Tweakers' Asylum: Re: You don't want to 'dampen' anything… by twl Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

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Posted by twl (M ) on April 4, 2005 at 10:19:44

In Reply to: Re: You don't want to 'dampen' anything… posted by CD on April 3, 2005 at 17:44:26:

I might add here that vibrations are subject to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, which relates do all forms of energy, and vibration is energy.

The 2nd Law states that all energy will seek the ground state via the path of least resistance. This is what defines the path of the vibrations, and not the cone or spike. As the earth is the most mass available for dissipating the vibrations, if it is available, the vibrations will go there, according to physics. If not, the vibrations will travel to other areas, following other paths of least resistance until the energy is otherwise dissipated by vibrating everything in its path until exausted.

A properly designed cone or spike system will define the plane with 3 points, distribute the loading equally on all 3, maintain a stable and "non-rocking" platform for the equipment, and provide an energy pathway for vibrations to go where they naturally "want" to go, according to physics.

The idea about the vibrations going "up or down" is a red herring. The vibrations will go to the ground state(fully damped into the high mass of the earth) when it is possible, or continue to vibrate the equipment if it is not. Any other method is "local damping" which seeks to dissipate the energy locally by heat. Unfortunately, these methods are easily overloaded by the energies present in the listening room, and then reflect the vibrational energies back into the nearest boundary, as predicted by the Zener Visoelastic Model, as a phase-shifted event, re-introducing the vibrations back into the component.

Disclaimer: I work for a company that manufactures vibration management devices for audio/video use.

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