Isolation platform - Gingko vs Mapleshade


Looking for some guidance here. I currently am using a Gingko Audio 14A with a Rega table. If Iupgrade to a VPI Aries it will be too large for my current Gingko platform. To get a Mapleshade 4" platform with footers will be about the same cost as a new Gingko 10 or 11. Anyone with the Mapleshade platforms care to comment on their isolation abilities? I have no isuues with how the Gingko helped my Rega. Thank you in advance.
miner42

Showing 1 response by almarg

03-30-15: Rcprince
... As to why it should do this for a CD transport, I have no idea, but I could not deny the effects.
Russ, anything that affects the "ease" with which the pits on the disc are tracked, including vibrations and mechanical resonances which may be affected by the platform under the transport, can in turn affect electrical noise generated by the servo mechanisms and circuitry in the transport, as it tracks the disc. Some of that noise may in turn couple onto the output signal of the transport, in turn contributing to timing jitter in the clock that is extracted from that signal in the DAC, in turn contributing to jitter in the timing of D/A conversion. The amount and the frequency characteristics of jitter in the timing of D/A conversion can of course affect the perceived "sparkle" and/or brightness, or lack thereof, which you referred to.

In the case of an integrated CD player, such as Akg_ca and Dopogue referred to, that noise may couple into unrelated downstream circuitry in the player via grounds, stray capacitances, power supplies, or other paths including the air. In turn not only causing jitter in the D/A conversion process, but possibly also having effects on analog circuitry. The degree to which that occurs will be highly dependent on the design of the particular player, of course, as well as on the condition of the disc.

From a post by Kirkus in this thread:
CD players, transports, and DACs are a menagerie of true mixed-signal design problems, and there are a lot of different noise sources living in close proximity with suceptible circuit nodes. One oft-overlooked source is crosstalk from the disc servomechanism into other parts of the machine . . . analog circuitry, S/PDIF transmitters, PLL clock, etc., which can be dependent on the condition of the disc.... One would be suprised at some of the nasty things that sometimes come up out of the noise floor when the focus and tracking servos suddenly have to work really hard to read the disc.
Also, in the case of a tubed CD player such as Akg_ca described using I suppose that controlling vibrations and mechanical resonances could reduce low-level microphonic effects that may occur in the tubes.

Best regards,
-- Al