In another thread beowulf pointed out this "white paper" from audiopoints:
http://www.audiopoints.com/CMS/uploads/vibration-and-coulomb-friction-2013_001.pdfWhich looks like the math and diagrams were copied and pasted in it's entirety from here:
http://fsinet.fsid.cvut.cz/en/u2052/node121.htmlThe conclusions they come to seem dubious at best. Stuff like what is quoted below makes me wonder if the author has a technical education at all. The issue being, the isolation device has damping qualities which reduce the magnitude of the vibration until it stops, or if the input is continuous there will be a degree of attenuation. An isolation device would have to allow movement of the device it is isolating with absolutely no friction in order to not reduce the magnitude of the vibration and serve as a "resonance capacitor". However, this is the exact opposite goal of people who design isolation devices. Isolation devices are designed to attenuate the magnitude of vibration, not preserve it! The isolation device has mechanical properties that allow it to convert motion (vibration) into heat at a molecular level. This is where the vibration dissipates and it doesn't need to "seek earth's ground", which is a ridiculous concept.
This is demonstrated in one of Herbie's Audio Labs pages that show the effectiveness of the isolation material used at different frequencies, and the attenuation is significant, and ranges from approximately 16-50 dB from 20 Hz on up throughout the audible frequency spectrum. That's a lot of attenuation and in fact the exact opposite of a "resonance capacitor".
I do have a degree in mechanical engineering and I can say that while the math on that paper is accurate (only because it was copied and pasted), the conclusions are laughable. I'm sure Steve doesn't want to get into something where it could be said he has a bias and creates a conflict of interest, but I do not sell any isolation products at all, so I am more than happy to say that the entire premise behind that paper seems flawed to me.
"With regards to airborne resonance, isolation principles serve much like the dielectric material in a capacitance device, essentially turning the component into a giant Resonance Capacitor. "
