New ‘Sanctum’ isolation platform from Blue Horizon
Beware ‘bad’ vibes
Everything vibrates, period. For the audiophile, this is a serious challenge, since vibration affects the delicate audio signals in virtually every hi-fi component. Vibrations move through the floor, the furniture and the air to enter audio equipment via the feet and chassis. And of course the equipment itself generates further vibrations.
These ‘unwanted’ resonances raise the noise floor in turntables. They interfere with the vibration-sensitive crystal oscillators in computers, DACs and streamers. In disc players, they cause the error-correcting circuitry to work overtime while in both valve and transistor amplifiers, they jangle the microphonic components. All of which serves to degrade the quality of the audio signal at various stages in its journey from source to ear, ultimately constraining the optimum performance of the overall system.
Component isolation
Blue Horizon’s new Sanctum isolation platform is specifically designed to isolate individual high-performance components such as turntables, DACs, preamplifiers, power amplifiers, CD players and streamers from all sources of unwanted vibration. The platform’s construction brings together a selection of carefully chosen materials from opposite ends of the elasticity spectrum, combining them in such a way as to dramatically reduce resonance evenly across the audio band, which effectively:
• Lowers distortion across the audio spectrum
• Improves detail, clarity and tonal neutrality
• Improves bass definition
• Delivers wide open and deep soundstages
• Enables more expressive dynamic contrast and shading to be revealed.
The platform shelf is made from high density fibreboard (HDF), favoured for its mechanical stability. Unlike woods with a fixed grain, HDF does not expand or contract with climatic changes.
The HDF shelf is precision-machined in five places: four recesses, one at each corner, and a circular central hollow designed to eliminate any standing waves within the shelf itself.
Each of the four corner recesses features a complex isolation foot made up of three key elements:
• A dense compound of cork, rubber and leather, whose ‘chaotic’ construction, which randomly combines materials of varying density and elasticity, is ideal for breaking up resonant frequencies.
• A ‘visco-elastic’ polymer (meaning that it exhibits properties of both liquids and solids), which combines shock absorption and good memory with very high vibration isolation and damping characteristics over a very wide temperature range.
• A precision-machined spiked aluminium cone.
Each isolation foot’s complete assembly is held in place by an outer ring which prevents the individual parts from dropping out when the platform is being lifted into position, but which decouples once the Sanctum is in place, leaving the platform freely floating on the isolation feet.
To protect furniture surfaces, the Sanctum comes with four 5mm spike protection feet, which additionally provide further resonance control by introducing an additional material boundary (solid brass, in contrast to the aluminium spikes).
The Sanctum comes in two finish options: matt black or matt white, both scratchresistant and easy to clean.
Specifications
Dimensions 450mm (width) x 400mm (depth) x 40mm (overall height including shelf & isolation feet)
Recommended maximum load 30kg (to enable optimal performance of polymer component)
Finish options Matt black or matt white.
Pricing and availability
• The Blue Horizon Sanctum will be available from October 2015 priced at £195 (including VAT).
• Available with a matt black or a matt white finish.
About Blue Horizon
Blue Horizon is a Winchester-based design and manufacturing company specialising in professional-grade audio accessories. The company was formed in 2008 by Keith Martin, also founder and managing director of IsoTek, the leading power conditioning brand. With close to 25 years of consumer electronics experience and more than 60 industry awards to his name, Keith developed designs for many familiar ‘blue chip’ brands, from Kenwood to Lufthansa, before focusing his talents on crafting an extensive range of class-leading audio products.
With Blue Horizon, his aim is to create sound-enhancing accessories that enable audiophiles to achieve an even greater level of performance from their hi-fi systems.
