I am always reading about various isolation products. One can find cones made of metal or carbon. Their are hard metal/rubber/resin balls in cups. You can use solid heavy weight things like granite and marble, or softer materials like Sorbothane and other rubber like materials. I did hear of one isolation platform that uses ‘air’… well sort of uses air.

These air platforms used either inflatable bladders or some kind of rubber ball. I did some research and came up with squash balls as a suitable ‘air’ isolation device. The bonus is that squash balls come in different stiffness/speed ratings. Depending on the manufacturer they will colour the balls, or use a coloured dot system. The ‘faster’ balls will be stiffer and the ‘slower’ balls will be softer. For my Gentle Balls I picked up a 12 pack of Head Tournament Balls with 1 yellow dot. This puts them right in the middle for stiffness. When I do look for another box, I will probably go a little softer.

For the ball holder, I imagined something made of metal and I decided plumbing parts might be a good way to go. With ball in hand, I tried Canadian tire, Home Depot, Rona and Home Hardware, unfortunately there were not metal parts that held the ball firmly. I then tried some plastic plumbing bits and did find a flared end cap with screw on cover. I had to toss the cover part, but for $1 i didn’t think it was a deal breaker.

The plastic footer held the ball firmly enough to keep it in place, but because the ball was ‘floating’ in the top of the pipe piece and because it had no support underneath, eventually the weight of the turntable pushed the balls down the pipe. I had to periodically adjust my balls which is fine, but there was no way to make all 4 balls level. I wasn’t happy.

I kept a ball in my inside coat pocket and everywhere I went, if I spied anything that looked remotely like it would hold a squash ball, I’d be shoving it in there. Eventually, I had the idea of perhaps finding a tea candle holder. It seemed at least plausible that I’d find a candle holder in the right size. Then one fateful day, a trip to Ikea changed my balls forever.

Ikea PS Tealight holder! Oh yes! They are ceramic too!

It’s not like I have a PHD in vibration isolation, but over the years I’ve pieced together some naive understanding.  Ceramic is good for being non-vibrational or at least that is what I gathered. The holders offered perfect support for my balls! The ball fit snugly and the bottoms touched the ceramic holder. No more sagging balls! Yay!

Can I quantify the difference in sound? Sure, why not. The turntable, sitting on a huge heavy cutting board on top of my Target stand sounded very good. Adding the GentleBalls removed some roughness, noise, and smoothed out the overall reproduction from top to bottom. I am a firm believer that a micro mechanical system like a turntable really benefits from vibration isolation. I am also a firm believer that my balls improved the quality of sound.

The difference was subtle and my turntable has a sprung suspension, so results with other turntables can’t really be compared. My system is on the detailed side, and making any change is easy to hear. Will there be an obvious change with a different system and turntable? Beats me.

I am really happy with the results I got, and I am most happy that it cost me $25CND for 12 each of the balls and cups. The next step is to try harder/softer balls, to see if that makes a difference, and to try them on all my other gear too.

Tweaks are fun!