Isolation Advice Needed


Hello, moving to a new home later this summer. The new house has suspended floors (wood over crawl space). No noticeable bounciness or floor deflection but so far I've lived in homes with concrete floors, so walking on the floor was subconscious activity. In the new house my steps are louder when I walk. So not sure what to expect when I setup my system in the new house.

I have all tube system housed in a Salamander rack. Any forewarning of unwanted vibrations creeping into the system and ways to mitigate them is greatly appreciated.

 

Current System...

Rega P6 (Audiomods Series VI/Shelter 501)

Aesthetix Rhea Sig. tube Phono

Graaf GM-50B Tube integrated

Wilson Benesch ACT Speakers (with Gaia II feet)

 

Best Regards

 

 

livin_262002

I'd suggest a number of concrete piers to support the floor. If your builder can't or won't do it, you could add hydraulic jacks. Suspended floors bounce. 

Black Ravioli are made in Scotland and not well known in the USA.

Very well priced at approx US$260 for a set of four.

 

Will I get them back? Hope so. He also has one of my grounding boxes, and my Audience AU24Sx RCAs. 

Mechanical jacks under the floor are a cheap, stable option but will not solve the real problems of your stereo. You can effectively build a suspended floor under you speakers with the speakers mounted on springs and the suspended floor further mounted on springs and then the wooden floor.  Mine are blocks of laminated pine, built like mini butcher's blocks, 600mm x 450mm x 100mm. this arrangement isolates the speakers from the floor and the speakers from each other. Spring rates depend on the weight of the speakers for the first set of springs and the weight of the speakers and blocks combined for the second set of springs. Depression of each set should be around 25 - 35 %.  This is achieved by reducing or increasing the spring size and or number of springs. Nobsound springs are good but more expensive than others on Amazon. Total cost for my set up was approx $120.

I also have wood floor over crawl space. It is springy, has been problematic, luckily solved now. It was built in 1951, I think with ’green’ wood (not properly dried) as so much building occurred after WWII. More problematic than most suspended wood floors.

My Thoren’s TD124 Magnificent, but it’s Bearing was very susceptible to vertical motion, traded it for that reason, still miss it.

My Audio Technica AT120, much lighter player, was ok but cautious steps when close. No dancing or kids running nearby please.

Current JVC Victor Heavy TT81 player in a heavy CL-P2 plinth was similarly ’cautious approach’ until I put it on 2" x 2" isolators, they can be seen in 7th photo here.

 

I have since wrapped the blue with black tape, far less noticable

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A major part of my problem/solution is: the floor slopes immediately from the wall, the front of the rack is 3/4" down. Then the floor levels out.

Previously I had little blocks under the rack’s ends which were recessed from the front a good bit. Then I would level the Turntable on the top shelf. I realized, all the weight, rack, 80 lb amps, two double wide shelves of equipment was tilted forward, much of it in front of the recessed end panels, thus any vibration involved ALL that weight forward of a fulcrum point.

I built new side supports, tapered as needed for 3/4" extra in the front, and extending a few inches in front of the rack, (also seen in the same 7th photo) so the entire rack and equipment is level on that sloping floor, all the weight now behind the front fulcrum point.

Each glass shelf has it’s own firm rubber isolators, and top equipment is on racks I designed with firm rubber feet.

 

 

@livin_262002, here's another two cents from the peanut gallery:  wait 'til you get set up in the new house and see if you need any isolation.  With all the additional weight put on the floor(s) from furniture, etc., you may not need to spend any cash on isolation. New "stick-built" construction, nowadays, uses 8' X 10' wood floor joists 16" OC, sometimes cross-membered; sometimes not. Sometimes, builders will go 12" OC with the floor joists to add more strength; sometimes, they'll even go less than 12" OC or "marry" (double-up) floor joists and cross-member them to add additional strength (e.g.  accommodating additional weight of tile flooring). My house has single 8' X 10' floor joists 16" OC for the first floor, wood flooring and wall-to-wall carpet over that in my sound room (i.e.  14' X 23' living room). I've got a Salamander Synergy rack on its regular adjustable pad feet (i.e.  no spikes) and I don't need any isolation for my system.  My TT weighs a little over 24 lbs.  Rega is a proponent of low mass design. Hence, the P6 weighs less than half of that. It was on my short list when I was shopping for a new TT. However, I eventually decided I liked the idea of more mass (i.e   heavier) for a TT. My amp is just under 40 lbs. and the rest of the equipment & stuff I have on the Salamander probably adds another 30 or 40 lbs. or so. I do have a lot of bookshelves in the living room, though, one of which is floor-to-ceiling. So, I'm sure the weight of all the books adds a lot. I've had plenty of parties & people over while entertaining and have never had any issues with vibration, footfalls or any of that sort of thing. I've also occasionally had small children over. However, the sound system, especially the TT, is not in use when small children are around, for obvious reasons, or I'll sit with the kids to make sure they behave if they want to listen to some music. Frankly, I don't trust anyone anywhere near my TT, except my closest audiophile friends. As long as people aren't dancing up a storm in the living room, jumping up & down and doing stuff like that, my sound room is just fine.