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I put the plate in - thumbs up!

Ok - so the plate got to my house last night, not all too shiny, but the fat 6061 T6 printed over one side, cleanly cut. I was starting to wonder if I wasted $22 plus shipping on something I may end up using for a food tray one day...

So while the kids were in the bath tub, I started polishing the plate with metal polishing fluid, rag, and elbow grease. After about 10 minutes, the three contact ares started to work as a rough mirror. Time to get the plate under the CD player for a first test, I thought.

I grabbed a few srips of rope caulk, placed 2x2" double rope blocks under the CD player where the balls would need support, plus put a few more of those evenly distributed under the base to avoid that the aluminum would ring. I think I had less than 10% of the CD player base covered with that stuff when I pressed the plate into place. Not too tight, but tight enough to be able to lift the CD player while hanging upside down under the plate.

First listening was about the same as before, but I noticed when settling the player on the bearings that it was moving back and forth considerably longer than before. I gave it some time to settle (because every time you put the player on the bearings the balls position themselves somewhat differently with some tensions between them - it feels that after playing music for a few minutes things usually get settled). I let the music go for about an hour without paying much attention to it.

I then returned, put in one of my reference CDs and set the volume quite low (kids sleeping). Metheny/Haden's "Missouri Skies" came up first. Track 1 - I immediately noticed hearing much more detail than before. The strings slapping on the fret board was so realistic, resonancs in Pat's guitar while Charlie's bass went real low had me get up and check my maggies if that vibration I heard from the right was something in my speaker or if it was part of the recording (it was - turning down the volume it just got attenuated). I could not believe the added detail in the high frequencies and considerable increase in "dryness" in the bass. Next up was Steve Tibbett's "Yr" which I had listened to the night before. Strings were not only more defined, they seemed to float in space, totally removed from the speaker plane, at least much more than I recalled. There was considerable "air" in between of everything. Percussion was dry, tight, and you could hear the hands slapping on felt with such precision, I knew I was on to someting that would take the roller bearings to the next level.

So instead of listening to more, I decided to finish off the proper plate/rope caulk/CD player sandwich.

I removed the plate, and sorted out the caulk I had. I used up a full roll of 90 yards of caulk in long fat 6 wide strips straight off the roll, doubled up to clear the uneven bumps on the player bottom side. Squeezed in a few extra tight pieces where the mechanism mounts in some areas that are dented inwards. Can't dampen the mechanism enough I figured. I used up all the caulk I had in the house and still had to leave about 25% of the surface uncovered. Putting the plate on this caulk "bed" required some squeezing and pressing to get it to bond with all the caulk I suppose next time I should do half the caulk on each surface.

Having the player upside down in front of me, I got more of the metal polish and spent the better part of an hour polishing the surface to what now really would qualify as a mirror in the contact areas of the bearings (one under mechanism, one under power supply, and the third far over on the other side of the chassis to balance it out).

Put it back on the bearings and watched it rock back and forth forever (whithout the cords connected, but even with cords it still jiggles back and forth for quite some time - much more than in my old setup).

Music back on - same track I had on last, save volume, and I get this huge grin on my face that would not go away all night. 2 hours later, I knew the money spent on this tweak was spent well. Roller bearings under the CD player have been a great experience, but with this latest addition to the setup, I think I doubled the effectiveness.

The warnings about too much damping of the chassis "starts to get things sounding a bit too dead" did not materialize. I actually would describe the sound more brilliant, probably because now the bass doesn't muck up the higher frequencies so much as it did before. Acoustic guitar or piano has improved in terms of detail so much, I will need to get used to the presentation again, but it's very obvious that there simply is more information coming from the CD player that previously was lost due to chassis vibrations. I don't have an external DAC, so it's even more important to keep that player as steady as possible. Also, I could never located the exact part inside the the Cambridge D500 that would qualify as the DAC to put a little sand bag over it like Jon Risch suggests on his web site.

So in summary - if you are floating coponents directly on ball bearings, I suggest you take a close look at the rigidity and smoothness of the metal surface that's contacting those balls. It may be well worth a few dollars for a strong aluminum plate (www.onlinemetals.com is pricey, but convenient) and some bonding material to enhance the bearing performance.

Now, I don't know if I'll ever try out the alternative I have been contemplating (no caulk, super glue plate with holes cut for all uneven areas of the player base to have it mount flush). I bet it may work just as well, or better, but it is a lot more work on a component that is not smooth on the bottom.

I'll be floating my heavy amps next, but those are totally smooth on the bottom once I remove the vibrapods.

Peter

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