Isolation Feet Upgrade
I recently upgraded my Ayre QB9 to its Twenty status and bought a Bryston BDP Pi. Everything’s sounds good but if I could slightly increase bass and warmth I’d be even happier. My thought is to replace the ASR power cable to a Cullen Crossover II and by adding more silver into the power cord, that I’d increase warmth that way. The second tweak would be to replace the Herbie's Tenderfeet but am not sure what would constitute an upgrade. I have read claims however that certain brand names will increase bass response. I remember the time I replaced the stock feet on my QB9 in 2011 and how surprised I was by the improvement in clarity and detail. Am I just chasing my tail with these tweak notions or can I really tailor my equipment into a slightly more preferable sonic signature. Price point is always a factor.
Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!
Showing 23 responses by goofyfoot
lowrider, thanks! Patrick first made me a pair of jumper cables back when the Red series were popular and then did surgery on a couple pair of Hi Diamond cables. His work is solid. I can’t believe his prices are so reasonable. I’m unable to make the purchase right now but it should be soon. I did see the prices on the EVP feet, pretty reasonable also. |
lowrider, I’m beginning to realize that different feet, under different components, will likely render the best results. I’d certainly like to purchase various types of feet and try them out in various combinations but that’s not economically viable. Testing cables and phono cartridges would be the similar. |
I’m reading good things about Iso Acoustics and there prices are reasonable. It seems like I could spend a lot of time and money trying this footer and that footer in order to fine tune my amp and DAC but in the end, I generally settle on what just sounds good for a competitive price. The exception might be in finding a cone footer for my Quads that might add a touch of warmth to a very neutral sounding electrostatic speaker. |
@astolfor thanks for your findings! Towards the end, you cited Townshend and HSR as being comparatively the same. The HSR Vortex footers are twice the price of the Townshend footers so I'm wondering whether you have a preference between those two? Also, would you say that better footers are more critical with heavy components such as amplifiers versus a small DAC? |
I have an Ayre DAC and an ASR Emitter II Exclusive amplifier using Herbie's Tender-feet and I'm thinking that better feet on those two pieces might render better results. My next upgrade however will be a better power chord for my DAC. As far as my turntable, I'm still modifying it and need to replace the tonearm before anything else. |
I can see there's a significant difference with the Nobsound but is it actually audible? I read a little on the Townshend and I'm pretty certain there's a significant improvement with those. Anyway, I still need to upgrade the power chord for my DAC and then use the current chord for my phono amp. The Townshend is where I'm focused but it will take some time on my part. Like I said before, I very much appreciate your input. Its been very informative! |
@astolfor I've found placement to be important with the Herbie's as well. |