Isolation under a DAC, does it make sense?

I was wondering if there is any reasoning behind isolating a dac.

I was reading online the reports of some people that have used isolation devices (such as IsoAcoustics OREA, etc.) under the Chord Qutest and reported improvements to the sound. The Qutest in addition to not having any actively movable parts is also relatively light, 770g.

I can understand isolation with turntables, speakers, etc. but why isolating a dac?

 

When I looked into isolation devices - feet and shelves, notably from Symposium but also from Townshend and Finite-elemente - I couldn't hear any change under my DAC (my DAC weighs 25Kg!).

I thought I could hear tiny improvements in high frequencies (e.g percussion) under a CD Transport and amp, but nothing under the DAC or a digital equaliser. I also heard a tiny benefit by putting something under my floor standing speakers.

In the end I put feet and shelves under all the gear but got tired of trying to detect miniscule changes so I just sat back and listened to some music. Strangely it seemed a bit louder then usual (I use an exact volume setting for each disc) and also things like piano, percussion and rhythm guitar seemed more pronounced. This turns out to be what you would expect of 'less smeared transients' which is one of the claims for isolation devices.

Whilst the way I did it was very expensive it achieved a small improvement which it's difficult to get in other ways. If you consider going down this road I would suggest exploring other things first, like speaker and chair positioning, room treatment and DSP/EQ. These give much more obvious improvements.

If you want to try isolation cheaply, use a small bicycle tyre:

Vibration control for better performance

 

If it defies any semblance of logic, and there is no conceivable method where vibrations could cause a problem, then you are right to question claims.

Maybe if you have a DAC with unnecessary stuff like tubes and output transformers...