European Vibraplane?


I was trying to find an EU analog of the Vibraplane and came across Iso-Plate from Thor Labs:

http://www.thorlabs.de/NewGroupPage9.cfm?ObjectGroup_ID=2612

The specs look a bit worse then Vibraplane 2210 (resonant freq. is said to be at 3.5max vs 2.5Hz). The pricing, esp. without the breadboard is aceptable. I'm wondering if anyone has tried it?

Cheers,
bydlo
bydlo
Geoffkait, thanks for your very interesting and informative post. Are you describing a commercially available unit or is this more of a DIY type of project? You describe many advantages over air suspension, so I would think there would be many products meeting this need, but I am only aware of the Minus K brand platforms which are quite expensive and do have the center balance issue from what I read.

I agree that the life span and maintenance of an air based system long term may become an issue. My three new Vibraplanes do give great isolation performance and have really helped the sonics of my system at a fairly reasonable cost.
Peterayer, it's more of a DIY project, I am pretty sure there are no commercially available units like the ones I have in mind. I designed the first Sub-Hertz Platform for the audio market, the Nimbus Unipivot, a 6 degree of freedom, single airspring design, about 15 years ago. I developed a mechanical spring based platform, the Promethean, about 10 years ago, the primary advantage of which was that it was modular and could support almost any load, unlike Nimbus...and it was a 2 Hz stand. Some of my Promethean customers had really big turntables like Raven, VPI and Verdier, also amps like JC-1 and the big 200 lb Classe amp. My current DIY project is based on small hardened steel springs and heavy mass. Because the springs are only one inch high compressed they can be placed directly under the component in many cases.
Bydlo
Peter, all that is available in EU: as I learned Newport has a warehouse in France. BT-2024 automatic platform sales for:

1869EU+VAT+150EU shipping within EU (unavoidable) which in my case gives 2450Eu...2/3 of the price of te deck I want to support...

If you had a friend in the US buy it for you and ship it to Europe, you'd save a big chunk of money...
Actusreus how would buying in US then shipping from one private consumer to another save money? Most large companies that do a lot of shipping get discounts of 10-40% off regular shipping costs from us mere mortals!
Because the price of the platform is much lower in the US to begin with. If you then have someone located in a different state buy it, you will also save on the sales tax. I also expect that shipping would be less than what the company would charge as they generally use standard service that might not always be the most economical way to ship.