I have often asked this question myself. Currently I'm working both sides of the fence so to speak. I have a Mapleshade Samson 4 shelf rack with Heavyfeet thick carpet spikes penetrating through the carpet to the concrete floor below. My amp and preamp both use the Mapleshade model for draining vibration; a maple platform supported by their Isoblocks with cones mounted rigidly to the chassis. My CD player sits on Herbies IsoCups and my DAC is on Herbies Tenderfeet. I also use mass loading in several different applications: HRS damping plates on top of my amp, preamp, and CDP, Mapleshade Heavy Hats sitting on Herbies Grungebuster Dots are on my speakers and power conditioner. This is definitely not my first go round at vibration control, and I'm pretty happy with the present configuration.
I have noticed that the Samson rack is picking up a significant amount of vibration from the floor below. It appears to be 60 cycle hum possibly from an improperly isolated distribution transformer in a nearby electric room. It seemed to me that much more vibration was being transmitted TO the rack than what was being drained FROM it. I contacted Mapleshade with this question and got the following answer: "1. Back in 1986, I did a very careful experiment that proved conclusively that internally-generated vibrations in components have a major degrading effect on sound while external vibrations (in the floor and in the air) have a negligible effect. This is the whole basis of our approach to vibration control.
2. The Samson rack's function is to drain vibration out of every component into the maple shelves and from there down into the floor via the most direct path. Isolating the rack would simply block the vibration path into the floor.
3. Steady-state vibrations or random noise vibrations that are not correlated with the music
have essentially no effect on sound quality (the same is true for electronic noise). It is vibrations that are correlated with the music that seriously degrade sound.
By the way, testing for vibration problems by feeling vibrations (or measuring them with accelerometers) in the component--or by rapping on it (as audiophiles do instinctively with turntables and speaker enclosures) is a total waste of time and never correlates with what you hear. The only useful way to "measure" vibration problems is to change something in the vibration path and then, by listening to your standard music test tracks, determine whether the change improved or worsened the sound of the music. Nothing else works"
I heard a very good point brought up in another forum regarding the draining of vibrations: does the draining occur before or after the detremental effects are felt? Think about that one for a while...
I have noticed that the Samson rack is picking up a significant amount of vibration from the floor below. It appears to be 60 cycle hum possibly from an improperly isolated distribution transformer in a nearby electric room. It seemed to me that much more vibration was being transmitted TO the rack than what was being drained FROM it. I contacted Mapleshade with this question and got the following answer: "1. Back in 1986, I did a very careful experiment that proved conclusively that internally-generated vibrations in components have a major degrading effect on sound while external vibrations (in the floor and in the air) have a negligible effect. This is the whole basis of our approach to vibration control.
2. The Samson rack's function is to drain vibration out of every component into the maple shelves and from there down into the floor via the most direct path. Isolating the rack would simply block the vibration path into the floor.
3. Steady-state vibrations or random noise vibrations that are not correlated with the music
have essentially no effect on sound quality (the same is true for electronic noise). It is vibrations that are correlated with the music that seriously degrade sound.
By the way, testing for vibration problems by feeling vibrations (or measuring them with accelerometers) in the component--or by rapping on it (as audiophiles do instinctively with turntables and speaker enclosures) is a total waste of time and never correlates with what you hear. The only useful way to "measure" vibration problems is to change something in the vibration path and then, by listening to your standard music test tracks, determine whether the change improved or worsened the sound of the music. Nothing else works"
I heard a very good point brought up in another forum regarding the draining of vibrations: does the draining occur before or after the detremental effects are felt? Think about that one for a while...