[Golden Monkey]

I just ordered a pair of UltraSonic 9's from Herbie:

My rig is in a non-ideal location (on a wire Metro shelf rack, if you know what those are...if not:image), and the 9622's are pretty microphonic. The wire shelving + hardwood floors + 6922's = microphonics, so I'm hoping these help. There's many tube damper designs out there (Google them), from solid brass rings, copper sleeves, dampers that radiate heat away (although most will actually insulate the heat...bad idea. Copper will work well for heat wicking though), etc., but these seemed to make the most sense to me. Too much damping can dull the sound and these have less contact on the tube, too little is pointless, and these are an open design that allow the heat to escape "naturally". Also, titanium will not propagate any eddy currents, which is also bad for the tubes. My only concern is that I can see them being useful in a speaker setup, where subwoofers and stuff can cause vibration, but in a HP only rig, there's not a whole lot of vibration that needs to be dampened... Anyone tried these, or any others out there? What are your feelings on the ones you've tried, and dampers in general? Any concerns about "hot spots"?

Crap, just realized I should have posted this in Tweaks...Mods, feel free to move if you want.

 

[Skylab]

I use Herbie's. They will not completely eliminate microphonics, of course, but they do help.

 

[Golden Monkey]

That's what I was hoping for - I don't want them eliminated (toobz is toobz...), but a reduction would be nice. Sometimes I can tell when my wife is walking into the room just by the sound in my headphones, lol.

 

[apatN]

Ha, glad you got that amp and not me.

 

[Golden Monkey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by apatN /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ha, glad you got that amp and not me.

Me too! I love it!

It's not the amp, it's just my situation, and the problem would lessen somewhat if I either
A) put the whole rack up on some carpet (wifes says NO) or other suspension (like furniture cups or something)
B) put the amp on some sort of vibration damping platform
c) just put up with it...

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Put in on a Gengko (SP ? ) Cloud 9 platform.......beats buying a new rack and some roller bearing footers which is bound to cost twice what the Cloud 9 does...unless of course you want a nice new rack

I use Bright Star stuff for preamps and CDP's or smallish tube amps...the Cloud 9 I bought for my TT and it's worth every penny. What a difference it made cleaning up outside influences...like foot falls etc in the same room. Another method would be to get a rack (single or double shelf) that bolts to the wall. Find a load bearing or similar heavy duty inert section (outside wall) to attach that to. 1/4 the cost of the Cloud 9 but not as effective. It does not touch the floor at all.

The Herbie's look like great little helpers....I have loads of the cheap orange donuts of various sizes and they do help a bit. Most of my NOS glass isn't microphonic (yet) knock wood (my head)

Hope that heps you a little.

Peete.

 

[bergman2]

i've used the herbie's cheapo silicon units with subtle but positive results....most of your problem, however, sounds like the awful shelf system youre using...a butcher block and something like this might help....


The Vibrapod Company

 

[Golden Monkey]

I should mention that yeah, the shelf sucks, but I had to sacrifice a bit to keep the wife happy...the whole room is Mid-Century modern (mostly), and it matched well with the Eames desk...anyway, the amp isn't quite just sitting there on the shelf, it's supported by a 1" thick cutting board and under that is a thin sheet of...I don't know what...it's some sort of packing material cellulose kinda stuff. Works more or less, just worked a lot better with non-tube equipment, that's for sure.

 

[pataburd]

I currently use Herbies Hal-Os and the ring dampers sold on e-Bay. In the past I have used the Duende Criatura and thought them better performers than the Herbies.

Instead of the Cloud Nine platform, get five Vibrapods, place five racquet balls into the Vibrapod recesses and arrange symmetrically beneath, and bearing directly upon the chassis of, your source. For your amp--due to its typically uneven distribution of weight, put the Vibrapod/racquet ball arrangement beneath a 3/4 inch MDF or thick maple platform and put the amp atop that. Directly beneath my amp, I also place Herbies Ebony Domes bottomed on gabon ebony squares atop the platform.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pataburd /img/forum/go_quote.gif I currently use Herbies Hal-Os and the ring dampers sold on e-Bay. In the past I have used the Duende Criatura and thought them better performers than the Herbies. Instead of the Cloud Nine platform, get five Vibrapods, place five racquet balls into the Vibrapod recesses and arrange symmetrically beneath, and bearing directly upon the chassis of, your source. For your amp--due to its typically uneven distribution of weight, put the Vibrapod/racquet ball arrangement beneath a 3/4 inch MDF or thick maple platform and put the amp atop that. Directly beneath my amp, I also place Herbies Ebony Domes bottomed on gabon ebony squares atop the plarform.

A diy cloud 9...cool. What softness level of raquet ball did you use P?

Peete.

 

[pataburd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pricklely Peete /img/forum/go_quote.gif A diy cloud 9...cool. What softness level of raquet ball did you use P? Peete.

To tell you the truth, Peete, I never paid attention to the racquet balls' specifications. I suppose, though, that you could gauge ball softness with component weight. This arrangement is relatively inexpensive and, IMHE, works better than anything else I've tried to date (BDR, RDC, Aurios, myrtlewood Cuboids, the ceramic cones--whose name escapes me at the moment, Ma Rollers, etc.). Actually, I like setting up the platform with the racquet balls and using my favorite cones between component and top of platform.

A wheel barrow inner tube beneath a wooden platform works well, too, and you can directly vary/optimize pressure. Also, a rectangular box filled about an inch or so from the top, and levelled, with fine sand, with a rectangular piece (cut to fit inside the top inner dimension of the sand-filled box) works well, too. I made one of these for one of my AC conditioners.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pataburd /img/forum/go_quote.gif To tell you the truth, Peete, I never paid attention to the racquet balls' specifications. I suppose, though, that you could gauge ball softness with component weight. This arrangement is relatively inexpensive and, IMHE, works better than anything else I've tried to date (BDR, RDC, Aurios, myrtlewood Cuboids, the ceramic cones--whose name escapes me at the moment, Ma Rollers, etc.). Actually, I like setting up the platform with the racquet balls and using my favorite cones between component and top of platform. A wheel barrow inner tube beneath a wooden platform works well, too, and you can directly vary/optimize pressure. Also, a rectangular box filled about an inch or so from the top, and levelled, with fine sand, with a rectangular piece (cut to fit inside the top inner dimension of the sand-filled box) works well, too. I made one of these for one of my AC conditioners.

All excellent suggestions......similar to Bright Star's arrangements...(inner tube and sand ). I completely agree with this type of device being the only really effective solution, those are my findings as well having experimented with all kinds of stuff and found them wanting.

One other type of footer is available that works 100% but the price is ridiculous, the uber cool mag lev type. Great to look at and marvel at the engineering but man o man is that price tag steep for a set of them.

I'm thinking GM's solution has to meet WAF, so maybe a finished product might be better than home made ? I dunno...

Peete.

 

[Golden Monkey]

She won't care as long as she doesn't have to think about it, hear about it, deal with it, or hear me bitch about things she doesn't care about (which is anything having to do with audio basically)...*sigh*.

 

[santacore]

You might want to also try swapping out tubes. I recently picked up a used Singlepower and had terrible microphonics. I ended up doing some tube rolling with the 6SN7 input tube, and sure enough, problem solved. Dampeners or footers did little to help the original problem. But with different tubes I'm a happy camper.

 

[cooperpwc]

I have the Herbie's - also for 6922s as well as a 12AT7 driver. I was using them for a while to tame treble on one of my drivers but it (or I) mellowed. Now I am thinking that my best tubes sound as good or better without the dampers.

However my amp/placement is not causing any obvious microphonics problems...

Herbie's are fun to play with anyway. I think that they focus the sound with some tubes but reduce the ambient 'magic'.