Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

---

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Tweakers' Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ] [ Edit ] [ Delete ]

---

Re: bdiament ...but ... ???

203.54.128.198

Posted by David Aiken on August 9, 2001 at 19:23:20

In Reply to: bdiament ...but ... ??? posted by DSK on August 9, 2001 at 16:46:20:

1. Let's assume you can succesfully float a platform supporting a component. I think that bdiament misconstrues the coupling caused by the vertical rods. Since the rods touch the runner on the floating platform tangentially, any vibration transmitted to the floating shelf will largely be in the horizontal plane, regardless of whether it started off as a horizontal, vertical, or other vector plane vibration in the supporting platform. The biggest problem that I can see is that I think it will couple imperfectly because it is not a rigid connection, and couple more in the horizontal than the vertical as I said. Coupling isn't bad, but the best coupling is as close to complete coupling as possible because that is the most stable coupling. The coupling here is likely to vary from moment to moment as the floating shelf shifts in the horizontal plane, and that will cause variations in the level of vibration transmitted from moment to moment. Not a good thing, especially since Earnshaw's theorem, with which I am unfamiliar so I rely on bdiament here, indicates that something floating via magnetic repulsion will tend to move horizontally anyway. This leads to:

2. DO NOT place Aurios on the top shelf. My understanding is that the Aurios require a STABLE horizontal base on which to sit. I doubt that a "floating" platform will meet the stability requirements. If there is any tilt at all, the centre of gravity of the component will move with the tilt, and that will affect the centre of gravity of the combined component/Aurios/floating shelf system, causing it to list in some direction. If that starts and enough horizontal motion is induced, the list will continue as the whole floating system becomes more and more unbalanced, with the possibility of the gear sliding off in the end.

I'm not saying that the Relaxa platform is essentially unstable on it's own - I really don't know because I've never seen one. To get it to work, however, one would have to ensure that the floating shelf and component, together with any interface such as a set of Aurios, were balanced with the centre of gravity of the whole floating mass acting centrally through the platform. Now, any horizontal motion of the whole floating mass will induce movement as the Aurios try to account for the horizontal motion. As a result, the component will move on top of the Aurios as intended, thereby shifting the combined centre of gravity of the floating shelf and component. Given enough of a shift in the centre of gravity of the whole floating assembly, that will cause the shelf to start to tilt. The Aurios won't be able to counter this properly because they will also have been moved off the horizontal plane in the process, and they rely on the fact that they remain stable in that plane in order for the movement of the bearings in their race to return the component to stability. In fact, destabilised in this way, the Aurios would not act to return the component to it's starting position but to keep moving in the direction that it is moving in. So, once destabilisation starts, the whole floating mass is likely to keep tilting more and more in the direction in which the original tilt started. The Aurios aren't useless in that situation, they would actually be worse than useless because they would be aggravating it. The end result will be the movement stopping as the shelf bottoms in one corner restrained by the vertical rails, always provided the Aurios and the component don't slide of the tilting shelf first. If you don't get enough horizontal motion to destabliise and tilt the platform, you will still have more horizontal motion than you would get with the Aurios sitting on a stable, non-floating, shelf and the Aurios won't work as well as they normally would as a result of that.

If you were going to try the Aurios with the Relaxa, the only place to do so would be under the Relaxa. In that case, if the shelf the Aurios are sitting on vibrates, this movement will cause horizontal movement in the Relaxa base and that will cause the vertical runners to move, transmitting vibration to the floating shelf. On the other hand, the slight movements in the floating platform that the runners are intended to restrain will transmit horizontal motion to the Relaxa base, thereby causing it to move horizontally on the Aurios and that movement will in turn result in the transmission of more horizontal motion back to the floating shelf. Sounds a bit like a feedback loop setting up, doesn't it?

My conclusion here is that the Relaxa and the Aurios would not combine well regardless of where one placed the Aurios. Use one or the other but not both!

Frankly, I'd be concerned about the Relaxa's ability to float gear. The photo shows an unloaded shelf floating which is fine, but a loaded shelf is heavier and will float much lower due to the increased mass being levitated. There will be some movement in both the horizontal and vertical planes and, because of the nature of the force producing the floating, I suspect that the frequency of vibration in both planes will reduce as the platform is loaded with more and more mass. The lower the frequency of vibration, the greater the range of vibratory movement for the same energy input, and the more trouble. In other words, if the Relaxa is going to work, it will work better for lighter gear, and work best with nothing on it at all. I don't think it's going to take much in the way of mass on the floating shelf to cause it to bottom on the supporting shelf, and that destroys the purpose of the platform itself.

There are any number of good approaches to isolation available at around the $1000 price of the Relaxa or even less. I'd suggest exploring them. I think the Relaxa idea is great in theory but I wonder about practice at this stage.

By the way, I haven't heard Aurios either but the reports I've seen by people who use them say similar things to the claims made at the web site with the Relaxa ad. Even the top model Aurios comes in considerably cheaper than the Relaxa. If I had the money and the inclination, I'd buy the Aurios and use the money I was considering spending on the Relaxa to purchase the most stable rack I could find on which to mount the Aurios and whatever component you were considering floating, plus the rest of my gear as well. That sounds like a much better outcome than trying to squeeze a bit extra performance out of one component by combining the Aurios with another isolation system.

David Aiken

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---