Racquetball isolation platform perfection

Hi Bob,
I considered using different balls, but after doing some research online, I found where a university science and engineering class did a research study on the properties of racquetballs. While this covered literally EVERY property imagineable, it was especially interesting when they studied what happens when a racquetball compresses or bounces. They found, and proved with some sort of seismic looking computer readouts, that the bouncing or compressing is converted almost entirely to heat ..... This is exactly what you want any isolation or coupling system to do ... Convert energy to a non interfering form of energy. This is probably why Gingko has such success with their products. I've tried several different isolation materials ( wood, lead, ect ) and all of them killed my system's dynamics and inner detail.
Just some food for thought.

I was thinking of doing the same thing but was thinking hand balls or squash balls since they are much denser than raquetballs. I was thinking of getting a slap of plexiglass (like gingko uses) and using a hole saw to cut the holes so that the balls would sit stationary. I am glad someone else has tried this and it works. nice

good discussion guys & perfect timing for me! :-) I am in the midst of making a tweak to my TT isolation platform! I've had a sandbox with a "floating" top-plate under TT for the last many yrs but recently felt (after reading some threads on another forum) that I could do even better.
I'm now thinking of isolating the rack shelf from the rack using 3 brass cones. Then, isolating the sandbox from the shelf using another set of 3 brass cones & finally isolating the "floating" top-plate from the sand in the sandbox using large bubbles bubble-wrap.
What do you guys think??

I was also thinking of racquetballs & squashballs - I felt that the racquetballs would be too bouncy hence might not be effective in damping but I'm happy to read from Timtim that they convert all kinetic energy to heat. Timtim, can you please provide the link to that article? thanx!

04-21-09: Emorrisiv
I was thinking of doing the same thing but was thinking hand balls or squash balls since they are much denser than raquetballs.

I *think* that in this case denser would be worse, no? The denser the material, the higher the coupling & the worse the isolation. Racquetballs might be better as they are more full of air - less coupling??

This is fun.

"I *think* that in this case denser would be worse, no? The denser the material, the higher the coupling & the worse the isolation. Racquetballs might be better as they are more full of air - less coupling??"

Could be. I would never claim to be a expert on this subject. Happily it is cheap and easy to experiment with any of these balls, since they all have virtually the same OD and should fit the DIY cloud platform.

Keep the conversation coming.I for one can't learn enough about the couple/Decoupling topic and the hobby in general.

e

Keep the conversation coming.I for one can't learn enough about the couple/Decoupling topic and the hobby in general.

OK! :-)
here goes:-
last night I did an isolation test (the idea was provided by a vinyl-phile from overseas) wherein I switched on my electronics, set the volume to that level I normally listen to, put a LP that I did not care about on the platter & set the stylus onto that LP. NOTE: the TT motor was NOT spinning. I did not want the platter spinning; all I wanted was the system to be 'live' i.e. the stylus to be in "picking up" mode.
Then, I started an extensive knuckle rapping test - rapped on the rack, rapped on the shelf the TT was on, rapped on the plinth, rapped on the motor, rapped on the LP far away from the stylus, rapped on the LP very close to the stylus.
Each time I rapped, I listen to the output from the speakers - could I hear the my knuckles rapping thru the speaker outputs?
Yes, I could when I rapped on the sandbox on which the TT sat, on the plinth & on the LP. :-(
The volume was not loud at all & the freq was on the low side. I did not have a SpecAn or a o'scope but I'm *guessing* that the freq was in the 100-200Hz range.
I got some more isolation work to do......