A method of locating a source of vibrational cardiac energy within a human, includes acquiring time synchronized vibrational cardiac data noninvasively from a surface of the human's body with at least three transducer channels. A time-to-frequency transformation is performed on the vibrational cardiac data to obtain a sequence of heart cycle ensemble averaged power spectral density (PSD) estimates. A feature is identified in the PSD estimates. A vernier band (VB) in frequency is established for the feature. The VB portion of the PSI) estimates that correspond to the feature are processed to obtain a vibrational energy intensity level estimate at a spatial location within the human's body. A metric of clinical significance is obtained from the strength of the estimated vibration intensity within a VB and at a location relative to a background noise level.