Ceramic Isolation Footers - Monarch Systems Distribution

Vibrations. They can be a good thing.

After all, the Beach Boys sang about them. But, more often than not, vibrations have a negative impact on our world. Engineers have been fighting the effects of vibrations and oscillations for hundreds of years.

For example, take the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. The Arch has become iconic, recognized all over the world. For anyone who has been inside and gone to the top on a windy day, you’ve most certainly noticed that the Arch sways (or vibrates) back and forth very slowly. Engineers worked diligently to make the Arch as impervious to wind as possible by tightly controlling how it oscillates, essentially making sure that it vibrates so little that it won’t affect the stability of the structure itself. Although it can move back and forth a maximum of 18 inches, the Gateway Arch is so well designed that it’s never really approached this much movement. In fact, wind has to move at 50 miles an hour just to make it move 1.5 inches.

For an audio system, vibrations are much, much smaller, although they can also have a negative impact on what you hear.

While your system doesn’t have to deal with the effects of wind, it has to deal with many other sources of vibration, oscillation, or movement. Even things you wouldn’t expect such as the resonant point of a suspended wooden floor or the vibrational hum from the transformer in a big amplifier sitting on that same floor can impact how well other components perform.

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This is where Franc’s Ceramic Footers come into play. Franc’s products are the result of a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and their ability to isolate and stabilize anything sitting on them is nothing short of amazing. The Ceramic Footers in particular use a system of ultra-hard ceramics and soft polymers to damp and isolate anything on top of them from the vibrations in anything they’re sitting on. This means an improvement in bass definition, separation of images, and greater clarity.

They may not be able to control oscillations of 18 inches, but you get the point.

To read the HiFi+ Product of the Year: Accessory award conclusion, please click here.