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Hi all,
I am sure there are threads elsewhere on this subject, but I can't figure out how to click on the overall thread- just replies.
Anyhoo- what is the general feedback on the Isoacoustics Gaia's? They ain't inexpensive as far as isolation feet go so just want to get some feedback before pulling the trigger on a set.
Thanks
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Hi,
As I decided to step away from posting awhile back, as I've come to believe in my case I've figured things out enough to just chill. Yet do tend to visit from time to time just in case I'm able to add an opinion where needed..., as I've owned over 5 different models of the IsoAcoustic footers, what I came away thinking was, due to the soft rubber material used, this tends to sound better when used directly onto a metal stands crossbars versus placed directly atop some form of wooden platform or butcher block type of situation, whereas I felt softened the transient response to much, making the notes come across as smoother, more refined, yet lacking in both dynamics and the attack of notes needed to come across as accurate, this effect was heard as placed underneath both a Coda Technologies Unison 3 ( where I ordered the proper sized screws to replace its standard footers ) as well as a Naim SuperNait 3.
But........, as placed underneath several DACs used atop sliding crossbars as mentioned above on a wider lowboy type Sound Anchors stand, where said footers were carefully placed atop said aligned bars, the results were wonderful, so I came away thinking that if one uses a softer sounding wood tone based shelving unit to support their electronics, some form of brass cones or ball bearing type of footers are better suited, as the opposite type of signature as introduced by said tandem of soft footers and platform becomes to much of a goof thing, yet by adding a harder hitting brass | stainless steel type of footer brings about a more responsive type of detailing as far as the treble and upper midrange frequency are considered....., hence a sense of better overall tonal balance.
As used for flooring underneath one's speakers or speaker stands, their optional spikes are essential with carpeted or wooden floor materials as well, sort of adding an extra sense of layering to the mix said softer types of flooring, would otherwise rod the notes of their overall snapping bass-line type of drive, in other words things become watered down, yet some might prefer this effect?, I've chosen to live with a greater sense of resolution | detail, and attack of notes.
Love mine.
They cleared up some previously unrecognized murk in the midbass.
No downside.
As always when implementing a solution, the first question is: What is the problem you want to solve?
Secondly, as a matter of essential information, what is your floor construction?
*********
We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
Hey- floor is semi hardwood over concrete. Normal living room, two sofa's two wall diffusers, no other room treatment.
Since the original post, I've tweaked speaker position- positioning never ceases to amaze and frustrate me. Roll back a few months, and the speakers were placed 5.5ft from the rear wall and 2.6ft from side wall, until I realised the bass was a bit absent. Moving them back didn't help, but moving them to nearly 6ft from the rear wall and 3ft from sidewall did.
Move forward to now and, again, the bass was absent from a few bass heavy recordings. Against my better judgement, I moved them back to a little over 5ft from rear wall, 3ft from sidewall and toed them to cross a little behind head. WOW. Never sounded better. Instead of decreasing the sound stage, it got bigger and deeper- the opposite of what I expected from toeing them in further. Some mid/treble glare at hi volumes is gone when I thought more aggressive toe in would increase harshness.
Right now, I have no specific problem to fix other than the Gaia's potentially offering more icing on my cake. However, knowing me, my definition of what represents my musical Nirvana will have changed completely.....
"floor is semi hardwood over concrete."
"Right now, I have no specific problem to fix other than the Gaia's potentially offering more icing on my cake"
Yup, you're an audiophile ripe for the pickins. :)
*********
We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
Oh god yeah. Since I was 17 with a $700 budget for CDP, AMP & Speakers. Then it was $1k per component a few years after- then I discovered cables. Oh boy. Swapped to making my own heavy duty cables after taking apart a Nordost Blue Heaven with bog standard build. Likewise with speakers- questionable components, little bracing, cross overs made from penny components and vinyl wood effect wrap.
Now I'm up to about $5k per component. I keep promising herself this next raft of kit are the last ones...
I have been using the GAIA II for 3 years under my Golden Ear Triton Reference speakers. Although I had good bass before using the footers, the bass became much tighter and more defined. I also use the carpet spike pucks.
"I've always been mad, I know I've been mad, like the
most of us...very hard to explain why you're mad, even if you're not mad..."
A tip for Gaia users. They are supplied with 2 skinny nuts that are designed to secure the feet to the threads in such a way that the labels face forward. These are fiddly and difficult to tighten adequately.My tip - ditch these and replace with 2 or 3 stainless wavy spring washers that will "squash" as you turn the Gaias to the position you want. They will hold the feet securely, don't need any tightening and won't scratch the Gaias or speaker bases.
Something like these -
Edits: 10/02/24 10/02/24
I rather reluctantly moved to Gaia I feet, but no regrets.
It rather depends on your floor construction and speaker value and its bass performance. I justified the Gaia cost because of the value of my speakers. My floors are solid timber on screed on concrete, so pretty solid.
The difference that is audibly noticeable is in the bass delivery. With the Gaias, bass is better defined and clearer and arguably a little deeper. No noticeable difference in the top and middle ranges and no extra bass volume - just cleaner / clearer bass.
If you can find a friendly dealer to loan you a set, I would suggest this before buying, as I guess a lot will depend on your floor construction and the speakers themselves. Don't expect your speakers to suddenly sound like ones costing twice as much though!
I'm not expecting my speakers to sound like a better box for a start. There are details hidden away in my CD's that my speakers haven't yet brought to the fore (they only have about 100hrs on them).
While I am still adjusting final positioning, I had figured the Gaia would be an easy win. My bass drivers are 15" so there is bags of bass and its the punchy variety as opposed to flabby variety. The purpose of the Gaia's would be to let the speakers breath better.
I'll be upgrading my amplification in a few months so I think I'll hold off on the Gaia's till I see what impact the change in amplification has.
For reference, I'm moving from Musical Fidelity M6 500i to the M8s Pre and M8s 700M's. I expect the difference to be quite stark!
I suspect Gaias will make a valuable improvement to your speakers' bass delivery. My own speakers have twin 12" drivers and the bass was clearer and more detailed after Gaia Is fitted.Your new amps are impressive. Have you home demo'd them and other amps with your own speakers? I did this with 10 solid state amps 3 years ago and was surprised by the differences. Some didn't offer a good match for my speakers, but others did. The costliest were not the best sounding and neither was the best-measuring one. .
Edits: 10/05/24
"Have you home demo'd them and other amps with your own speakers?"
Ireland has a really small audiophile community and an even smaller number of good shops. I can count about 4 in the whole country and none loan equipment let alone have it in store to demo. Sad state of affairs.
When the crash hit in '08, the main hi end shop in the country went from carrying plenty of $40-$50k components to carrying nothing but 2nd hands when things recovered. Same store has a strangle hold on the market being that it is the main distributor in the country for most brands...
So I bit the bullet and bought a set. Have to say, I am a little underwhelmed given they cost around the same as a step-up amp from say $500 to $1,400 that would provide a significantly greater reward for the money.
Maybe I expected too much night and day. I have got a bigger horizontal sound stage, bass (in some recordings) has gone down a few octaves. Bizarrely, there are some minute details missing from "some" reference recordings that I really didn't expect. Mind, they have softened some "glare" on some recordings.
What am I saying. Maybe careful what you wish for. The Gaia's delivered the basics of what I was looking to achieve while not delivering what I hoped for. For the cost involved, I had really expected them to deliver what I had hoped for.
I am using Gaia II footers with their carpet spikes on a pair of Qualio IQ speakers. They made quite a noticeable difference in my opinion.
Here is a video comparison that Qualio did that is very informative.
Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.
- Winston Churchill
Think very early on it was DefTech bi-polar,the on to Meadowlark, some PBN Montanas and later on ...-Always found your relaying of your experiences informative and willing to say "...-. Thought it was going to be better but actually it was a bad step back"
I got the open baffle midrange bug back in CES1999, after hearing number of fine examples , built several different sets but stuck mostly with a setup similar to your present set. Bass box, open baffle mid and off/on with dipole high frequency
Hopefully you are able to get them with equal room behind as in front
How did you find these marks? I'm not familiar with them
What are your overal impressions, what keeps them from being rotated out like several before?
Guessing those are Egyptian papyrus cones, but will do some investigating to see their approach
Edits: 10/03/24 10/04/24
Edp, thanks for the kind words. I am shocked that you remember the Def Tech speakers. That was circa 1995, before this place existed. But I know I mentioned them around here a couple of times.
They were actually replaced by Von Schweikert VR4s, which lasted a couple of years. Then it was "off to the races". Last time I counted, I had owned 30+ pairs of speakers since the DT BP 2000.
The way I found these was a few Youtube videos that were very well produced and actually gave an excellent rendition of what the product sounds like in real life. Of course I didn't know that at the time. But a used pair came up so I rolled the dice.
As to your question. My impression so far is pretty good. I've only had them a couple of months, so time will tell. They are extremely dynamic and open (as you'd expect) and do all genres of music equally well. Bass is well extended into the upper 20s. They aren't terribly hard to drive but do like high current amps. SET need not apply.
Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.
- Winston Churchill
Most of the technical details come from Polish audio sights, so little sketchy.Really trying to use midrange driver as broadband as possible, 600 to 8000 hz. I was bit surprised that they didn't go lower on the bottom end as driver can easily do 100 hz. But kinda reading between the lines on the company, they try to limit the IM distortion to get best true midrange. Appears the parent company Cube that had focused mostly on micro xmax full range drivers ($$$$) still adheres to "mid band purity through reduced movement". Also they use first order xover approach on midrange , which will actually provide output well below 600hz
Would be interesting to hear those units, I've spent a lot of time working on, modifying, redoing, starting over, on a similar design for 20 plus years, but clearly they are using far newer and more advanced transducers
If you got enough room behind is as much a key to setup as any other direct radiator speaker. (ESL and planner speakers got same requirement). Midband magic without a box.
Edit. I have a monoblock 45 watt SET setup that might (does ?) apply. Parallel 6C33B based SET. Got it to push my generally low efficiency creations. But still there are times it doesn't quite....
Edits: 10/04/24 10/04/24
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