My main reply to your question is:
I don’t know.
Though since high end audio is rife with snake oil I have little doubt this applies to some (or many) isolation products.
Bit having recently bought a new high end turntable, it did make at least theoretical sense to ensure it sat on a surface that minimized the transfer of vibration to the turntable (and hence to the stylus - I don’t buy in to the necessity of vibration control for other components, e.g. CD players, amps etc that work on different principles than turntables).
So I tried all sorts of vibration minimization strategies, products and materials, measuring their effects via a seismometer app on my iPad (all I had, but I at least wanted to see some objective verification).
In the end I used some springs and constrained layer-type material combinations to create a platform for the turntable. In terms of what is measurable via the seismometer, not to mention what I can feel by hand, the reduction of vibration getting to the turntable are easily seen.
For instance, without the platform stomping on the ground by the equipment rack produces huge ringing spikes of vibration. With the platform, when stomping the they are almost gone.
I got similar results for reducing other types of vibration (eg rapid higher level buzzing vibration from an electric toothbrush).
Therefore I wouldn’t be surprised if an isolation product using similar principles actually did increase isolation from vibration.
The big question is of course: are the effects audible?
In my case I have no idea if my new turntable would sound different with or without the isolation base I built. I’d need to blind test it with/without the base to feel comfortable making such a claim. But that would be an impossible test given the ergonomics and other issues involved.
So I just use my experience as a “peace of mind” factor that I did my best to reduce the influence of gross level vibrations.
I can say the sound of records on the turntable has been astonishly low in noise!
I can’t believe how “black” the background is on records of all types vs my previous turntable set up, and that includes even older worn records. Again, without being able to test in a way that reduces the variables I can’t pinpoint what to attribute to these changes.
I don’t know.
Though since high end audio is rife with snake oil I have little doubt this applies to some (or many) isolation products.
Bit having recently bought a new high end turntable, it did make at least theoretical sense to ensure it sat on a surface that minimized the transfer of vibration to the turntable (and hence to the stylus - I don’t buy in to the necessity of vibration control for other components, e.g. CD players, amps etc that work on different principles than turntables).
So I tried all sorts of vibration minimization strategies, products and materials, measuring their effects via a seismometer app on my iPad (all I had, but I at least wanted to see some objective verification).
In the end I used some springs and constrained layer-type material combinations to create a platform for the turntable. In terms of what is measurable via the seismometer, not to mention what I can feel by hand, the reduction of vibration getting to the turntable are easily seen.
For instance, without the platform stomping on the ground by the equipment rack produces huge ringing spikes of vibration. With the platform, when stomping the they are almost gone.
I got similar results for reducing other types of vibration (eg rapid higher level buzzing vibration from an electric toothbrush).
Therefore I wouldn’t be surprised if an isolation product using similar principles actually did increase isolation from vibration.
The big question is of course: are the effects audible?
In my case I have no idea if my new turntable would sound different with or without the isolation base I built. I’d need to blind test it with/without the base to feel comfortable making such a claim. But that would be an impossible test given the ergonomics and other issues involved.
So I just use my experience as a “peace of mind” factor that I did my best to reduce the influence of gross level vibrations.
I can say the sound of records on the turntable has been astonishly low in noise!
I can’t believe how “black” the background is on records of all types vs my previous turntable set up, and that includes even older worn records. Again, without being able to test in a way that reduces the variables I can’t pinpoint what to attribute to these changes.