Slide some cloth underneath them by rocking them just enough to fit it under.
Edit: I see this has already been said
Slide some cloth underneath them by rocking them just enough to fit it under.
Edit: I see this has already been said
So it’s been a few weeks since adding Isoacoustic Orea pucks, (4) per component (20 total): BHK250, BHK Pre, DS DAC, DS DMP, and Sbooster/Nucleus+ plinth. Since I ripped the whole rack apart, adding an additional glass shelf and reconfiguring all the shelves, cables moved… I waited a few weeks to listen seriously. It’s all the little things that add up to amazing. Live and very natural is a way to describe the SQ increase. An amazing soundstage of superb clarity is what it seems. I just love my system and every little thing I do just keeps me grinning.
However, I did not have the room (shelf space) to add the Bordeaux isolators under the PSA P20 @RonP . The BHK250 took the Bordeaux isolators and Bronze for the rest.
Some day, when you’re bored, try removing one puck from under each component.
After a few weeks of pucks settling in, revisited the BHK250. I didn’t like the way the amplifier feet engaged the pucks initially; however, gave it a few weeks to see how they settle (orientation). In addition, I did not feel I would get the best isolation if the pucks did not engage their full (top & bottom) surface area. Therefore, after reviewing how they settled, I decided to remove the feet so the pucks have better integral contact with the amplifier chassis. One puck usage configuration constraint was a machine screw engaging the chassis on all four corners. It did not inhibit 100% contact, just constrains puck placement and one needs to be aware. A bonus to removing and replacing the BHK250 feet is additional space below (puck is twice as tall as BHK250 feet), and additional space above. I went to the 11.5in shelf from the 9.5in shelf so the area above is more. Also, make sure you place a towel on your shelf and slide the amplifier back to prevent the machine screws on the bottom from making some nasty channels in wood or scratches to glass. The towel is easily removed when You add the pucks. Here are a few pics of the process.
Three Orea’s under preamp and three under power amp. I have tried many footers and isolation devices and settled in with Orea’s. It really makes your component disappear and more music to appear. Probably the best footers on the market. I unscrewed the original feet and put Orea’s in it’s place. The original feet sounds a bit sterile in comparison. The bottom of Orea’s are like suction cups and once in place will not move. Get the right ones for the weight of your component though.
Just tried three IsoAcoustics under turntable and is stung by the increased richness and presence of the sound. These Orea’s definitely works wonder under a turntable.
Update: These Bordeaux Orea’s made more difference under the TT than anywhere else I tried them. I’m not going to under sell the difference. It is HUGE!!! It’s like a completely higher level TT. The density, substance, and liveness goes to an entirely different plateau. The little button footers that came with the TT really compromised the performance of this outstanding TT. I had to put a steel plate under the stand-alone motor to keep it the same height as the TT, but the sound is unbelievable, so REAL!!!
My latest is Oreas Reds under the DS and Oreas Blues under the PST. These IsoAcoustics are quite remarkable. Best sound I’ve heard. The steel balls and tip toes type leans out the sound too much. I put the components on top of a vinyl butcher block and was quite surprised how much better it sounded!! Feet matters.
Aren’t 3 Orea Bronze the recommended configuration for the DS?
I find 3 Bronze kind of bottoms out a bit. The 3 Blues gives it a little more play in the springs. The Oreas gives you the maximum weight it can handle, not the minimum and I find they handle less weight than they indicate before bottoming out.
Rightly or wrongly, I use four
I use 4 bronze under a PS Memory player with good improvement. On top of the Memory transport an Entreq Vibbeater is placed. Oreas are placed on hardened glas that is placed on Finite Element Cerapuc.
Still not perfect. Will likely lift rack and implement Townshend seismic technology between the floor and the rack.
Sum
4 Orea Bronze improves a PS transport or DAC senior (all have the same weight).
I think whether to use 3 or 4 (or 5) really comes down to the weight of the component and the capacities of the footers. If you read other forums, you will sometimes see recommendations not to get within 90% of the rated max for the footers, for best performance (don’t ask me where, but I’ve seen that more than two or three times).
With one of my power amps, which weighs 54 lbs, four Indigo work out perfectly, as the four Indigo together are rated for 64 lbs, so 54 lbs comfortably below the max but not too far below.
However, for the next amp that I’m planning to purchase, which weighs 65 lbs, that presents a bit of a dilemma. Four Indigos isn’t ideal because it’s right about at the rated max. Three Bordeauxs would support 96 lbs, which means I’d only be at 2/3 of the capacity. Instead, what I did was purchase 5 Indigos, where in aggregate support 80 lbs, so that at 65 lbs I’ll come in at about the sweet spot ratio for those five footers.
Iso has graphs that show performance across the weight scale that make it look fine to go right up to the max, of course, but many users have found perhaps that it is better to stay a bit below based on their experiences. FWIW. YMMV
Does anyone know if there is any point in putting these under a nas? I presume not, but just wondering?
Got 4 8lb rated ones to play with, putting them under different components to experiment.
Putting 4 under my preamp only yielded very small improvement.
Biggest improvement is when I put two under my LPS to my audio grade switch, one under the audio grade network switch, and one under my smallish streamer, I could not believe what I’m hearing.
That is really interesting to hear!
Has someone in the meantime also had experience when placing them under a NAS?
Nice to see an old thread coming to life.
Vibration and high end is almost… a subject worthy of PhD level of understanding room, used equipment, used tweaks, material, frequencies, acoustics, building tech and to be able to understand how these interact in layers.
It’s easier to test combinations and to listen… than to understand it all… or for someone with deep knowledge to explain for a person with medium knowledge during limited time.
Instead, these kind of forums becomes speculations and guesses instead of the more useful recommendation “try it out”.
After this introduction, or call it disclaimer… I’m trying to help. At the bottom you will find what you look for, both a proper answer to your question and the ph.d most audiophiles should have.
Basics to keep in mind
Speakers send vibrations via floors into equipment.
Speakers send vibration via air into equipment
Speakers send vibrations via floors and air into equipment and cables and power cleaning and racks and more transfers vibrations from one place over to other parts of the rack/equipment.
Most absorbing tweaks can not absorb all, but only part of the energy.
Most absorbing tweaks can not absorb low frequencies (sorbothane usually is used in a way that nothing below 35 Hz is absorbed)
most absorbing tweaks or floating tweaks do not prevent post ringing
Earth seismic movements and traffic vibrations are much more than the speaker created vibrations, but they are low affecting 5-7 respectively 7-9 hz. To my knowledge that is approx 400x the vibration that is used by a soft dome tweeter when creating sound. Also only magnetical solutions floats of those low frequencies or something like Townshend seismic tech that floats of something like 98 percent above 3 Hz and have a solution to prevent post ringing.
Most solutions try do drain energy from equipment down towards the floor via spikes or ceramics, that try to act as a frequency filter (creating a narrow gap of where lots of frequencies are transformed to a smaller gap of frequencies and sent downwards, while keeping the gap for frequencies from below to come up into the equipment narrow. In real life there is no prevention at stopping low frequencies from affecting the equipment even if you use spikes, Cerapucs or Oreas or similar.
advanced tweaks uses the same solution as in “8” (above) but use layers of different material to absorb and drain and to prevent energy from going from below and up and in a few cases also prevent air born energy from creating a resonating top equipment (if floated of from below). PS Audio Power Base with different layers of metal and thickness of sorbothane is one such product.
Differerent speaker tech and different equipment are affected differently. Like a dac is usually very affected but there is a huge difference depending on how it’s built, just as class A and class D amps are affected differently by vibrations.
I myself have tested and tried a lot of layers with Oreas, SD-pucks, Finite Elemente racks, Cerapucs, Entreq, cork, Bambu, metal, wood, rubber, madresses, cotton nets, hardened glass and even more. My power cleaning have got 8 layers and the cables coming to and from have anti vibration.
My point
This subject can get very complicated and we need to know more to provide an educated answer
Regarding NAS
I have not tried Oreas under a NAS but guess it would be an improvement. Oreas are a combination of spikes and sorbothane absorption.
Likely something out of metal or ceramic would be better under a NAS. That means drainage down into the table. A spinning mechanical NAS likely needs a spike solution better than a combination of spikes and sorbothane.
A NAS vibrates. You aim to get rid of vibrations. Absorbing vibrations can be a challenge as absorbing material usually is flexible (like sorbothane or foam) and with continued vibrations the electronics or its components can start to resonate, especially with a constant same frequency vibration source such as mechanical HDD.
An SSD based NAS might be better off with Oreas (which have sorbothane as one of their parts).
I would put a NAS in another room and would put a bag of sand on top (that transfers energy into heat)
Last words
Sorry for a lot of words, just trying to help you help yourself better in the future.
Short answer
A) If you have a mechanical NAS try something like stillpoints, Cerapucs or spikes first
B) If you have an SSD NAS try Oreas first
C) Expect to have to try several things
D) Put a heavy dense layer between the table and the NAS (to float off and absorb vibration that is drained from the NAS). It acts like a frequency filter from the floor borne vibrations.
The friendly answer
E) If you are serious about sound quality you owe it to yourself to study the tech behind Townshend Seismic tech and try it under your speakers. This is more of a game changer and system upgrade than 95 percent of experienced high end audiophiles have experienced during their life. High ends best kept secrets due to the fact that few people put money on their speakers feet, if so, they use relative low cost solutions like Gaia. If your speakers are able to take full benefit of the Townshends then you will think of Gaia like low fi or mid-fi. Gaias are good, but not comparable to Townshend when Townshend suits the speakers.
F) if you are serious about knowing more, this is the closest thing to that ph.d possible to find online in a short effective package that ADHD audiophiles can browse through quickly
A highly, highly recommended read
I’ll agree on the Townshend platforms under speakers. They are “one and done” isolators that work remarkably well for the simple tech involved.
Thank you so much for your insightful explanations!!
What does 8 layers mean in that regard? And you mean you have cable lifters in use?
Well both…
Firstly, I try not to use cable classic or home made lifters in the classic sense (cable lifters put in the floor) if not needed. I prefer to have all cables in the air. It’s easier to drain only air borne vibrations than have to deal with both floor borne and air born vibrations.
I do have cable lifters in a rack. I use a Finite Elemente The spider rack for my power cleaning. The power cable from the wall to the first power cleaning device (an Isotek Syncro Uno sine wave rebalanced and dc-blocker) are in the air.
The Syncro have got several layers below (rubber, sand, 2 different wood, SD-pillows, Finite Elemente rubber, spikes, metal and more. In side the rack Entreq Vibbeaters are placed to absorb a bit more vibrations.
I could go on but it’s better to post pictures.
The key thing is to dampen and absorb at the right places and also remember that the floor usually have got 1,2-1,5 v (the biggest reason to have cable lifters)
The last power cleaner and distributor prior to the equipment is placed approx 40 cm from the floor (second level of the Finite Elemente rack, with layers of different anti vibration).
I find 3 mm of cork a god inexpensive way of filtering of frequencies. I use it a bit here and there.
Was that a good a answer or can I help better?
Some pictures would be welcome.
Thanks for your time.