Vibration Problem


Once again I am seeking advice from someone with the experience. I have vibration problems with my cd player. There seem to be many tweaks available out there I could use but which is the most effective yet not cost too much?
How about the solid brass adjustable isolation cones? Or the Final Labs Daruma 3ii's which are two discs with a ball
bearing in between them? Also, what exactly are the "Harmonix" Tunig Feet? Has anyone tried any of these?
Maybe you'd recommend something else. I thank you in advance for your advice.
128x12867chevellesslover
I had great luck with Bright Star Air Mass 3 which can be had for about $100 new. The cheap equivalent is to sit your player on an innertube with just enough air to float the player, too much air raises the resonant frequency and reduces effectiveness. This solution works great for heavy footsteps, deep bass notes, etc. which can cause some players to mistrack momentarily. Mine just sounds smoother at loud volumes too. You could probably try the innertube on the cheap and go for the attractive implementation if you so desired.
Adding weight on top can sometimes help as well as below.

Try 5 lbs of sand in a large ZIP-LOC bag on top of the player, (smoothed out flat over the player, not lumped in the middle).

Use the cones also under if you have them...

If it works, you can put the bag in cloth or something, if you care about the look...
You can also go to your local specialty car audio center and see if they have Dynamat.

Dynamat is used in cars to remove unwanted vibrations and sound damping. a single sheet should be all you need. Stick it to the bottom of your cd player save for 4 small pieces to put up under the feet.

This might set you back about 10 bucks, and should reduce alot of the vibrations
Vibration problems I mention is simply skipping problems due to loud volumes with heavy bass. The sand bag or inner
tube theories are quite interesting but what I had in mind
was something with better appearance that could eliminate
vibrations at very loud volumes. Thanks again everyone.
P.S. My Martin Logan SL3's already have spikes under them but my cd player in the entertainment center is located pretty close to one of my ML's and when I am playing certain music such as pink floyd at high volume, the vibration is causing my music to skip.
Sounds like you need to relocate the player. Even a small change might make a big difference, as you might be located at a point of room resonance. Another thing you might try is to borrow a different player. Yours might not be up to snuff. All the players that I have owned didn't skip unless I give them a really hard rap with my hand. Of course, auto CD players take big bumps in stride.
How about the Gingko Audio Cloud 10 Vibration Control Platform?

This should take care of it. Please email if you have any questions.
Dan
Open the box and internally check weak mountings of the mechanizm.
Placing a silicone at mounting joints will improve vibra-proofing better than any-priced cones or tweeks.
Another possibility is that the vibration problems are from a suspended floor. Try moving your cdp/rack in the room corner and see if that helps. All the suggestions given above are to counteract airborne vibrations to the cdp chassis - one that's stationary. They do very little to help if the floor is moving.
Try mass loading the player using the sandbag trick, varying the amount of sand / weight in the bag. As Sugarbrie mentioned, you can always put the sandbag inside of some type of ornamental cloth covering.

As far as the inntertube goes, try sticking it inside of an open top wooden box with cones underneath that box. You can then rest another piece of wood over the top of the innertube and the CD player will sit on top of this. By varying the weight in the sandbag and how much air is in the innertube, you are able to alter the resonant frequency and amount of energy transfer involved. None of this will look out of place and you can use whatever type of cloth and wood that will match your decor. Sean
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Go to a hardware store and get some Mortite weatherstrip. Place it two layers thick on a flat board and insert it under your cd player, if that does not work try three layers. Make sure the Mortite side is against the bottom of the cd player.
2 3lb.Non magetic Stainless Steel blocks(bought for a few $ locally) polished to a mirror finish on top of my planet does the trick
If you are talking about actually skiping the player this is a lot of Bass or a really loose floor.

There are two main modes for speaker generated vibes, Floor born and air born.

Unless you have a concrete floor you are getting both.

To me sounds like you need to move the audio rack around, try an inner tube or other floating type isolation, and mass load the top of the player to nix air born shakes.

To mass load and have ok looks I used a large marble floor tile with a thin mouse pad under to protect the player.
The darumas with some heavy weight on top as stated will make a world of difference. The darumas are great but on their own, each time that you input or press a button in the CDP/transport, you will be shifting the Darumas out of alignment. So, I use some sort of weight to weight the transport down. This will solve the major vibration problems you have. I do not believe too much in a sorbotane or another maleable based vibration control. In order to make it perform as stated, most of the times, you will need the unit with the problem to be of a certain weight, or else, it will just sit on top of these sort of footers. Most famous of this sort of devices are the Audioquest little/regular footers.

or...

Change the location of the problem unit away from the epicenter of this problem, as someone pointed out.
Brightstar airmass underneath and a littlerock on top. I also have Symposium Rollerblock Jrs. under the transport. They sit on top of the airmass.
I also recommend the Ginko Audio Cloud 10 under your CD player. I currently am using it under several components with stellar results. I have tried several other devices and all work to varying degrees. The Ginko just works the best overall. Measurements have been performed with and without this device, you can check out their website ginkoaudio.com for further info. There is no snakeoil with the Cloud 10, it just improves focus, soundstage and bass performance. Plus if it doesn't work you can send it back. No, I'm not a dealer, just a satisfied user.
I also have a vibration problem with my CDP (Jupiter2000), but only on certain CD's, especially one of my all time favorites: Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, Bernard Haitink & Emmanual Ax (Sony SK 63229). It drove me nuts, just as the music would build to tremendous crescendos in the 1st and 2nd movements, bam-there it is! argh! Tried Mappleshade Surefoot conepoints, no help. It's definitely not the CD because it plays without skipping in our all-in-one box $300 Panasonic HT system! Still searching for the right tweek. I do know this much, it's defintely the crescendos. With the volume turned down, I don't suffer the problem! But who wants polite crescendos? All of which surprises the hell out of me that my modest system can do this! I have small monitors from Joesph Audio driven by a Sim I5.Please let us know what finally works for you and best of luck!
Inspired by Albert Porter's system setup (my system is "nowhere" near as accomplished) I decided to move all the front end stuff 23 feet away behind a wall where vibrations from my speakers and subwoofer can not be felt. All that remains by the speakers are the mono amps on spiked amp stands. The long runs are: Pure Note XLRs from pre to amps for the B&W 802s and DIY cables for subwoofer. The other gear is only 1 meter Pure Note (ELF for TT to pre) wires from preamp.

The improvement has been dramatic. Even in the loudest passages of an orchestral score, my transport and DAC are absolutely vibration-free. Also, the preamp, turntable, phono pre, and DAT. It is, for me, the very best tweek even though you are incurring the expense of a long wire run with pricy (but well-worth-it) cable. I am sure there are other alternatives to vibration problems (and less expensive long-wire runs that could give you good sound) but this ended that nightmare for me.

Best regards.

VPI TNT V / JMW 12.5 / XYZ 1000 Airy
Pass Labs Aleph Ono
Wadia 23 (used as transport)
Audiomeca Enkianthus Dac
Panasonic SV-3800 DAT
Nakamichi ZX9 cassette deck
Pass Labs X1 pre-amp
Bryston 7 Bsst
B&W Matrix 802/S III on Sound Anchor stands
Velodyne HGS 18/II
Acoustic Zen MC2 digital cable
Pure Note Epsilon v.4 XLR/XLR
ELF cable RCA/RCA (TT to pre)
ELF Silver Reference (you HAVE TO hear these!)
Signal Cable and JP cables Maximum Gold power cords
Powervar ABC 1200-11 power conditioner (for digital gear only)
Powervar ABC302-11 (analog gear)
Chevy, take a look at HRS avisolation Nimbus cups and couplers. I am using 3 of them with my Audio Aero cdp without any problems. They do work better if there is a platform of some sort underneath them. Providing some type of mass will deaden the vibrations. I will eventually get something for the top of the player, most likely a HRS damping plate, try a little rock or Gutwire Note pads. Also, check any screws outside and inside the player and IC vibrations. Herbies Lab makes a inexpensive tweak for IC that might work for you. Good luck with your search.
I kinda hope nobody's reading this because it's embarrasing
to admit the problem I had which I thought was vibration caused from loud volumes that made my cd to skip turned out
to be entirely something else. I've recently started upgrading and didn't realize that my little amp Krell KAV-300i (recently sold) couldn't handle the load of the ML SL-3's and actually started cutting out on me during very loud
volumes that made me believe it was a vibration problem. I guess it's a learning process. Anyway,I truly appreciate all of your inputs as they taught me a lot about different types of tweaks available out there to enhance our music world.