I had some ceramic cones and TerraStone Footers I was using on my previous equipment, that made a noticeable difference in sound quality, but when I tried them under the DMP, DSD and BHK 250, when I was still breaking them in, they seemed to exaggerate some of the negatives associated with the break-in process. Now that everything has broken in, I tried them again, and they definitely helped increase the musicality of the system. In the process of pausing songs, and adding footers under each piece of gear, I noticed a brief ringing immediately after hitting the pause button. I figured out it was the hollow rectangle tubing of my equipment rack. So I tried applying some Blu Tact on the metal frame in an inconspicuous place, and it helped deaden the ringing when tapping on the metal frame. By accident I noticed it deadened the ringing even further when the Blu Tact was applied on the framing, and also made contact with the high density fiberboard shelving. Now when I tap on the equipment rack it makes a dull thud. Upon listening again things sounded much more relaxed, with a noticable increase in clarify.
This was another lesson in the fact that everything matters, when it comes to the SQ of your Hifi rig.
Standdesign from the UK. It was the first audio rack I ever purchased, some years ago. Although itās well made, the thing sings like a bird when itās energized. The ringing I heard for a split sec after I paused a cd, could be heard loud and clear from my listening position. And although the ringing doesnāt reveal itself as ringing when a disc is playing, thereās no doubt it was mucking things up.
Many years ago I had some stuff called black tack which was just that. Its main claim to fame was it was more stickier - sufficiently so that when removing my speakers from the stands one day it removed some of the vinyl wrap and a chunk of the chipboard from the bottom of the speaker.
I originally purchased the Blu Tac to mount a pair of Totem Mani 2ās on some stands. It worked great, and when it came time to box them up to sell, the Blu Tac came off without a hitch. Guess the black tac is for keeps, and shouldnāt be used for any audio applications.
Iām not familiar with the design of the Standesign rack, but some racks with hollow tubes can be filled with sand or lead shot (at least in the past, I think lead shot is now very hard find). I have a couple of SolidSteel racks and one of them I filled with sand. To do so I removed the threaded spikes on the bottom of each colum and very slowly poured sand in. It certainly deadend the rack, though wasnāt sure how much improvement in sound since it was hours (maybe a day or two) between listening sessions due to the work involved. Obviously youāve already figured out the rack can be improved so it may be worth a shot (groan).
There is no way to add any fill with this particular rack unless I drilled some holes. I have another rack that I used for Hifi, that I now use for video, that I did fill with sand, which turned out to be a real pain. The stand has rods that run through the corner posts, which allow for customizing how many shelves the rack has. When I first filled the hollow tubes with sand, I quickly discovered that they were not sealed very well at the joints, as sand started leaking out every where. So I had to disassemble everything, empty all the sand out, and then carefully reassemble everything using rubber washers and silicone. Problem solved, except the damn thing weighs a ton. I also tossed all the 3/4" MDF shelves out, and made new shelves using 1 1/4" high density fiberboard material instead, which I also used for the Standdesign rack as well. Using the denser shelf material did help to improve the sound, by helping to dampen floor born vibrations.
Yes, but it has to be black granite to get the density. I used to use them on my old rack (black chipboard shelves) and it gives you real bass weight. With my current bamboo shelf rack it does not work so well (lose dynamics) so I donāt use them now.
Why would shelving give you better ābass weightāāas in sound, or are you saying the ābaseā as in āmore solid baseā for your equipment to sit on?
Happy with my adjustable heavy rocksolid cast iron rack with safety glass shelfs using granite slabs on some felt carrying all gear, like the DS on Goldmund cones;
Iām not convinced cones make any difference at all. The device that sits on them is still mechanically coupled to what the cones sit on. Iād be interested if there is any data measured by accelerometers, chassis vibration with and without cones, and how they compare.
No doubt these work very well, especially under the DS and PWT. In comparison itās immediately identifiable. Sound is more independent of speakers, holographic and free in space with a bit better transients.
Goldmund cones are quite special:
āThe principle of vibration evacuation by metallic cones placed under audio components is now widely accepted as the most effective. But the very simple cones usually sold for this purpose all suffer of the same faults:
ā¢ These cones are, by themselves, a source of mechanical resonance due to their metallic construction. The resonance generates āfilterā effect that prevents evacuation of some frequencies by the cones, including coloration. ā¢ The also transfer energy from the support to the component.
Developed by the GOLDMUND REFERENCE turntable and the GOLDMUND MIMESIS 36 CD transport designer, Georges Bernard, the structure of the GOLDMUND CONES is much more sophisticated and has been elaborated to eliminate these drawbacks.
The GOLDMUND CONE is built of three different materials: ā¢ A very hard steel body. This steel, already incorporated in some parts of the GOLDMUND REFERENCE, is used to collect vibrations from the audio component. The shape and surfaces have been optimized to allow full contact without resonance. ā¢ A special high-speed metal point. Acting as a āMechanical Diodeā, the point has an evacuation speed higher than the steel main body. The sophisticated assembly makes the vibration transfer easier from top to bottom than in the opposite direction. More, the ultra-high strength of the point avoids the rounding with time, very detrimental for evacuation efficiency. ā¢ A special elastomers compound is used inside the cone to fully damp its own resonance.ā
Those are my findings as well. The right cones help drain minut mechanical vibrations from the piece of gear they are supporting, which lowers the noise floor, revealing more low level details, including spatial cues. I also hear an improvement in PRAT.
