I was roaming the internet and ran across the mapleshade audio site and wondered if anyone had heard of these guys, and or used their products. Outlaws seem to have a pretty smart group hanging around the saloon, so I thought I would ask.

I wondered what the "science" or theory was behind a few of their products such as :

1. Maple AMP stands. This just looks to be a big heavy hunk of maple that you sit an amp on. WHY?

2. Cable lifts? These little devices lift you cables off the ground? WHY?

3.Heavy hat Vibe killers. Look like big heavy weights that youset on top of your gear to stop vibration. Why does vibration matter on a pre/pro or CD player or AMP?

4. Lastly cone points ( these come in different flavors ) sounds like the same sales line all along, to reduce vibes..... WHY.

Do these products really offer a SONIC difference? If so what is the reason / theory behind them. Does anyone inthe saloon use them? Or are they just some "AUDIO SNAKE OIL"

thanks

The pickup of structure borne and air borne vibration is one of those overblown effects that the aftermarket loves to sell solutions for. If you are talking about a turntable, then yes, isolation is extremely important, but with electronics, vibration has little practical effect. It is far easier to just place your equipment away from your speakers and subwoofers if you're concerned about vibration pickup than to apply band-aids in the form of vibration isolation devices.

I'm sure others will have stories of how their wives came home from shopping and immediately heard the vast difference that a new vibrapod or whatever made, but then again, what the hell do I know?

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited February 25, 2004).]

thanks soundhound.

I was wondering what vibration had to do with solid state electronics. I just could not see where it would matter. The only thing that I could come up with, ( and this is a long shot I assume) is that with a cd player, maybe ( again this is a long shot )maybe if you had enough vibration you might mess with the path of the laser, maybe. I could see how it might screw with a turntable. I don't have any records, never have. I guess that is mostly a function of my age ( only 26 ) so.... again thanks for the input soundhound. I am curious to see what others have to say.

I forgot vaccum tube amplifiers, which are more succeptable to microphoncs induced by vibration, but even in these, the effects are way below the threshold of being audible. If there is enough vibration to make it's way into solid state gear, then maybe earthquake insurance is a better option than vibration isolation devices!

Let me start off by digressing.

There are notable cases where electronic components are vibration tested. Satellites are designed and built to survive two launches into space: the first being a ground-based test in a high-intensity noise testing facility (see http://iar-ira.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/smpl_9c.html); the second being the launch itself. In that case you are not really testing how the device performs during the period of high noise / vibration, but rather whether it shakes itself to bits or not on its way into space. (I've seen a picture of a standard Sony videocam that was accidentally left in such a test chamber during a test. It managed to shake itself literally into all of its constituent bits and pieces to the point where it was not recognizable as a camcorder.)

Another bit of anecdotal observation: I have two lamps that I sit on two of my subs. I tend to have to replace the bulbs in those lamps much more frequently that in lamps that are not being vibrated. However while they are operating, there is no change in the actually performance of the bulb.

So my take on the topic is that vibration with respect to solid state home theatre components is to be avoided where the level / frequency of vibration may caused physical failure due to fatigue effects. But I doubt very much that a vibrating component will sound any different than one that is not - transducers (like turntable pickups) and components that "rattle" excepted.

Jeff Mackwood