Sean, since you mention that your explanation of how cones do what they do was quoted at length by J Scull in Stereophile, can I ask for more explanation? No disrespect intended – for you are a sane poster whose views on AudiogoN I tend to pay attention to – but I did not find the S’phile quotation very enlightening. The diode metaphor of how cones pass vibrations one way has an obvious appeal to it, simply because cones look like arrows, but I’ve often wondered if there was a scientific explanation behind it. Your chain of thought about how cones work to drain vibrations in one direction and block vibrations in the other is quite logical and, as you say in your explanation, “it’s all quite simple.” However, in the end it all rests on the familiar proposition that cones pass vibrations one way – which, in my mind, you basically reasserted, rather than explained. ---------- Ideally, the contact area between a flat surface and the point of a cone that meets it is just that, a point. What difference does it make to vibrations on which “side” of the point there is flatness and on which side there is cone-ness? Again, the diode metaphor appeals in a visual way – vibrations get funneled through the cone in one direction but cannot squeeze into the point from a flat surface in the other direction; lower frequency (floor-borne) vibrations have more trouble than higher frequency (equipment) vibrations fitting through a small point – but I don’t assume that necessarily has any correlation to science. Is there any further explanation you can add for this proposition? ---------- BTW, this is a matter of intellectual curiousity, and I am not implying that I need to hear a scientific explanation before I believe that cones have an effect. Right now, I am comparing Mapleshade brass cones against the cones I currently have under my turntable, and there are differences to my ear. But, speaking of Mapleshade, that company sells higher-priced brass cones (Triplepoints) that have three “micro”-cones sticking up from the flat side of the cone. The cone is used point down, and the equipment rests on the points of the micro-cones rather than directly on the flat surface of the cone. The designer Pierre Sprey says that minimizing the contact between the equipment and the big brass cone improves the transfer of vibrations from equipment into the feet. Not that he gives a scientific explanation for this (though he might have one if I asked) ...just another example of differing points of view (no pun intended). -- Jayson
