DIY Isolation base

I had some very fancy sorbothane feet with which to control a dancing washing machine. The machine still danced, but could no longer attempt suicide while knocking the house down. But they might be tuned to the wrong frequency range for speakers!

(Whoa! Serious idea: try them with my desktop speakers!)

 

Sorbothane feet - that sparks a memory.

Many years ago, I was a friend's go-to-guy for audio equipment advise. He was having a problem with his CD player skipping. He had it placed on his subwoofer. I could not talk him into placing it anywhere else. I don't remember what it was but he had some reason that he wanted it on that sub no matter what I said.

So I finally told him that the only thing that I could think of that might work were sorbothane feet, but not to get his hopes up. I suggested some Audioquest semi-spherical blue feet. They were not particularly expensive. They worked! I was really surprised. He was so happy and kept saying that they worked "just like you said they would".

 

Another interesting DIY solution:

 

As a Canadian, I am culturally obligated to use hockey pucks under all my gear.

 

There's music samples in this page which compares the different materials:
http://www.nzacoustics.com/isolation.htm

 

Maybe this might work better than tennis/racquetball?
http://www.edmundoptics.com/optomec...eadboard-accessories/sorbothane-mounts/35264/

note: let's keep this thread on relatively inexpensive(e.g. non-mega bucks) diy or commerical solution. Don't want it to get lock like the old ikea board thread.

 

Actually, I still have four that I bought back in the day when I thought isolating a s/s amplifier might be a good idea. Subsequently, they were used to put the deep/narrow-format Cyrus amp on top of short/wide things. They are still in use today, as my desktop "shelf" is not a shelf,, but an ex kitchen unit door: the amp sits on a piece of teak surround at the back, and the feet at the front. Purely practical, but hey, who knows, it might sound better!

These are soft and squidgy. the ones I got for the washing machine are more industrial-strength things. No squidge at all.

So his poor CD player had to work with something a bit stronger than Earth Murmur! Daft. Who remembers the early CD Walkmen that had no buffering: if you actually walked with them, they skipped.

 

It was the rollerskate era dude. Walking was for squares.