Isolation

[Tisinthepark]

Hi all, my system is all on the one level unit (a sideboard type unit) should I have the speakers on isolation feet or the turntable on a pad or both?

i never play my music really loud that I notice any distortion I don't have room for speaker stands I saw these stainless steel feet and pads for about £17 a set for the speakers but are they needed. Thanks for the advice.

 

[thescarletpronster]

Hi.

Isolation will certainly not hurt, especially if you have your equipment on a resonating surface (top of a cabinet) and especially if you have the speakers, which vibrate a lot, on the same surface as the rest of your equipment.

However, you don't need to splash out silly money. One good tip is to cut squash balls in half. If you need a hard surface to rest isolation spikes on, you can use 2p pieces (I covered mine in brown felt so they blended in better). The first of those ideas came from this magazine itself; the second was given to me by my hi-fi dealer. I can't think of a home-made version of a set of isolation spikes, but I bet someone here can.

In short, yes; it's quite likely that you'll get some improvement in sound quality by using some isolation. But you don't need specialised hi-fi isolation products to achieve this. And if you're not noticing any lessening in quality at the moment, the improvement might be subtle and you might not think it worth the effort/expense.