that yet?
Found no audible benefit from using brass securing wall box screws nor nylon screws/ nylon washers in AC wall units. Found wrapping both speaker and hookup wires with MuMetal led to sound degradation. Discovered that running Teflon-covered, silver-coated 16-gauge copper wire from amplifier and Mac Mini grounds produces lower noise floor than domestic ground or floating.
Probably everything I have learned is a misunderstanding and expressed using the wrong terminology but have been fortunate to have had the invaluable help of many postings here and the patient advice of highly experienced, professional audiophiles elsewhere who drilled into me the need to test everything for myself and never to rely on conventional wisdom nor borrow the assumptions of others. Ultimately, of course, it is my ears making decisions listening to my modest system in this environment so my testing conclusions are necessarily subjective.
So I share tweaks that may hopefully on occasion be useful to some who do not necessarily even comment.
DG
I apologize for my seemingly erudite response.
No, I've not tried any isolation techniques. At least not in the past 13 years.
The bang-for-the buck return in sound quality from such tweaks is so disproportionately large as to create an addict. Just following Uncle Stu's advice of wrapping the amplifier selector and volume pot stems with Teflon tape only takes a couple of minutes but is instantly rewarded. His huge contribution to tweaks is without parallel.
Enclosing the amplifier's internal Toroidal transformer with three or four layers of UltraPerm 80 (hydrogen-annealed MuMetal) each separated by narrow strips of 1/16" thick cork to double their overall effectiveness prevents the loss of approx. 20%-25% amplification due to the fringing effect that would otherwise cause that part of its magnetic field to spill over and saturate/ degrade the performance of the circuit boards, and interconnect input/ speaker output units.
My interest in McMaster-Carr's 85% wool-felt arose from the 'Diffractionbegone' tweeter-surrounds of Jim Goulding and the discovery that, for those unable/ unwilling to afford the footers promoted by Winston Graham/ their equivalents or the final Oyaide Carbon Fiber Wall Plate solution to AC wall unit vibration long advocated by Duster that this felt had a low-cost role to play that was in many, but not all, cases superior to that of cork in other areas too. I use it under many of my components (brass footers have always created a bright sound to my ear and hard composites not much different). Given resources, I would unquestionably use Marigo Audio's footers - Ron Hedrich has the best ears in the business as I have long discovered with the treatment of micro-vibration and static-electricity during play using his Ultima Signature Mat for CD/DVD and ripping, his VTS Tuning Dots (white on tweeter surrounds/computer chips and green on mid-range and woofer membranes/ capacitors); and 40mm Black SuperDots on the backs of speaker cabinets or on French windows at first reflection points for removing the vibration while leaving the view. Time after time after time Ron permanently eliminates the problem with great precision.
DG
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: