Isoacoustics Gaia Isolation pods

[Axel]

I suspect the spiked disks are spiked just to prevent the speakers to slide too easily if pushed on, not for any coupling reason.

Jean-Marie

On this page: http://www.isoacoustics.com/products/gai...s/gaia-ii/
Have a look at the installation video and skip to 4:25 where we are told that the reason for the discs is to couple the Gaia to the solid flooring below. So I wonder what they bring to the party?  I have just sent them an email to ask and I’ll let you know their answer when I have it.

Years ago I started reading up on vibration control and how it worked. When it comes to isolating one thing from another for vibration, soft things that can flex tend to be considered as springs and their effectiveness of a spring as an isolation device depends on the resonant frequency of the spring. You don't get isolation below a frequency that is roughly 1.4 times the resonant frequency of the spring so  if you want isolation below 14 Hz you need to use a spring with a resonant frequency of 10 Hz or lower and the lower the frequency the  more isolation you will get.

The soft layer of the Gaia feet is essentially a spring device. The carpet on a floor and it's underlay will also act as a spring to some degree so if you just sit the Gaia on the carpet you have a spring in contact with another spring forming a spring unit with a combined resonant frequency that's different to that of the Gaia on it's own so you change the effectiveness of the Gaia as an isolation device.

The spiked discs bypass the carpet and underlay and couple directly to the floor beneath them so the Gaia sitting on the disc behaves as if it were sitting directly on the floor in the absence of the carpet and it works as it is intended to work.

I don't know if you really need the discs or not but that is the theory for what they do. If the combined resonant frequency of a Gaia foot sitting on your carpet is lower than the resonant frequency of a Gaia foot sitting on a solid floor, in theory you should get more isolation without the disc, and you would get less isolation without the disc if the combined resonant frequency is higher than that of the Gaia foot directly on the floor.

Thank you, @David A for your answer. Sean from Isoacoustics replied thus:
 Regarding the carpet discs, they are recommended if you have a thicker carpet or a carpet with underpadding. If your carpet is thin and feels solid underneath the GAIA’s then the carpet discs are not really required. The carpet discs are designed to provide a solid surface for the GAIA’s. the GAIA are the designed to connect with the speaker and with the floor below and the internal isolators manage the energy from the speaker. If the speaker is on a thick carpet it can have a negative impact on the performance of the GAIA’s.

I think he is confirming exactly what David said, but in less detail.  My carpet is fairly thick with very springy underlay, so I’ve just ordered a set of discs.