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Footers/Shelf Material

I am still on the shelf quest, trying Corian, Neuance and Maple Butchers Block (the latter is still to arrive, but is coming). The Neuance is still the best - the Corian less dynamic, slower and a little warmer. But I have also been trying lots of footers with these shelves, hoping for a magical combination. And I found one.. With hard shelves like Corian, glass, perspex, marble etc (including the Neuance) - (but definitely not for MDF), the best I have found is the E-A-R Large Isolation Feet, $3.25 each at the Parts Connection. With hard shelves all of the cones I have tried are way too peaky. Plain old hard rubber feet are muddy and smeered. Vynil feet in general are "zingy" and tend to hardness from the middle of the mid-range on up, and a bit smeered on down - and this includes Vibrapods. The Vibrapods are a bit too lively in the upper mids and not great with string tone, but are also not coherent from top to bottom (but are otherwise second-best to the E-A-R feet. But the E-A-R feet give you all the detail of the best of the other footers (cones, squishy feet etc) with NO peakiness, and fantastic solidity to images. They are an unfortunate shade of blue and look like a hard synthetic rubber, but do not have any of the fuzz and smeer that you get with hard rubber footers. More neutral overall than anything else, all the detail as you get with cones but with none of the peakiness, none of the smeer you get with rubber, vynil, or sorbothane. I like them. There are also small feet at $1 each, but my components are too heavy for them and they sound muddy and grey - but they might work with light components - they are used by Sonic Frontiers on all their better gear. Please note I do NOT recommend them if you use MDF shelves.
redkiwi
redkiwi OP
1,092 posts
 
Dekay, "the parts connection" can be found at www.sonicfrontiers.com/tpc/. There are lots of goodies there, albeit not necessarily at the best price. Download their entire catalogue and have a look through it. The E-A-R feet are in there somewhere (page 76 in the version I downloaded last week), but you may find it interesting what else you can buy while you are at it. If the Vibrapods are tipping things up above the middle of the midrange, then I think you will really like the E-A-R feet. I found the E-A-R feet better than Vibrapods with my tube monoblocks, as well as with my front-end. Cornfedboy, four of the large E-A-R feet will hold up to 80lbs.
caterham1700
271 posts
 
Hi Redkiwi, Just a bit curious.I've been keenly reading your findings and am noticing that you are now making some very fine and subtle observations on the various isomers,interfaces and 'footer' products.With the precision of your hunt ,is it possible that you are now voicing for a complimentary sound to match your particular specific source component? Have you tried other sources for comparison/reference and do you feel that your findings may be universally applicaple to most similar component/platform combinations? Thanks, Best, Ken
garfish
1,840 posts
 
Redkiwi; interesting observation re E.A.R. feet. As I think you know, I use a Sonic Frontiers Line 2 pre-amp that I am fond of and that has the E.A.R. feet you mention. All of my equipment sits on a very heavy steel stand that is spiked and damped and has MDF shelves. Awhile ago I got two Townshend Seismic sinks for transport and DAC-- tremendous detail, but they sucked the life right out of the music, not good, not good. So I put a "sink" under my Line 2, and viola', music clarity increased significantly, and musicality if anything, improved. The "sink" has found a home. BTW, Madrigal equipment has a unique type of foot that I haven't been able to improve upon when on MDF. The feet are hollow, about an inch in dia. and are an accordian pleated, somewhat hard rubber of sorts. I Didn't know what to do with the other sink, so I put it under the Line 2 power supply-- could'nt hear any difference(s), but it looks good there:>). One more BTW, I've enjoyed and learned from all the above posts. Thanks. Craig
garfish
1,840 posts
 
......should have mentioned that transport is Levinson 37, and DAC Levinson 360S-- strange looking feet. I'll have to contact them re: the foot design. I'm guessing that you are familiar with Levinsons feet-- not Marks', but the components.
brulee
564 posts
 
Hi Caterhaml, I am beginning to think that all these materials and what ever feet, spikes or whatever can tailor the sound much like ICs and speaker cable. Granite gives a harder sound than maple. MDF was bland and gave the bass a rubbery sound. Glass was similar to granite but not as presice or incisive but was not as hard sounding. I am still experimenting but I keep coming back to spikeing amps to the concrete floor and maple for CD and granite for the preamp. Then you have all the different sounds that pucks, cone, spikes, ballbearings or whatever make. I am beginning to get snow blind. With the different sounds these materials produce, I can't help think that it will be very system dependant. What do you think?
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