Until recently I owned a Rogue 99 Magnum and the best sound it produced was with the following: 2" hard maple shelf on top of Vibrapods with 1"x3/4"x3/4" zebrawood blocks between the maple shelf and the bottom of the 99 chassis (that's the chassis, Not the 99s feet) plus Herbies tube dampers on all four tubes. The biggest changes came with the Maple shelf and zebrawood blocks. In this application the latter were significantly better than BDR cones (either #3s or #4s)or Vibrapods directly under the 99. My wife and I did several evenings of listening comparisons and found that Zebrawood or teak wood sound best - clearer, more vivid, deeper and tighter bass, more effortless presentation. I know it all sounds weird about the wood blocks and I was skeptical even after reading the article in StereoTomes.com regarding electromachanical convergence, but there was a clearly audible difference; not at all subtle. And it is inexpensive to experiment with wood scraps from a woodworking specialty source.
My Rogue 99 needs better isolation...please help.
I'm currently using ceraballs under a Rogue 99 and found them to better the BDR cones that I was using before. Although the microphonics are less pronounced than the BDR cones, I'm curious if a combination of four cork isolation pads under a maple board used in conjunction with the ceraballs would help with the microphonics. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
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Ezekial had a great sugestion, the Sylvania WGT's. They work pretty good. But, the metal base W's, and the Tungsol round plate black glass are the reigning champs in the Supratek camp. Also the short bottle brown base Sylvania W's. I'm sure you would get the same results in the Rouge. I imagine these should sound pretty good too, for what they cost. One other brand that I really like but can never find are Toshiba's. I haven't compared the plate structure to others, but they are a GTB with a chrome top. I was extremely surprised at how good they sound and also are as close to noiseless as you can get. I only use the tube dampers on my phono tubes, but I imagine they should help also. |
Thanks again for all of the suggestions! Has anyone tried Herbies feet or the vibration isolation pads from member rcreations? It sounds like Sylvania tubes are the way to go and I'll keep my eye out for them. Jphii- Wow...I couldn't believe how much the tubes went for in the link you provided. What are the sound differences between the Syl wgt's and the Syl w's metal base? The maple base I'm interested in is from www.timbernation.com, but there is also a picture of a sandbox that was made for a customer which looks really nice. Decisions...decisions. |
Bradz: Email me off-line, and I will forward you some further information on the IsoBaseK: white paper and such. Both Bigkidz and Rcprince have had success with these units. Regarding the several suggestions of Herbie's dampers,I am in complete agreement. Just started using them recently myself. Nice product. Regarding bases with sand; I have not tried this myself so I cannot comment. I do know that I have seen some very well done DIY racks that employed this approach with good success. If you are interested, email me with your address and I will forward info (I think I kept it). Regading Hebie's feet, I know that Rx8man is getting ready to try some variations of this product. Hopefully he will chime in with his observations. My recent experience with tubes has been to have seen the eye opening differences (in my system, etc) that good isolation can make. Yes, I believe in tube dampers, but dampers alone (for me) don't come close to what isolation can do for some (not all) tubes. This recent experience has been with the 12AU7 family, but my guess is that the same rules apply to most tube families and the variations in manufacturing. |
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