Vibrapod Isolators: Come Join the Pod People

by Steven Rochlin

[begin quiet, eerie, sci-fi music here]

I fell asleep with the windows open on a beautiful June night so that the cool breeze could flow through my entire home. While sleeping, I had this weird dream that caused me to wake in a cold sweat at 2AM. In this nightmare, the Pod People came into my music room and replaced all of the audiophile-approved cones, pucks, damping sheets and other vibration-control devices with their pods. Realizing it was all a dream, I just regrouped and proceeded to go back to sleep. Lo and behold, the next morning I woke to find that my system was transformed by [big theatrical climax music here] the POD PEOPLE! Who were these mysterious Pod People, and what did they do to my music system? The mystery continues.

OK, so I'll try almost anything once. In the mail came these, these, these pods. A short owner’s manual gave me some insight as to what to do with them, so quickly they were placed under my modded Audio Alchemy DDS-III transport, modded Assemblage DAC-2, killer killer killer Legend Audio tube preamp, and Wavelength Audio Cardinal WE300B SE monoblocks -- basically on my entire front-end and even my rear-end too! So off went all the highly regarded Golden Sound DH cones, Black Diamond Racing rings, and other kinky chachkies. Let's see what these new bad boys, called Vibrapods[TM], can do. At first things seemed a bit better, but not an overly radical change. So after shooting an e-mail to the dude who sent 'em, letting him know they arrived, I received a return e-mail sayin' to wait a day or so for them to "settle in." Hmmm. This makes sense because flexible material does settle-in and "form" to whatever it might be in contact with.

So the next day I woke up without any nightmares. After about an hour of music playing in the background while answering e-mail and doing other stuff, I thought it was time for some critical listening. The first change for the better observed was that small details in the music were more apparent, and the natural decay of notes was better too. These weren’t tonal or harmonic changes. Instead, it was as though the music was being served up on a cleaner plate. This might be because the Vibrapod thingees reduced not only vibration from externally affecting the equipment, but also damped the bottom plates of the pieces of equipment too. As many of you know, most of my system is tube equipment, so odds are the ‘pods help to reduce microphonics as an added bonus to keeping those nasty vibrations from affecting my solid-state gear.

I saw the ‘pods all over at the HI-FI '98 show as this groovy chick was handing them out to manufacturers. Hope these manufacturers start including them with their equipment too because of the great results experienced here by me. All I can say is that they're inexpensive, they work, and it's not some voodoo science at work -- in fact, the patent for them is pending. The Vibrapods just plain ol' make sense, and the best part of the deal is the price: only $6 each! Furthermore, the dudes at Vibrapod are donating 10% of sales to outreach organizations. Man, now this is what I call a company with a big heart! You might wanna buy 'em by the dozen for only 72 schmackers.

So in the end my music system was forever transformed for the better as I now find myself transformed into one of the Pod People. [start the eerie sci-fi music again] Just beware -- you could be next! Unlock your doors, find your tube and solid-state gear, and run to your local ‘pod dealer so that you too can become one of the [climax music here] Pod People! Pod People unite for we are the chosen few who also...enjoy the music.

...Steven Rochlin
steve@soundstage.com

• Current Issue Equipment Reviews