LC >
Would you please tell us something about your Company? When and how did
you decide to design and make anti-vibration devices for HiFi purpose?
SK >
The Vibrapod Company is a subsidiary of Kennard Industries, Inc.
Kennard Industries has been manufacturing flexible vinyl products since 1967. In
February of 1998 I hired a friend, Yvonne "Bonnie" Perry, who was in between
jobs. She had worked in the high end industry for almost 20 years and I
offered her a job making our products until she found another job. About
three weeks after Bonnie started we were talking in the factory and a CD
player skipped when one of the workers put a mold set in an oven.
Bonnie suggested that maybe our seals would stop that skipping. I told her that I
would give it a try and removed the Audioquest feet and we didn't have any
more skips that day.
I also put seals under every speaker and other component at the same time. We sent different samples to several other people over the next several weeks for some feedback. Everyone seemed to like what they heard. During this time I modified some molds and designed the Vibrapod Isolator molds.
The final prototype was finished shortly before Easter. Vibrapod Isolators were put on the market on June 15, 1998.
LC >
We at TNT-Audio believe that vibrations and resonances may heavily
affect the performance of any electronic device. Many readers are just
skeptical when the anti-vibration treatment is referred to digital units.
They simply say: 0 is 0 and 1 is 1, what a damping material can do to a digital player or a converter?
SK >
Reducing the vibration of any mechanical device allows it to operate more
efficiently. A CD player has a transport and any external vibration will
send the error correction routines into overtime.
The heavier the unit usually the better the isolation. We have found that we can increase the level of performance of an inexpensive CD player to that of something in the mid-fi range.
Placing a DAC on an isolation platform or Vibrapod Isolators helps remove
micro vibrations.
LC >
Which is your approach to the problem of vibrations dampening?
Is material more crucial than the shape of the "damping" device?
SK >
We have tried numerous shapes with the same material. The current shape of
the Vibrapod Isolator seems to do the job better than anything else that we
have tried. All Vibrapod Isolators are made of Poly Vinyl Chloride or vinyl.
LC >
What do you think about the necessity to dampen the vibrations even
inside the cabinet of the HiFi components, by means of tar-like sheets, dampening
sprays etc?
SK >
This dampening works well also but it is dampening not isolation. My foreign
distributor, Paul Wakeen of Media Access, sells a product that is called
Cromolin. It's a constrained layer vibration control strip that has a
special adhesive on it. I have seen reports that it works wonders but have
never tried it myself.
LC >
Before buying new HiFi components we always suggest our readers to try
to improve the existing units by means of dampening devices, cables,
ferrite rings, blue-tac etc. By your experience, what would you suggest to
an audiophile who's willing to improve the overall performance of his HiFi
system?
SK >
Try our Vibrapod Isolators first, of course. :-) (Big Grin)
If your equipment rack is not sturdy I would replace it first. Then cables.
LC >
Your Company is currently making just the Isolators, are you planning to
build some other similar device such as isolation platforms, tables,
speaker stands?
SK >
We may have something else by year end. However, Vibrapod Isolators fit so
well into our current manufacturing process that straying too far from this
may not be in our best interest.
We are moving to much larger facilities directly across the street. We will
have much nicer facilities for R & D and we have a project in mind that
Bonnie will manage.
LC >
You may know TNT-Audio is an entirely non-commercial enterprise hence we
don't have profits of any kind. So I've appreciated a lot your idea to give
10% of all your profits to outreach organizations.
This is not exactly a question, I just wanted to say thank you for this.
May you say just a few words on this topic?
SK >
Thank you for the thank you. We donate 10% of sales, not profits.
We believe that everyone can help "isolate people from the *vibrations* of
daily life" by supporting local organizations that affect everyone at some
time in their life.
We are simply trying to help several local organizations that we know do outstanding work; organizations that give a hand up and not a hand out.
Courtesy Sam Kennard for TNT-Audio.
Copyright © 1999 Lucio Cadeddu