Best Isolation Platform with Audio Aero Prestige

Brainwater writes:

Rhetoric aside, have you tried the Critical Mass Grand Master black label platforms in your own system ? I would then welcome your opinions positive or negative.

That's a bit of an easy out.

Instead of quoting from someone elses work, tell us what you have compared the "Grand Master" to and what you heard.

Regards,

Brent, i know that the Critical Mass website claims that Will Wright preferred the Critical Mass platform under his tt.....but that is not what Will said in his review.

he said;

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"......I decided it was time to try out the Grand Master I had purchased to go under my turntable in its intended application. At first I had planned to move the Micro 40 back under my universal player, but after pulling it out from under the turntable to install the Grand Master I got lazy and decided "what the heck, I'll put it under my preamp instead," just temporarily.

Much to my surprise, I ended up preferring this configuration. Although this is most probably not where I would have ended up without the Grand Master platforms to go under my source components, this configuration provided the best overall performance for the whole system. Whether spinning records or optical discs, the results were sublime. My preamp absolutely loved the Micro 40 and as a result, so did I. This was unexpected. In fact, I would have expected my previous configuration of Micro 40 under turntable and Grand Master under preamp to be superior."

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what Will said was that "this configuration provided the best overall performance for the whole system.".......not that he preferred the Critical Mass to the Halcyonics under his tt. he felt that in his system the Halcyonics made the most difference on his preamp. when Will visited my room with the Halcyonics he told me that he specfically preferred the Halcyonics to the Critical Mass on every component but that the Critical Mass was fairly close in some areas. it would make sense that since his tt started out with some passive isolation beyond the starting point of the preamp; there was more room for improvment with the pre.

there are a few excellent passive systems out there including the Critical Mass and others like my Grand Prix Audio.......but active isolation is on another level.

Metralla,

I did direct comparisons with the Vibraplane , Black Diamond , Sistrum , Symposium Ultra , and SRA . I chose to represent Critical Mass for my company based on its performance alone .

Mike,

I do not know Will , nor do I know his thoughts. We looked very carefullly at his wording in the review and came to this conclusion based on these lines :

"......I decided it was time to try out the Grand Master I had purchased to go under my turntable in its intended application. At first I had planned to move the Micro 40 back under my universal player, but after pulling it out from under the turntable to install the Grand Master I got lazy and decided "what the heck, I'll put it under my preamp instead," just temporarily.

Much to my surprise, I ended up preferring this configuration. Although this is most probably not where I would have ended up without the Grand Master platforms to go under my source components, this configuration provided the best overall performance for the whole system.

If we are not understanding his meaning then it is an honest mistake.

Brent,

first; i was not in any way suggesting that you intended to mislead; i know you are not that way. your credibility with me is beyond reproach.

i was simply pointing out that Will never says specifically that the Critical Mass bettered the Halcyonics on the tt. his only written comment was related to whole system performance with what was at hand.

also; what he may have said verbally to you or Critical Mass may have been in conflict with what he said to me.....i have no way of knowing about that.

best regards,

Mike ,

As far as I am concerned , I know of no one with more credibility than you and your words have much weight and respect with me .

I indeed see your point and I appreciate your efforts to help me understand and appreciate this issue with semantics that is the source of misunderstanding .