 
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
|
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
61.17.218.241
I have been using myrtle wood blocks under Ayre amplifier on a Taoc AS-1 stand and recently replaced the wood blocks with Taoc's footers, TITE-46PIN ("pin and plate insulators", they call it). Significant change indeed, as if an invisible hand pushed all the musicians to their proper positions resulting in a wide deep soundstange and great focus. These footers cost < $50 for a set of 3 if bought directly from Japanese dealers and are made of cast iron. Not expensive compared to Harmonix and similar but indeed very effective. Don't know how much American and European dealers charge for Taoc footers.
Since there have been periodic questions on myrtle wood blocks in the asylum, just sharing my experience.
Thanks.
Follow Ups:
And what would better ones do that yours do not?
Help me understand.
I'm slow.
Hi.
Your amp will definitely sound different, better or worse, if you lift it up with anything, be a wooden block or "pin/plate insulator".
I DIYed it. I've planted 3-in-a-set strong steel spikes at the bottom of my tube power amp & SS power amp. The spiked tube power amp is then seated on a 3" thick heavy natural granite block, 'floated on the carpetted concrete slab floor via three rubber legs.
Likewise, my spiked SS power amp, being lighter, is seated on a 1" thick natural marble slate, 'floated' on rubber cushion pads.
It's mass plus isolation that do the trick. It gives me the razor sharp imaging & properly proportional soundstaging I want.
c-J
Hi, thanks for your response. If you read my post carefully, what I mentioned was that the Taoc footers substantially improved the sound compared to earlier wooden blocks and please note that in both cases the amplifier is already "up and above" and the difference is only a few inches bottom clearance. I don't think a few inches up or down for something already high will make a difference from the height point of view. Again, your comment "spending too much money on commercial tweaks" is welcome but please note these footers cost < $50 for a set and not hundreds of dollars as for Harmonix and other footers.
I am not a seasoned audiophile who listens to audiophile discs and can lecture on technical terms, just a lover of good sound and music. A simple CD like Miles Davis' Kind of Blue now lets me focus and pinpoint the locations of all the instruments (trumpet, saxophones, drums, piano, bass) precisely whereas earlier some of them sounded a bit mixed up and muddled, especially the trumpet and bass. Now musicians seem to occupy well defined spaces and such an observation reinforces my faith that these footers and the stand are definitely good, if not the best. After all, for a $4500 amplifier (I didn't invest that much, bought as used), a $300 stand and $50 footers are not extravagant investments, won't you agree?
As far as I know, Taoc is a well reputed company in high end audio circles in Japan and specialists in cast iron parts, even involved in making some parts for Toyota Motors.
Let us hear others' experiences, if any, on this subject.
You should try them.
Hi.
It is not about the height of the equipment. On the contrary, any heavy stuffs, like power amps, should be placed on the floor whenever possible, considering its long term dead load effect acting on the rack structure.
Ever notice your book rack boards sack slowly under the dead load of your books?
As I posted earlier, my heavy spiked tube power amp is seated on the full carpetted concrete floor via rubber-leg 'floated' heavy 3" natural granite block cut to size of the power amp. Gone is the risk of rack resonance acting on all the gears it is holding due to the power amps heavy load ! Time takes toll, my friend.
I use granite for its rigidity, mass, & being non-metallic. Besides, it is not costly at all. I'd not use any metallic platforms to hold my audio stuffs. It is too friendly to stray magnetism & EMI/RFI, & will be a timer bomb to kill the sound sooner or later. FYI, my custom-DIYed rack is a piecee of hardwood furniture, modified to hold my ligter gears.
That said, wood board, even hardwood board, IMO, is not rigid enough to hold any heavy stuffs, like tube power amps, for long run. Hence my hardwood rack for lighter gears, e.g my tube/SS phono-line stages, DVD-audio & CD players etc, & granite & marble slabs to hold my power amps.
You ask why wood? Wood is musically friendly & non-metallic, two crucial consideration for signal programme sources.
However, to fight the resonances due to the relative softness of woodboards, I have all the gears spiked or tip-toed. This is the crucial "bottom clearance" you just mentioned, provided by the spikes & the tuned tip-toes. In your case, the Taoc footers.
This is a DIY/tweaks forum. Why not try ti DIY your tweaks instead of feeding the vendors?
c-J
I tried marble on racquetballs with and without slits. I tried granite the floor and on sand boxes. I tried commercial ac isolation pads. I made my own pads. I tried Sims isolation pucks. I tried multi-layer platforms from VPI including one I had made for my 200 pound Final Audio, solid copper tt. I tried Townsend, Vibraplane, and various other isolation bases, including a very special isolation platform from Goldmund under my Goldmund cd player. I tried steel points, aluminum points, tungsten carbide points, brass points, delgrin points. I tried maple bases, oak bases, granite bases, butcher block bases, the Nuaance bases, etc.
Many of these one could not duplicate DIY. Many you could. With one exception that I know of, you are merely choosing among resonant frequencies the benefits are quite component specific. I think that some will prefer high resonant frequency isolation devices and others low frequency devices. Some will limit themselves to DIY and others not.
All that I would advise is that there is no one best device.
The only device that I know of that has no resonant frequency is the very expensive Halcyonic active isolation device. I cannot afford more than the two I have, but I would never consider selling either.
Hi.
It sounds you've gone a long way in such tweakings.
I got no problem with vibration & acoustical issues even on 120dB SPL peak level testing sessons, considering my basement where my audio den located gets only 7ft ceiling clearance!!
My purpose of equipment lifting is to improve the sound - namely, transparency, razor sharp imaging & lifelike soundstaging - at low cost without need to feed costly vendors. Do I ask for too much ?
With marble/granite+tip-toes+rubber-leg holding my tube/SS power amps, which costs me very little money, I think I am getting close to the sonic ideal. It was sonically a mess before the treatment.
Some may find granite solution kills the liveinless of the music. Not in my situation. It is so live, so bouncy even with a 50-year vintage power amp of mine (only after my bigtime DIY upgrade of course) that the music engagement I now get beats my SS direct current power amp !!
c-J
PS: my LP turntable get the similar idea of treatment using some 100lb
concrete blocks platform. It works fly colours.
.
a
It was quite effective.
Try a sand box under the thickest granite you can get.
Thanks, friend, I didn't miss your point earlier and tend to agree with your direction but please note:
(1) For lightweight components like CDP and preamp, I initially used some wooden stands and then shifted to a Solid Tech Rack of Silence which is as good as no shelf, almost floating in air. No comparison here and I would add another step from your conclusions that for lightweight components, this is the way to go, whether DYI or feeding the vendors.
(2) The solid state power amp loses some weight and body with such free floating arrangement and I agree with your conclusion of heavier support here. I tried wood, then granite but my experience is similar to what some others in this discussion have pointed out, either dead or ringing. Now, the Taoc shelf is not metallic but a set of aluminium pillars and aluminium frame holding a platform on spikes. The platform is a 5-layered structure of wood with cast iron powder filling in the middle layer. So no direct metallic stand if you have thought so.
There is an interesting review of this stand in Positive Feedback by Marshall Nack.
Thanks, once again, for all your inputs.
.
What if some of "those" products can outperform your DIY lash-up? Not everyone can accommodate thick granite slabs, nor the space they may require. And to some, marble and granite "ring". There are differing "better mousetraps" for different gear, and systems. Some with more technical design attributes may simply cost some money.
I have yet to encounter a one-size-fits-all solution.
Best isolation/tuning devices I have used is the Walker Audio Super Tuning Kit shown here.
Yes they are on the spendy side but the ROI is definately worth the price of admission :-)
If price is an issue, Walker also offer a Standard Tuning kit with 1 inch resonance control discs instead of the 2 inch discs in the Super Tuning Kit.
Cheers,
~kenster
I used to have myrtle blocks under Ayre CX-7e. It improved details on high/mid but the low is kind of not being there yet. Then, I moved myrtle block to under my integrated amp Plinius 9200 and put herbie Audio footer under Ayre cdp. The sound is balancing out now.
I would say footer is system dependent. You will need to try different type of footers and pick the one you like the most.
| FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
