The Cartridgeman Isolater.

Hi Downunder

I ranted, granted, hehe.

I also use tubes and I know they measure badly. I also use 'isolation' - under and around my tt's armposts and above, below and around my tt's legs. The isolating material is called 'butyl'which I got from someone who brought it from Belgium. The stuff is compressable but not a 'closed cell foam'.

I also admit I have not heard the "Isolator' and my modest opinion or prejudice is just as subjective as yours. I will not go as far as the brave men who superglue their carts to headshells though, but for the life of me, I cannot see the benefit of introducing yet another compliance in the cart-to headshell-to arm chain. While being driven from side to side and up and down a gazillion times per second, the cantilever already has a tough-enough time to accurately decode those grooves. I guess the same effect could be introduced for less than $150 by cutting your armtube halfway between the h/shell and the pivot and re-joining the two pieces with a rubber bung. Would this however, make sense?

coneflap

I have to disagree with many of the posted comments, just based on listening (but not measurements). After speaking with Pierre at Mapleshade, who suggested I loosen the cartridge bolts to just finger tight, I tried it on my Technics 1200 and Audio Note AQ-II. Without a doubt, the sound was more dynamic and there was less of a spitty character, especially to vocals. Same with my new Clearaudio Maestro on the same table, although truthfully it's not fully broken in. Too loose caused mistracking but that was easily corrected. As others have pointed out, this is all about cartridge-headshell-arm-table resonances and frankly it has got to be more complex than simple platitudes that a more solid interface is better. So, something like the Isolater may work in some cases, but so might just loosening the bolts or trying Moca wood or Blu-tack as suggested.

I did some further research into people who tried the isolator. It appears to be very tonearm & cartridge dependant. I think that it will benefit some on using the VPI arm, depending on the cartridge. The Phantom most likely wont benefit on most cartridges. It really has a lot to do w. how the turntable & arm deal w. resonance. If the turntable can dissipate resonance well and so can the arm it shouldn't be needed. I myself am just trying my best to explain what I have been explained from memory. I have not tried it and now don't plan on trying it.

Oh come on Darren

I don't dissagree with you. But $150 bucks is chicked feed to what you have invested in your system. It would be a bit of fun, you don't even need to disconnect your cartridge leads. And you may see an improvement :)

What arms do you have these days??

Hi Paul

Yes thinking about the jubilee, it would probably be a waste of time. I forgot about the ridge!!.
I am like you re the vertical height with my dyna XV-1. I think I will be close to teh top of my VTA tower.
If I don't have enough play, I'll put it on the denon 103r after that.

Yes I got it from Brian at decibelhifi. he seems like a nice guy.

I will be interested in seeing how it goes with a graham arm.