Weights on a preamp

I find this helps with my tube pre. I use a pair of two pound coated scuba weight belt weights. The coating is dead so there is no ringing and the weights (as far as audiophile prices!) are cheap.

I think you are all correct; metal to metal ringing was messing it up. I am going to figure out some rubber interface between the weight and the preamp.

I am curious if anyone has any thoughts on the shaking of my building (from surrounding traffic and such). Don't try to figure out 'why' it is happening. The question is how to treat my system so that excess vibrations can be dealt with. I have found that the very fine micro vibrations probably harm sound more than out and out floor shaking. After all, the vibrations from fairly loud music are way more profound than the shaking of my building.

I've been considering trying this "tweak" and am wondering if anyone has used a hockey puck on top of their equipment and what was the effect to the sound. If I can locate a hockey puck in my basement I might try it.

Ehaller, You might want to ask the Penguins for some extra pucks.

Chashmal,

This is all a matter of system tuning. Your finding that the sound became thin and lacked warmth is consistent with what dampening will do. If your system was overly warm, the dampening would have been positive, but, that clearly was not the case. That is why one can only tell by experimenting -- no tweak will consistently improve sound.

I have had the same experience as you reported when using vibration dampening devices on some cd players. With a lot of players, a lot of dampening is NOT a good thing.