Recently installed the Isoacoustics Gaia II footers under my precious Sanders Model 10e electrostatic hybrids and like what I’m hearing. Not earth shattering but likely a refinement beyond the really fine baseline. Let’s not get too carried away with superlatives already!
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I swear to Paul that when I put those feet under my Wilsons that I heard a nice upgrade.
When you think about what they are and the theory about what they do, it’s so cheesy. If properly aligned, with the name tag facing forward or backward, the feet reduce any negative effects of the speakers trying to actually jump forwards and backwards, a so very tiny amount due to the propulsive nature of the drivers.
Good grief. And yet, I thought I heard a nice sweetening of the sound.
I didn’t hear anything when I added the carpet cups. They connect the bottom of the Feet with the concrete under my heavy carpet with heavy carpet pad. Maybe it changed, but it was a small change. Still, I have zero regrets on the money spent. I’d do it again and probably will.
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I also like the stability of these footers. They keep my speakers well located where the spikes and cups allowed them to slide which is good while adjusting position but not great once you’re there. Seemed like every time someone vacuumed I’d have to check alignment again. Stats make this easy by using a flashlight aimed at the reflective Mylar sheets so you get perfect aim at your listening position but who wants to keep fiddling? Oh yeah I forgot which forum I’m on!
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My titans suction to the wood. No possibility of sliding. I wondered if those spikes would help for carpet but in the titan weight the carpet and pad gets plenty smashed. How long are the spikes?
Actually, they dampen vibrations from going between the floor and cabinet. Never heard of a speaker propelling itself. Lol
This is what Isoacoustics claims, that its product resists a speaker’s movement:
“Optimal results are achieved by installing the GAIA isolators with the logo facing the listening position, or rotated 180 degrees, to align the isolators with the speaker’s motive forces.”
“. . . .while resisting lateral movement and oscillations to maintain alignment with the listening position.”
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The GAIA isolators are meant to be anchored to the floor. The bottoms are slightly concave so that they will suction attach to a hardwood floor. If you have carpet, then the carpet discs are recommended. The carpet discs achieve a suction attachment to the footers and then the spikes anchor through the carpet to the solid flooring below.
Also, see their installation video starting near 4:25 for how to install the carpet discs.
From their website.
Carpet Discs
Designed to maintain stable support on carpet, the optional Carpet Spikes work with the GAIA II isolators to provide improved performance on thicker pile carpet and carpet with under pads.
Thanks, still never heard of a speaker propelling itself. The science, and testing, are about vibrations traveling to and from the speakers. Isoacoustic is hardly the only company developing isolation footers. I suppose, if those vibrations were strong enough, and, speaker was light enough, they might move. If keeping speakers from moving is your issue, spikes would probably keep them in place, but, you would still have vibrations going between floor and speaker cabinet.
I am not advocating, merely reporting @aangen’s description of the product is correct.
Yeah, I’m sure my 280lb speakers would be moving around, if, i didn’t have Isoacoustic Gaia Titan theis under them! Not!
aangen’s description of what the web site says is correct. I doubt his Wilson speakers would be moving around without the footers, unless they were on wheels.
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They are not much more than 1/2 inch. I am going by memory as it would take three people to check.
And Kyle, my Wilsons did spend a long time mounted on wheels. They arrive mounted on wheels. I never saw them move by themselves though. I guess I need to rock out more.
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If my speakers move on their own, I’m calling Father Murphy.
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Even with the wheels, the mass of the moving cone(s) is a ten thousandth or less of the mass of the speaker and the total energy along one vector is only a fraction of that. Seems hard to imagine a force along a particular vector would be enough to overcome the friction of the wheels even on a hardwood floor. Just a theory
And the excursions of the cones themselves changes the phase relationships between essentially all frequencies as the cone carries many frequencies simultaneously.
I’m fully with you. The movement theory and not (mainly) the usual floor to speaker coupling is what seems to set those feet apart from others in SQ and concept. And this seems quite independent of speaker weight. Not new, that speakers resonating make tiny movements.
I think some of the improvements may be from keeping the floor resonances (in the case of a normal wood floor over joists) out of the speaker cabinet effectively decoupling the speaker cabinet from the floor diaphragm surface.
If the floor is more massive as in concrete then the speaker cabinet may want to be coupled to the floor with spikes.
I have seen graphs where they compared the lower weight Gaia’s directly with speakers hung by Bungee cords. The bungee cord represents nominal best case. The complete decoupling relies on the elastomers to convert microvibration to heat thus full conversion not possible unless speaker side and floor side of Gaia cup is secure. The spikes in carpet or suction cup adherence is then key. I recall a thread where folks heard difference a sheet or sheets of paper makes under a speaker. I surmise changes in friction or decoupling with friction changes introduced with paper was affecting sound not height.
This might have already been said, but doesn’t a lot of this depend on how your speakers were voiced by the designer? I trust the ears of the designer more than my own and know that he doesn’t cut corners. He provides brass spikes and that’s what I’ll use til he tells me otherwise.
The vibrations from a speaker playing, travel to the floor and back to the speaker cabinet. That smears the sound. Once de coupled, the accuracy of the reproduced sound is much better. When I added the Isoacoustics to my speakers, it was an obvious improvement. I did the same with my subs, there was less improvement there, but, it was still significant. The bass is really tight and articulate using decoupling footers.
I don’t know about any of that. The legend goes that at Audio Shows Isoacoustics would setup up two of the exact same systems, with the same speakers for both. (two sets) On one they had whatever the speaker manufacturer offered and on the other they had their special feet. When they would A - B between them EVERYONE perceived a WORLD CHANGING difference in sound. Science did not need to be discussed as the proof was in your ears.
Fun!