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I tried the Ayre blocks under the player I am using as a transport (the Meridian 508-24). It is on a different shelf, and I had previously put it on 4 Vibrapods (one underneath each of the feet shod by the manufacturer). This improved the bass. I was sober, which should satisfy some scientist somewhere as to the objectivity of my attempt.
Actually, it would be impractical to use these blocks (roughly the size of a domino, although about twice as thick) in any way other than that recommended. They are too thin to raise the equipment higher than the feet supplied by the manufacturer. They are too tall to put in end-wise, and still remain stable. I don't know about grain. I think they do a better job of coupling the chassis to the shelf than my old Vibrapods, and (judging from the results) they seem to eliminate vibrations better than the rubber. Why, I cannot say. It is not a miraculous transformation -- just a solid, audible improvement. In general, I suppose, it is a good thing to isolate components from the influences of vibrations, just as it is to isolate speakers (as far as possible) from wall interactions. At least, that has been my experience. If my rack were of a better design, perhaps the blocks would be superfluous. I'll never know, because I'm damned if I'll spend 2 grand on a new rack, the price of wine being what it is. I still have no idea why they actually make my power amp sound worse, while improving the transport and DAC performances. The transport makes sense, as there is a lot of physical whirling around inside, as mentioned earlier on this thread by...? (I forgot, and I apologize -- Mrlowry??). Now, I suppose I'll have to procure 3 more and try the preamp, which is currently sitting on Vibrapods. Cheers, all.
Actually, this is a reply to the thread in general and the forum too. You guys are very entertaining. That's a compliment,BTW, not a flame. Very good sense of humor in this forum.
If only Tom Lerher were still alive to write songs about audiophiles (maybe we can get D'AliG to do it)
It also has soft rubber pads on the feet, it's isolated. Putting wood against the metal chassis bottom seems counter productive, you stop using the isolation feet already on the player. What is that point there? Sounds STUPID. I thought Mapingo things solved all these issues years ago. tune in to Howard 100 on Sirius, Reilly Martin, space aiens etc. It sounds just like this thread!!!! highy entertaining, and so far out of reality, it's a space trip.
That IS the point, DUP -- to stop using the isolation feet already on the player. Because specialized feet, built for the purpose of improving isolation, instead of being merely stuck on for cosmetic (or furniture-saving) purposes, sometimes work better. Steve McCormack (of the old Mod-Squad) recognized this need more than a decade ago. And he (not you) is a top electronics designer, actually earning a paycheck for doing same.
Your current streak is intact. At least 300 posts describing what you can't hear. When are you going to tell us what you can hear? And don't start whanging on about Wurlitzers and Van Alstines. We've already written those off as products for the hearing-impaired.
Hi, Tom. Welcome to the forum. I would have gotten this off sooner, but I've been poisoning pigeons in the park, while doin' the Vatican Rag. In super high fidelity, on my wooden feet, after de-magnetizing my brain. Genuflect, genuflect, genuflect. Write loudly, because DUP doesn't hear too well and just hates to miss out on all the latest tweakery. Cheers, Clifton.
Might have known, Clifton, that you'd be another Tom Lehrer fan. DUP might be too. After all, one of the strong admonitions was, "Plagerize, plagerize, plagerize - but remember, of course, to call it research."
"Plagiarize, plagiarize, don't let a thing evade yer eyes." Now, what could be finer than an evening wasted with Tom Leher? Shit. This is the greatest test LP ever produced. And howzabout "The World's greatest Flops"? I actually can't remember the exact title. "Welcome home, Amelia Earhart," "Good Job, Well Done, Neville Chamberlain," and "Bon Voyage, Titanic." Shit. Those were the days, my friend.
How do you know the feet on my various players are merly put on to protect the furniture, or cosmetics? Since the players play well, and the isolation must work, since a simple rap the shelf it is sitting on, very hard and teh unit does not skip or have nay change in teh music, says to me, the unit is properly isolated, and needs no other change. Hoe do you dertime that the OEM feet are no good? Besides reading ads from makers of magic feet and isolation wood blocks. How do magic blocks make rack maounted stuff work better? Now you gonna try to convince me rack mounted pro stuff doesn't sound good, unless it has isolation added from magic block makers? If you sit the player on magic blocks, then attach super heavy line cords and super over sized nonsensical interconects, that sit on the table that absorb vibrations, and trasmit it to teh chassis, thus negating teh magic block influences. Too many contridictions in the use of magic tweaks. One that that is consistent is the absurd prices of the nonsense. Check out HCM Audio, with their discounted cable of the magic persuasion. As AQ comes out with the magic of the month replacements. Change the color, change the name from a snake to a larger reptile, and it becomes another "breakthrough". Without the fancy full page ads, you wouldn't even think you hear any changes. How come any OEM disc makers, ever even talk about de mag of their optical discs? Mitsui, largest maker of blanks, nevr mentions such problems? Checkout www.mediasupply.com can't find any demags offered.
"Hoe do you dertime that the OEM feet are no good?" Let me see. I think that means, "how do you determine that the feet supplied by the manufacturer don't effectively isolate the gear from vibrations?" Now, I can translate this because I have studied DUPese. The answer, DUP, is simply, you listen. You put on a few discs and listen. You don't have to visit any web sites -- just listen. If it sounds better with the cones or wood blocks, you keep them. If not, you send them back. Always glad to help.
great response, i wonder why DUP even listens to music, he doesn't try anything to improve his system,begs maufacturers to send him freebies, while bashing them in the same post, and to end the attack on the resident village idiot,DUP READ YOUR POSTS AT LEAST ONCE BEFORE POSTING, AND GET A DICTIONARY OR LEARN TO SPELL.:-)
Kurt
Brillant plan. Send me some magic blocks, I'll try em. I did listen with the OEM feet, sounds great, must mean the feet work. Took the feet off, souns the same. Maybe my system doesn't "resolve" the nuances" that's always a ggod line. and the piece of wood will make that happen. Yup. Does teh wood work on a $2,000 Universal player like on an older Cd changer, or SACD player? How can one piece of wood work on all different brands of machines I have? It truly is MAGIC. And how much do I pay for this nonsense? If I rap the player while it's playing, and it doesn't skip or change anything, doesn't that mean it's pretty imune to any kind of outside vibration to start with, ho wis magic wood gonna change teh sound? If you engage your brain, you mya start to realize what utter nonsense teh entire concept is. And what evr happened to MAPINGO discs, didn't that solve all problems?
Last improvemnt I did on my system was replace the speakers. That came with nice WOOD and stuff. That tweak improved things big time. That tweak I can hear.
Thanks, Clifton, for the gentle correction of my spelling error. I'm going to have to start composing posts in another program where spellcheck is available. I choose to buy the notion that spelling ability is genetic and, like our friend DUP, I didn't get the proper genetic mix.
As I recall, the quotation from the greatest who ever got chalk on his coat went like this, " Plagiarize, let no one else's work evade your eyes, remember why the Good Lord made your eyes, don't shade your eyes, plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize - but remember, of course, to call it research!" Having gone through that, I should remember how to spell the word - at least for a while. Don't know, though. Things have been going a little strange lately. Just swapped out a half dozen of Mapleshade's Isoblocks from the main system to the library headphone system, replacing them with Cardas myrtle blocks. Both systems seem improved - must be the honeymoon effect, or could it have to do with comb filtering, or another step along the path? Also have been worrying whether I'm holding sufficiently still in my seat at Symphony Center to avoid the effects of comb filtering there. Maybe a brandy. That ought to do it.
Clifton,
As usual, with long intervals between reading this forum, here are the tweaks.
The ones that I have found that work are upgrade capacitors (not any audiophile-grade ones, just polystyrene caps from the surplus electronic stores at 10 cents each), larger speaker wire gauge, no fuses in the speaker lines, floor-standing speakers placed on devices that pierce through the carpet and pad to the floor, teflon insulated interconnects, teflon insulated wiring inside the pre-amp/amp/tuner/CD player (or) bare wire internally unless shielding is needed. Another tweak is the use of felt damping on the speaker front baffle, around the opening of the drivers, or near sharp corners/edges (on the home-built speakers), although this worked on a commercially available speaker too.
The tweak that may work, but I could not detect an improvement, is the green coloring at edge of CDs. Limited experience, only a cursory opinion is offered.
A tweak that is debatable on whether it's an improvement vs. only a difference, is the Rain-X coating of the clear side of the CD. I hear mainly a high frequency attenuation on a CD that seemed somewhat too bright sounding. So I classified this as an improvement, until I changed speakers, and noticed the attenuation may actually have removed some information. It's hard to judge without knowing what the original performance sounded like. The revised assessment is a cautious negative vote. Without doing a good scientific test, I really cannot give anything except an opinion or impression. I suppose a good test is a live recording I make and transfer to CD and then coat a second copy of the CD, and then listening to both.
Clifton,
Forgot to include the optimization of VTA on a cartridge/arm by listening, and dialing-in the tracking force down to centigrams range. This was a tweak that works.
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