WARNING, this post is GOING to piss people off!!! I am sorry. The opinions I am about to state are mine and mine alone. Please don’t tear me a new you’know’what or start flaming. I am just stating my opinion heard in my room, with my related accessories, on my system....
You have been warned!
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My friend came over today. We listened again; just compared Symposium shelf/footers and HRS shelf/footers . Used many different styles of music, spent quite a bit of time. Switched between the two several times (what a PITA, but worth it!). The combo shelf/footer has clearly proven to surpass the performance gains of any footer only system.
I definitely prefer the Symposium system (Ultra Platform and double stack roller blocks). It’s clean, neutral, fast, gives amazing attack and decay and the soundstage and imaging are holographic. And I’m not sure how, but it significantly lowers the noise floor. The HRS does not lower the noise floor, in fact I think it’s adding to it. It didn’t strike me until we switched back from HRS to Symposium for like the 4th time.
I think that’s what makes the HRS sound like it’s giving “more” in comparison, I think it’s coloring the sound. It’s “more” because it’s adding “more” to the reproduction. I think that the HRS footers, on their own, are a better solution then with the shelf. I think there is too much rubber if you add footers and shelves, to be quite honest. The sound HRS gives is big, bold, dynamic, MORE!!! Sounds awesome with anything punchy and dynamic. HRS sounds great on everything to be honest (the rack/shelf/footer equivalent of really good horns), but the purity and neutrality in combination with the blackest background I have ever heard, from the Symposium, was what finally uncovered what I hear the HRS was doing. I think Peter from Symposium may be right (he hates any rubber in a rack/footer/shelf system). A touch of rubber may be ok, but HRS REALLY relies on it heavily. The Symposium makes my system sound the best it ever has, and my friend today was the one who said it.
I juts ordered a set of elusive ShunMook Giant footers, touted by many to be the best of the best. I am also trying to arrange to audition a set of Magico Qpods. Of course, both would be implemented on the Symposium Ultra shelf or on the Osiris rack, as I’m leaning heavily in that direction. I will play with a few footers on that shelf to see what’s best, but the combo of Symposium Ultra shelf and double sandwich rollerblocks has impressed me most thus far.
On the inexpensive, holy cow are they good and they are only HOW MUCH, category is the IsoAcoustics Gaia and Orea. If you are looking for 95# of the performance for practically nickels on the dollar compared to the expensive stuff, you can NOT do better then IsoAcoustics!!!
