There are a lot of principles in common. Skyscrapers for example use almost the same damping system as is used for speakers. In both cases the idea is a mass damps resonant behavior. Springs don't damp at all but they do isolate allowing vibrations to be damped or dissipated within the component itself. This can result in some resonant behavior that colors the sound. Townshend adds a very specific small amount of damping to greatly reduce this resonant coloring of tone.
Same thing happens even within the turntable. Part of the problem is isolation to prevent environmental vibrations from getting into the turntable. Another part is preventing vibrations generated within the turntable itself from getting into the environment, because this sets up ringing which smears and colors sounds even more. A third aspect is to dissipate vibrations generated within the component, essentially converting them into heat energy. All three need to be done, and as if that isn't hard enough they need to be done equally with frequencies across the audio band. Or the sound becomes colored.
The crazy part is all these things don't just happen in turntables. They happen in everything. Even in speaker cables, vibration control is a factor.
Same thing happens even within the turntable. Part of the problem is isolation to prevent environmental vibrations from getting into the turntable. Another part is preventing vibrations generated within the turntable itself from getting into the environment, because this sets up ringing which smears and colors sounds even more. A third aspect is to dissipate vibrations generated within the component, essentially converting them into heat energy. All three need to be done, and as if that isn't hard enough they need to be done equally with frequencies across the audio band. Or the sound becomes colored.
The crazy part is all these things don't just happen in turntables. They happen in everything. Even in speaker cables, vibration control is a factor.
