Cartridge ISOLATION; What Say You?

It is not a matter of "think" that is for people who guess. It is a matter of reason, by which I mean understand and reason logically from what we know.

Everything vibrates. If the cartridge is rigidly attached to the head shell then this vibration travels through the head shell into the arm tube and so on, with the result the whole thing is vibrating. There are plenty of Peter Ledermann videos you can watch if you want to learn how big a problem this is. The best one is where he talks about how analog is like digital because jitter has the stylus jumping back and forth sampling the groove instead of tracing it like we think it does.

It is critically important to control all these spurious vibrations. https://youtu.be/WmwnN_T_wW8?t=1200  

I used to think rigidly mounted with massive stiffness was the way to go. Until it turned out my Origin Live Conqueror did sound better just sitting in the hole not bolted tightly down. A lot of things are like this. Speakers and other components sound much better on springs. In all cases this is because it is better to let each thing vibrate and dissipate energy on its own rather than excite everything around it. Because vibration blurs detail, and harmonic vibration (it is all harmonic vibration by the way) alters tone and timbre. 

So the best approach is to decouple the cartridge from the arm. The cartridge however is very low mass and has to track a violently undulating groove. It cannot just be free to move. It must be held rigidly, but yet also in a way that facilitates some vibration to dissipate into the more massive arm, while damping cartridge vibration, and all of this at the same time as not reflecting vibration right back down into the stylus.

Watch Ledermann, he clearly shows how vibration travels up the cantilever and then right back down again to the stylus, which winds up being whipped around. Vibration control is everything. Rigidly mounting is not that great a method. Too much reflection, too much smearing.

My personal experience, first thing tried was fO.q tape. This stuff worked great on the arm tube and base so I cut a piece to fit between the head shell and cartridge. Nice improvement. Seemed to remove a layer of grunge that left dynamics and detail in place making them much more clear.

Then recently tried the Origin Live Cartridge Enabler. This looks like felt and some members with zero experience claim it is felt but even just looking at it is enough to know it is not just felt. The material is engineered to have one side up. One side against the cartridge, the other against the head shell. The same material is even cut into washers. When mounted the cartridge is held securely while also effectively isolated from the head shell.

This is definitely the way to go. The reasoning is solid and equally important matches actual results heard. But as always don't take anyone's word for it. Put in the time and effort to understand for yourself and then finally when you are sure confirm it all with actual experience. 

If the arm tube is not damped you're going to have problems! But decoupling the cartridge from the arm will not be a solution in that it will be akin to placing a bandaid over a rash that won't go away.


The platter supports the LP; in theory at least there will be no slop in the platter bearing so the platter, if there is any vibration, will be vibrating in the same plane as the plinth. The arm must be also rigidly coupled to the plinth in the same manner as the platter. The plinth thus must be both rigid and dead. The arm will have no slop in its bearings and the arm tube is non-resonant.


If these parameters are met then the pickup will not transduce vibration in the platter as it will be vibrating in the same plane.


If the arm is decoupled from the plinth a coloration will be introduced. But if the plinth simply isn't up to the task in the first place, this may actually be perceived as a good thing.


My comments are based on the idea that the platter, plinth and arm are properly engineered. Introducing isolation at the base of the arm or the mounting of the cartridge is guaranteed to introduce a coloration. But if the equipment isn't engineered properly in the first place it might actually be perceived as an 'improvement', but what's really happening is a lucky compensation for an inadequacy has been found. It won't work the same on every machine, that's for sure!

I hve tried the Isolator on Hadcock, Mørch, Scheu and Dynavector arms using various Zyx MC cartridges. In each case it provided a more than subtle improvement.
Millercarbon is right to point out the deleterious vibration transmission from the cartridge body into the arm. Len Gregory would probably point out that the polymer used is too stiff to result in mushy tracking against Atmasphere’s point.

Convincing points Yea or Nay,

My arm/arm-board/plinth (70mm 7 layer JVC) are solid, thus I believe all groove/stylus vibration is going into the cartridge; Plinth factory leveling feet on 2" square isolation pads to lessen my springy wood floor vibrations as I walk away.

I've got a few sheets of 'gasket paper', you cut your own exhaust manifold or carburetor gaskets from it. I'll dig it out, think about it, perhaps try it on one of my 3 arms.

two layers of heavy duty duct tape?

I have a few Decca cartridges. Been using them since the 80s. When I upgraded two of them from the red bendy plastic fitting to the milled aluminum Decapod, I noticed a specific change to the presentation of music. The improved and more rigid mount tightened the music, if you will, lending more stability to the image, faster transients, reduced sibilance, slightly larger and blacker soundstage. While I prefer the accuracy, and would never go back, I will say that it did reduce the musicality of the device. Just a little but it did raise the question of why. Why did it sound more musical? Colorations from vibrations? Harmonics?