Are vibration damping tweaks worth the money? 

My opinion on all of this is, no matter the price or age or quality of your system, just try and tweak with anything you want. If something makes it sound better to you, then that is just fine. It could be that it is all in the mind, but what if it is? If it works for you, then do it. But, try DIY solutions first, do not start by spending a lot of money! And, let us not forget the most important thing! ENJOY THE MUSIC above all! Tweak cheap, save money, and buy music!

Vibration damping absolutely needs to be done to ensure the best sound. How you achieve it doesn't matter, as long as you achieve it.

I love your Nipper! I have a smaller one. For years, I have simply put a fairly generous amount of sticky tack under the feet of all of my components. I also put it between bookshelf speakers and their stands, behind any wall decor (where it touches the wall), and under decor that sits on shelves etc. in all audio rooms to prevent audible vibrations. Sticky tack is extremely inexpensive but seems to work well.

I loved the subject and the simple explanation... Thanks

Time to re think about isolating equipment I used sixteen sorbathane feet under a two inch piece of bamboo then placed a music reference rm5 mk3

Those desks are stunning! 😍

I agree with you Paul 1000000 percent.(Wait till you have ur system the way u want, then go back and tweak it) and try and and store that will sell products that can be returned for a full refund...

Aluminum Cones which I had made, cheap $5 each. With felt pads on my turntable with a cork platter, MUSIC HALL TT 5.1 , makes a difference and is noticeable in the upper frequencies.

The very nature of Hi-Fi or the audiophile industry's intention? is that there is always room for improvement. It is like the medical industry -- they don't make money off of well people . . . think about it, and neither does the audiophile industry make money any further past the point they say we have reached an exact science in the reproduction of real music so you can't tell the difference. So, the very nature of the hobby for someone interested in that elusive bit of detail, or whatever it is they are trying to capture . . . IS TO TWEAK it a bit more. The more you are convinced that you must tweak the system, the more chance one tweak may offset another, and down it all goes like dominoes. I still have problems with people, who claim to love music, but spend the whole time listening to equipment and their tweaks rather than sit back and just de-stress and enjoy the music. Nothing on this planet is perfect . . . not even the person doing the tweaking or the critique.

I did a video where I took a bicycle inner tube, filled it halfway with air, and then placed a 17 inch square piece of tile in top of the tube! All in cost was under $10 and works like a charm and works symbiotically with my turntables internal suspension!

The Biotracer arm on the Sony PSX-75 turntable operates at 10 Hz and below. I find that the active damping along with placing the turntable in a cabinet with doors works well enough for my listening. The turntable has a dust cover, which I leave open when in use. The cabinet isolates micorphonics and has a low enough resonance to not present problems. I use the "knock test" when setting things up. If I can knock on something and hear it with the volume turned up, I do something about it. For instance, I wound up with 2" of high density particle board in some parts of my speakers. I woudn't use the knock test on tubes, but I do tap them. If there's microphonics, I try to place the gear where it is less likely to pick up sound. Livestock mats under equipment can work in some situations.

should you use a soft footer under the power conditioner?

Certainly vibration control is very important when it comes to turntables, and most manufacturers of tubed electronics use some type of vibration-cancelling tube rings as well, given tubes become microphonic. Then again, interconnects can be microphonic too.

There is so, so much wisdom in here. I love tweaks, but they need to compliment an already good system, not make it sound good in the first place. That said, if you want to get some dampeners for any device that generally work really well, try the SSC brand. SSC stands for Suspended String Concept and that's sort of what it is, it's a base hanging in a string, giving it some dampened 'play'. I have heard SSC work miracles in other peoples' setups and I have a set of ridiculously expensive SSC feet for my Martin Logan speakers, completely solving the typical problem that these speakers have, which is a slight lift in certain low frequencies that makes them sound boomy around the 100-150hz mark and nasal in the lower parts of vocals. It's insane how much better they sound with the feet, but they are an expensive upgrade if you see what you really are buying.

If damping is needed then yes. The question is how can we tell we need damping.

An excellent lecture.📢🎼🎵

Every setup is different but vibrations usually would be a much bigger concern to me than power cables and power conditioning. Try run a slow sine wave sweep at very loud volume and listen carefully for any sudden appearing resonant effects. Turntables can pick up vibrations and speakers can generate them. You might have decorations, a painting hanging on the wall, a lamp or other things creating havoc to your system’s ability to reproduce details precisely.

Fave is "air". Inner tubes; super cheap!! Doesn't 'color' the sound to 'dark' nor 'bright'. Enjoy.

I agree tweaking always should be the last step up to audioheaven. Components, cables and mainspower should be perfect first. Only then time for the cherrie on the cake. A good audiorack can be a tweak, besides being very practical and often beautiful to look at. And yes: Sorbothane works great! I discovered its damping benefits some 30 years ago while working in the orthopedic business.

On my tube amp platter, I use a spring type footer on the bottom to take care of up and down rumble. On the on in-between platter, I use IsoAcoustic pucks. I believe they are okay with both up and down rumble and side shifting. On the top, I have spiked feet glued onto my amp. I have disked base below that. I’d still feel some vibes on the amp. So, I bought a dash board sticky pad placed between the disk base and the board, itself. Vibrations in the mids and bass has smoothened up substantially.

I love nipper and the wing desks.

I love those airplane wing desks!

Soft feets are my melody as well. I use Sonic Designs cheap and soft feets under all my things.

I think you could do a follow-up on this topic about their worth in relation to their cost. Some of the "feet" third parties are making for speakers are INSANELY priced. I see a lot of "points" on mfg's reference speakers. Why don't they already come with these miracles on them if the mfg wants the best possible sound? Will your speakers have them?

my audio dealer (RIP Stewart Ono) in the last few years as a dealer placed spruce board planks under his components..

Room and placement. And with tweaks, try before you buy!

I had very slight wow & flutter from my belt drive TT. I managed to make the TT dead silent using sound/vibration isolation. But I'm not talking excessive spending, oh hell no. Four hockey pucks, three for the TT, itself and one for the motor. With a circle of very soft, crushable padding under the motor puck, to more/less make the motor float. I saw a very expensive TT, in a video from Munich 2018 show that had a floating/suspended motor.

Years ago I used 2" sorbothane hemispheres under the 3" maple block my turntable sits on. That got rid of any vibration problems I had with the turntable.

what about class A amps? they can be damaged from staying on cant theY?

Im not sure if this is relevant , my first turntable was a Dual 505 , IMO a great cheap starter turntable I had it placed on a pine homemade HI FI rack unit . I replaced the speaker cables to a thicker grade and that helped a little but what made a huge difference was putting the turntable on a thick granite base it really was noticeable .

Four Sorbothane pads (can get on amazon) under the four table feet are worth their weight gold. Least expensive and most effective vibration tweek you can perform.

What about a dense plate of stone or non-magnetic steel with footers below and sorbathane or other damping devices above? Best of both worlds? Thanks!

Mr. McGowan, watch your fan speed otherwise your desks will fly! hehe I once saw, on a woodwork shop that was making me a cheapo anechoic chamber, a table designed for very precise weight scales (for the chemistry dpt. of the university I was attending) that was rather simple. It had a rock block hanging, a big (10 inch) hole on the side with a sheet of foam closing it and some other small things. I think that would be good for a turntable ... but other pieces of equipment ... good loudspeakers walls should no vibrate, right? BTW, a friend of mine did some feet for his loudspeakers using two beer can bottoms and an old mouse ball between them and he said they sounded very good.

Conclusion: the system (as a whole) is the first, then comes tweaking... as a meal, first major ingredients, then spices... if these two can be compared at all... food must be, audio no... AUDIO YES!

As Mikey says, ‘everything makes a difference’.

First question to ask is which frequency range you want or need to dampen. Then look for a solution that does that. Just applying sorbothane or whatever without knowing the frequencies you like to dampen is like shooting in the dark

Even DIY damping is worth doing in modest systems.

What's wrong about 2nd hand turntables? I've got 3 of them and each one plays wonderful.

Any plastic foam absorber eventually yields to the weight of the speaker ... no good !! A really good speaker should have enough mass in the cabinet and inertia to keep the thing firmly pressed on the floor ... ideally with a 3 point contact system ... the floor plays a big part in how the thing sounds too... make sure it's solid wood laid on concrete ... carpet perhaps .. you'd have to experiment

You know it's funny. I'm a musician and have recorded and a few different types of recording studios. And it still blows me away that people spend more money on home audio how to duplicate a sound that is far more Superior than the final product sound coming out of the studio monitors. My new studio monitors can be very expensive and very high in detail. However I've heard recordings recorded at a home studio through a high-end audio system and it sounds fantastic but it also sounded fantastic out of the studio as well. Level of detail and quality which is been a word that I've been lacking Sierra Leone enhancing for already originally started good out of what would be the equivalent of a subpar speaker to the high-end World equivalent of a speaker? Because the final product being mastered is nothing to be last dad or studio monitors however people are spending millions of dollars on equipment to duplicate that same sound at home. I understand the desire to have awesome audio equipment at home but at the same time compare that to what's being used in an actual recording Studio. But I guess the argument there would be that the console being used is what's producing the sound which is why you have to spend a lot of money on speakers preamps power conditioners Etc to duplicate that sound? Why not just buy yourself a nice console and call it a day? Even though that's extremely unrealistic so most people that just want to sit down and listen to music so if that's what you want to do is duplicate the sound coming out of the studio then by yourself or some nice set of studio monitors. Then the argument there is that they're not loud speakers. So in hindsight I guess the chase is real however if you enhance the sound so much you're losing face with what the actual sound of the recording actually is. When I sit down and listen to music I want to try to duplicate what is heard in the studio not enhance that. Because to me as a musician that is sure tonality in Sound of Music. But that's just my opinion. As a musician.

I can understand vibration damping working on turntables or components with tubes since tubes can be sensitive to vibrations. I still don't get how micro vibrations affect a purely solid state amp or dac? TVs don't get affected by small micro vibrations, why should dacs or amps be affected?

For a turntable , use a cement pavement tile , under it - use spikes

The smart thing is. Nipper wont die on you And the wife don't have to pick up stuff behind him. Footers all sound different yes. Bite the bullet buy the RF 909-X And be done with it. A company called PS Audio as a example is built so heavy. Footers might not make a difference. Go for the speakers then. But raising them will make the sound different before you put footers down. Let's get that right

it costs pennies to buy the rubber to make iso-pads

What he is saying is don’t spend on vibration damping products because we don’t sell them. Instead, upgrade to our better products. 😂

Paul not to your taste and pocket book. Worst place to livers outside your mines. I have a fantastic system to my ears and make my own cables and my audio stand. Teac UD 501, BlueSound Vault 2, Audiozen Alchemy amp , weak link is my GoldNote Volare 425 Plus Turntable, Audreal SP2 Phono Stage AudioLab CDT 60000. All my gear I bought because they were very musical and Made my toes tamy toes tap And last My great Casta Horn Speakers all my shit is mostly Italy and so is my blood. Now I have time because of Covid 19killing America and Canada now

As always, love your logical thought process Paul.

NO they are not worth the money - WOrt case scenario if is with vinyl is played through a wobble box and/or a subwoofer is present. Else no point, certainly not for the prices seen some places.

Very nice to hear this - I am constantly working to improve my cables and getting better all the time - perkune.com

Just a dip of snake oil in any footer does miracles!

Get 4 of these feet under your speakers and you will be thrilled by the result, in bass and clarity / transparency a.co/gr7u8BE

Turntables 60 db noise floor plus snap crackle and pop ... High res DAC for me

ps audio made in china. 2$ for a days work. and sky-hi-prices so who are these people at the end of these videos? maybe you should show a video of your chinese production-places....