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Humfrees Rack Isolation Tabs

Rack Gear Isolation Tabs
15 Write review Item ID: IsoTabs
$6.99

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Humfrees Rack Isolation Tabs
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Keep Your Rack Gear Free From Hum

Hate the annoying hum you get from your rack? Well, kill that hum with Humfrees Rack Isolation Tabs. These easy-to-install isolation tabs isolate your rack gear and don't let hum even get a chance to start. Humfrees Isolation Tabs also prevent ground loops, and are designed to not scratch up your precious rack gear. Once you install these tabs you will wonder how you ever got along without them. Each pack of tabs will isolate two rack units. Ensure hum free operation of your rack with Humfrees Rack Isolation Tabs.

Related Videos: Rack Isolation Tabs

Humfrees Rack Isolation Tabs Features:
  • Prevent rack hum
  • Isolates rack units from each other
  • Kills ground loops
  • Easy to install
  • Designed to prevent scratching up your rack gear
Keep your rack hum free with Humfrees Rack Isolation Tabs.

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Tech Specs

  • Type: Rack Isolation Tabs
  • Manufacturer Part Number: Rack Iso Tabs

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Customer Reviews

3.2 out of 5

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Solved my ground loop issue!

I have a 6 space shallow rack case with preamp, various signal processors, wireless, and power conditioner. Was always taught to have one common ground point, otherwise things hum, crackle, pop, and just overall sound dirty and unprofessional. I did use a few "cheater" ground plug adapters to get rid of buzzing/noise, but thats not the right way. After researching my issues a bit more online i discovered ground loops happen with the rack rails too, that I didnt take into account. Installed on all 6 of ny units and now my noise floor is far lower, closest to quiet besides having nothing connected to the amp. A bit more costly than a cheater plug but well worth it and took no time at all to install.

Note: I suggest wrapping the edges of the units in electrical tape where each unit sits next to one another in the rack. It lessens the chance of two or more units touching eachother causing a ground loop. 99% of rack rail ground loops come from the rack unit ears and screws, but don't forget to make sure there is enough space/insulation between the units to avoid loops there.
by Gary on
Music background: Bass Player for 20 years, audio technical guru

A must for any serious audio rack.

Prior to discovering these, I was using 00 poly plumbing washers on either side of the rack ears, which were a pain to use and keep track of. These are simple to use and work a LOT better. I'm not sure how anyone could complain about a lack of instructions, as they're pretty self explanatory and I found the packaging information sufficient. You simply bend it around the rack ear, push the shoulder sleeve through the slot on the other side, and put your screw through it. Position the unit in your rack and start turning screws. Position all four horizontally and you've got isolation from the rack. If you don't space your gear, turn the top or bottom two vertically and they provide just the right spacing to keep each unit from touching the others near it.

Sure, at $... per rack unit (one pack does 8 holes or two pieces of rack gear) these may be a little pricey, but they're worth it if you're not looking to do a lot of ground lifting or noise chasing, and are tired of homebrewed solutions to isolate units from each other and the rack itself. Couple these with the excellent Mid Atlantic rack screws that Sweetwater sells and you're all set.
by Ted from Virginia Beach, VA on
Music background: Performing musician

A Must For Any Case!

Humfrees is a must for anyone using a rack or DJ coffin case. It totally isolates your gear from the rack and the equipment itself. Plus it also protects your gear from scratches. I would recommend this to anyone looking to protect and isolate their valuable equipment.
by Anthony R. from Islip, NY on
Music background: Professional Club/Mobile DJ, Sound Installer/Engineer.

Worth the hassle

Let me start this review off by saying that these things are an absolute pain in the a-- to install. It took me about 30 minutes for four pieces of gear in my rack. But now that that's out of the way: I can't argue with the results. These things ABSOLUTELY work like a charm.

I do a lot of reamping through guitar pedals, and so I have my pedalboard patched to a dedicated i/o on a Samson S-Patch bay. Recently I noticed that the reamp line was significantly noisier, and did some tests which found that when I ran my guitar through my bay and into my interface, I generated about 6 dB more noise than when running straight into my interface. My bay was in a rack with a few other pieces, and so I guessed that small ground loops in the rack were causing the increased noise. Now, with the hum frees installed, there's almost no noise level difference with and without the bay patched in, as you'd expect.

I don't think that everyone needs these necessarily -- plenty of top of the line studios run fine without them -- but if you trace your signal flow correctly and find a ground loop in your rack, these things are great.
by Daniel on

Mystery Solved

It's no mystery these can solve hum problems, if ground loops are the cause, by isolating equipment chassis from the rack rails thus breaking ground loops. Shoulder washers can do the same thing but are sometimes a PITA to install. What is a mystery, from the Web product photos, is how these actually install: they fold over the rack panel's edge, either the side edges or, if hole location permits, the top or bottom edge--as the card packed with the product clearly shows (I guess that's "Humfree" Bogart, ha-ha-ha) but *not* the photos on the Web. They are much less likely to fall off the end of the screw even if you end up having to support the full weight of a piece of heavy gear while threading the screws (it can challenge your swear word vocabulary when that happens with shoulder washers). If oriented vertically they also isolate between panels which can be just as important for ground loop prevention and if oriented horizontally they isolate from the sides of the rack if they happen to be metal. One pair each way is the best of all worlds. And yes, they should work on either threaded or unthreaded rack rails, they're not just insulating nuts, as I suspected they might be.

Less verbiage about their magic hum stopping and scratch prevention properties and more about the physical installation would be helpful. Now that I understand I am ordering more.

Minus one half star, because they're not exactly pretty to look at, and even less so unless you hold them square while tightening the rack screws.
by David from Albany, NY on
Music background: Ammateur classical pianist
See also: Humfrees, Humfrees Rack Screws
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