These little isolation pads work wonders under loudspeakers and hifi electronics, providing a visually discrete yet very effective function at a reasonable price. Australian designed constrained layer damping (CLD) technology designed for audio. What is Les Davis Audio 3D(2)? It is a constrained layer, visco-elastic damping material, designed to reduce structural vibration and sound transmission within light gauge materials. It is sensitive to mechanical and electrical vibrations. Where can it be used? It is designed to be used with audio speakers by removing cabinet distortion and with any and electronic components. It works in this domain by removing electrical noise .The removal of electrical noise enables the 3D(2) to significantly improve digital audio either in use with a CD player, hard drive storage or streaming device. It can be used to ground speaker cables, interconnects and power cables and power boards. What is constrained layer damping? Constrained-layer damping (CLD) is a mechanical engineering technique. The development of viscoelastic constrained layer damping first started in the 1930’s. In CLD, a relatively thin, low-mass damping layer is trapped, or constrained between the surface to be damped and a stiff counter layer, so that when the surface vibrates, the mechanical energy is ‘trapped’ between the two and evenly dissipated in the constrained layer as heat. Energy is dissipated through the relaxation processes when a polymeric material is subjected to vibrations. This is commonly known as the shearing effect. CLD is a specific method of treatment commonly used in the aerospace and military industries. It has many benefits in that a high degree of performance is achievable at low cost. The simplicity of its design also means that it can be easily placed in any part of the audio system. How did the 3D(2) come about and why does it perform so well? Audio systems have progressively become more revealing to the point where they now have an extremely high degree of resolution. That is desirable but it also means that an audio system can easily reveal the bad as well as the good. Noise is amplified through out the chain leaving a smeared bass, closed soundstage and indistinct vocal as well as other issues. Call it ‘noise floor’ or ‘smearing ‘ the effect is to color the sound. When removed the effect to the listener is moved them from listening to a ‘hi-fi system’ to actually be in the room at the time the music was recorded. You hear straight into the recording with a fully rendered soundstage in front of you. The 3D(2) has been in development since 2005/6. A number of experiments over 8 years proved that the performance of CLD is enhanced by a multi-layered approach. This layering is very strict in its design. Each fabric used and where it is placed in the layer determines just how well it performs. A key element of audio vibration control is frequency. You do not want to impart your own frequency into a system. That would colour it. For your audio system to perform at an optimal level the vibration control must be neutral. As a result a key element in its design is to be neutral in its own color. This is achieved by ensuring that the vibration is removed evenly across the panel. It is a unique Australian product. It performs at an extremely high standard despite its low cost The product is made in a factory based in Sydney, Australia.
