Vibration Black Hole - VBH

The Vibration Black Hole (VBH) isolation feet provides mechanical vibration attenuation and isolation using a novel two-stage constrained viscous layer damping (CVLD) technique whereby a compliant and viscous polymeric medium is placed in between two hard surfaces, thereby providing a mechanical impedance mismatch that dissipates the energy from mechanical motions/vibrations through the mechanical shear and compression of the viscous layer. By use of dissimilar materials (nylon/stainless steel/viscous polymer/silicone rubber) in multiple stages, the VBH provides an exceptional level of extra mechanical dampening between two components needing mechanical isolation.

The VBH is ideal for mechanically isolating sensitive audio gear such as turntables, tube amplifiers, preamplifiers, and buzzing power supplies in large linear amplifiers. They are also very useful for isolating speakers from hard floors or tables to provide an improved soundstage and bass clarity. Each VBH consists of a precision machined stainless steel body and stainless steel inner core and a machined nylon piston-like conical contact pad. In between each of these components is the unique CVLD dampening compound. The device being isolated mounts on the included machined aluminum spike feet which mate to the nylon conical contact pads to provide the first stage of isolation. This stage is then in contact with the main external base through a second CVLD pad. The second stage of CVLD has an external backup silicone O-ring bumper to prevent bottoming out under heavy load and itself also acts as a CVLD under heavy loads.

Each VBH can support up to 30 lbs so a speaker with four VBH can weigh as much as 120 lbs. The VBH has been tested with an instrumented turntable plinth and special instrumented and calibrated test hammer and has shown a significant reduction in the transmitted mechanical shock and reduction in transmitted mechanical energy.

The VBH’s will help to provide your audio gear that extra level of mechanical noise isolation that you have been looking for.

Now Available with M6 thread adjustable spikes for turntables! Please select the option for these spikes to be included. 

Try the Vibration Black Hole for yourself in your own home. All products sold by Vera-Fi Audio are covered by a 30 day money back guarantee should you be dissatisfied in any way. 

 Testing

 Dr. Viet Nguyen, Engineer of VBH:

I set up a test to measure the attenuation of an impact to a table that is then transmitted to the plinth of a TT. By instrumenting the plinth with a piezoelectric transducer, we can measure the transmitted energy from a mechanical impact to the table. I use a special instrumented hammer fitted with a calibrated transducer (PCB Piezotronics, ICP Impact Hammer). This way, we can quantity the hammer impact energy for accurate comparison.

Here is the setup - LSA TT, Owon digital Oscope, PCB Piezotronics ICP hammer and signal conditioner, disc piezoelectric transducer mounted on plinth.

The piezoelectric transducer is mounted to the plinth with 3M thin double sided tape at the 1/3 and 1/3 position to avoid the vibrational nodes:

This is the instrumented PCB Piezotronics ICP hammer:

Here is the Oscope trace without the VBH. Yellow trace is hammer strike energy and blue trace shows the time response of vibrations in the plinth:

Here is the Oscope trace with VBH. Note that the hammer energy is approximately the same at around 24.6Vpp. The transmitted vibration is reduced in amplitude but more importantly, the high frequency resonances are smoothed out. The VBH will help to dissipate impulsive energy (taps, bumps, etc,):

 Installment