Isolation: What are you guys using under your Directstream?

Each 2"x2" square is rated to 200lbs. like a refrigerator. 1"x1" would be 50lbs. It’s still too much but does allow for a bit of compression.

The Iso-pucks (20lbs) and Orea Indigos (16lbs) are closer to our use/load. Inner tube, well now that is adjustable, and very compliant. Think of a 1Hz wave. One time per second. The absorber needs to flow like water to isolate from it. From my readings, these low freq. seismic waves (0Hz-10Hz) are the most impactful to the sound.

Correct, inside of feet so they are in contact with the case, not under the feet.

Ok, I see where you are going. They could get trimmed and still work under the 250! Thanks for confirmation on the placement.

“Anyway I immediately noticed a clarified conciseness, a compacted comprehensibleness, coalescent consistency, and a concatenated cogency in the bass. My sound stage had intelligibility and veracious vivacity, without rodomontade or thrasonical bombast. It was amazing”

roninaudio…Can I assume the Wizard of OZ schooled you in your particular use of speech?

LoL. Thanks Mark. I have yet to meet the Wizard but hope to one day. I was just having a little fun regarding some of the product reviews I have read. Cheers…

:grin:

There is no room on this thread to be funny, Mr @roninaudio. We are dealing with serious business here.

1 Like

I’ve switched back and forth a couple times between my inner tube setup and iso-pucks. The tube is far more compliant, able to isolate much lower Hz vibrations than the Pucks. That said, I couldn’t tell you which one is in place blind. This is under my BHK pre. Not going to bother under my DS, the tube with ball bearings works perfectly in my AV rack.

I will try the Pucks under my stand mount speakers, arguably where they are marketed, but I’m already having a hard time justifying the spend for the ‘improvement’.

Experimentation is worthwhile even if not scientifically controlled or measurable as long as it leads to enjoyment of music.

That’s the beauty of tweaking…try it and if does not make you dance for joy… then remove it…and be happy with what you already have. Nothing is ever written in stone when it comes to personal likes and dislikes.

Well done. Thanks for the reports!

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

You really have to experiment. Those who tell you there’s no difference just can’t hear a difference—their system or their ears or their mind made up. No matter. I can tell you that some components respond differently to isolation/damping devices. In my system, my P5 is happiest on top of Oreas on top of a Powerbase. My DMP is happiest on Tenderfeet. All else is happy on Oreas. I can produce no data, no argument to support what I said other than it’s what I like. Like, my favorite color is blue----Marina blue from my 67 Vette. It is what it is.

Or they cannot hear a difference as there really is no difference to hear.

True, Or people hear what they want to hear.

1 Like

Or do not hear what they do not want to hear.

Expectation bias works in all directions.

1 Like

I have a good friend who has a very nice, very expensive system. He could have bought a new 911 for the cost, Sonus Faber, Aesthetix Atlas monoblock monsters, etc. But he is unshakably convinced that cables are bs and he uses the cheapest inters and lamp cord for speakers. Isolators are even more preposterous to him. He wears the smirk of knowledge on this subject.
One day, I brought over some cables and we fired the system up and I heard a massive improvement. He heard nothing. But we’re both happy, and so it goes.

2 Likes

I would hope “bias” is not the answer for all of us. If 300+ buys me better clarity (or what have you) I’m all in. I just don’t hear it regarding isolation but I have not heard all methods. For me, telling the difference between cables is a challenge (after a certain point) so trying to hear the difference if they are on the carpet or off, seems inconsequential. If people can hear the difference then great. However if I am biased, it’s due to reviews and what seems like inflated claims on some products. I tried the EVAs, they are still there as they may be doing some good but I can’t tell. I will keep watching the marketplace for used pucks, pods and Oreas.

If a tweak possesses a good yuck/buck ratio for a given hobbyist, it is a good tweak. Whether the results are “real” does not matter.

2 Likes

I agree with @roninaudio. To this day I still can’t hear a difference between stacking the M700s or sit them side-by-side. Some claimed they do but is it because Robert Deutsch said they should hear a difference?

And what is interesting is he indicated it was a substantial difference. !

I place a bit more weight on a report when someone hears, or does not hear, what they wanted to hear going in.