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How much vibration is too much?

z-adamson

z-adamson

Addicted Member
When I am really rocking out and I put my hand on top of my amps, receivers etc. I can feel a slight vibration. This is something that can't be good, even if it is not causing serious damage. I can't see the vibration, nothing is bouncing around, but I can feel it when I rest my hand on top of said gear.

So how much vibration is too much?

How can one prevent vibration from getting to the gear? Thick rubber feet? Rubber matts under the gear to absorb the vibration?
 
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My stuff has been vibrating for years. Mostly bouncing around for years. :D

It seems that I have never worried about this until the question came up. NOPE, still not worried! :cool:

I think my main concern would be using a turntable where rumble would be a problem.
 
Vibration can be a problem in some components.
I use solid oak cone feet under my amp and CD player to couple them to a sound dead platform that is coupled to my stand to help draw vibration away from them.
The way I see it isolating dosn't give the vibration any where to go so it is stored in your components.
The faster it can move through and away from your system the better.
Only my turntable is isolated.
 
I often focus on ridding it from my system as much as possible.

I find a Bamboo platforms with anti-vibration pads under them works a treat for things I need to isolate well. These will sit on a MDF shelved flexy rack that doesn't flex :)
I also have Bamboo boards as platforms under my spiked speaker stands.
The anti vibration pads I get from Bunnings down here, various density types and sizes, I mostly use these ones pictured, 5 bucks for 4. The Bamboo chopping boards are 35mm thick and are from IKEA.
54fa3159-ba4b-4a68-b5cb-60186e73af09.jpg
 
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I also tackled this issue with a mate's system.

Though in his case he had wood floors so the Aurum Cantus speakers were given sandstone paver platforms, but the Saksa amp and old CD player got the Bamboo platforms and anti-vibration pads under them.
Also placed the same anti-vibration pads under the wood chest he has the components on.
The difference in performance after this was improved greatly! To all that heard it before and after.
Still need to damp the case of the CD player and that's that for now.
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z-adamson said:
When I am really rocking out and I put my hand on top of my amps, receivers etc. I can feel a slight vibration. This is something that can't be good, even if it is not causing serious damage. I can't see the vibration, nothing is bouncing around, but I can feel it when I rest my hand on top of said gear.

So how much vibration is too much?

How can one prevent vibration from getting to the gear? Thick rubber feet? Rubber matts under the gear to absorb the vibration?
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This is a 12"X17"X1.25" floor scouring pad for the rental machines at Home Depot. $7.00. The ultimate vibration eliminator ime. Any amount of vibration is too much for any component. Tube amps especially don't like it. Very noticeable improvement when I placed them under my DD servo OTLs. Excellent decouplers under sub woofers. Take it to the limit by placing a rubber mat between it and the component.
P1020308.JPG
 
woodj said:
Would be helpful to identify the source of the vibration.
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The kind of vibration I am talking about is caused by high volume and lots of bass.....as best as I can describe it.

Turn on Pioneer SX1250....set the speaker selector to the HPM100s......crank some Pantera, Far Beyond Driven.

Put your hand on the sealing, it is resonating at certain frequencies. Same thing with the walls.

I notice it at my receivers as well and I am trying to find a way to insulate them from the "vibration" or "resonance" or whatever the correct term is.

Resonance = In physics, resonance is a phenomenon in which a vibrating system or external force drives another system to oscillate with greater amplitude at specific frequencies.

Sounds like what I am talking about....

So, hmmmm. What is the best way to combat this without simply turning the volume down and killing all the fun? Bamboo platforms with anti-vibration pads? I will look into that. Any other ideas?
 
As well as isolating the components and rack ect' they sit on, remember the speakers, so vibrations travelling through the floor from the speaker bases, it also stops air born stuff travelling back through the floor and back into the speaker cabinets, here a stone type of paver can help, give the speaker a solid base, choose substrates that have low resonant characteristics, like black slate is very good but fragile so maybe not for speakers (good under TT's as is Bamboo) for under speakers something like sand stone or concrete might be suitable, or maybe a dense wood block like bamboo if the floor is a carpeted concrete slab, depends on floor type Place something under and on top of the stone substrate as well if you have wood floors, I used squares of rubber backed carpet. For my own where I have a concrete slab floor that is carpeted I used bamboo bases and no extra carpet squares.

Hope that makes some sense the way i have it?

This all works well for me, but experiment and look at the physics of the materials and how they behave in regards to various vibrations, all this stuff can clean the sound up but also vary the tonality of the system from my experiences.
 
Constrained layer isolation might be worth looking up in google,this is where you use different layers of different materials like a sandwich.With vibrations you can only change that resonant frequency to get it out of the audio band we hear and is not destructive to the sound, or you can dissipate it as heat, or both....Edit: not sure if i have it quite correct in that explanation but It's close :rolleyes:

Ah! very weary form poor sleep so not sure if I can explain this in great clarity (no pun intended).
 
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I like this area as you can get some impressive results for very little money, of course depends on how much is there in the first place :)
 
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woodj said:
Then his gear has to be in a "Cone of Silence".
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Sure, just don't turn the system on, right? I'm feeling a little more clever now. However I think the op would rather be less clever as would I and isolate the gear to a relatively high degree and keep the music on.:)
 
I have my ht gear in a seperate room from the ht. That gear is isolated.

Not the case with my hifi room.

I am uncertain if the resonance I notice is from the table that the gear sits on or if it is from the air.

I understand that air born resonance is complicated to avoid. But any resonance from the large wooden table that is transferring to the gear should be less complicated to eliminate and a worthy effort.
 
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