A reappearance of Black Diamond Racing?

Never got off on em. It wasn’t due to lack of trying, either. I find BDR cones to be toward the bottom of my short list with NASA grade ceramics at the top. I have found extremely hard cones sound best, more open and more dynamic and more natural, whereas relatively soft materials sound relatively uh, worse, blunted and compressed. Relatively soft materials such as carbon fiber, brass and hardwood (kind of an oxymoron in this example). The shape of BDR cones is all wrong, too. The correct shape is a ballistic shape a la Super DH (Diamond Hardness) Cone or the robust Michael Green brass cone.

“Because it’s what I choose to believe.” - Dr. Elizabeth Shaw in Prometheus

”Everything is relative.” - A. Einstein 

@geoffkait ,

You only list BDR cones as your reference. I have the cones but my experience with them is not as positive as the shelves, or in my DIY projects with cf sheets.

@mofimadness ,
+1

Do I detect a typo or something in that last post? 🤔

Goldensound is discontinuing their line of DH Cones. I was told this a few weeks ago when I ordered a set. I got the last set of Super cones in the US. They have stock in their Taiwan facility, but that's the last of it.
Thanks to @geoffkait for turning me on to these amazing devices. 
IMO, they add more realism than the BDR.

mofimadness, a man who clearly has ears and knows how to use them, writes:

I knew DJ. Very intelligent and creative. I use BDR products all over my system.

I’ve tried just about everything out there over the past 40 years and the BDR stuff is probably the most effective that I’ve used. I really believe in it.

WONDERFUL and highly recommended!

Right. Excellent. Same here. And totally agree.
BDR is so good, when first discovered I showed it to a friend. A driven, highly motivated audiophile with 30+ years experience constantly trying to find and reverse engineer and DIY every tweak he could find, he rolled his eye at me. "Yeah I’ll try em. But do you have any idea how many times I’ve heard that?" He then proceeded to rattle off a seemingly endless list of stuff he had tried. "It won’t be any good. I’m not paying for anything that doesn’t work." On and on.

Next day, same guy calls and you can’t shut him up, just going on and on and on about all the great things he’s hearing, how much better than anything else he’s ever tried, how in the world is this even possible, on and on.

This was way back in 92, 93, something like that. Nobody in Washington State had any. DJ agreed to sell to me wholesale until a "real" area retailer came along.

Being a stupid stoked audiophile I took them to audio clubs and spent the next year or three taking these into scads of audiophiles homes where they were auditioned under literally hundreds of different components. In all that there were maybe one or two times when the improvement was hard to hear. All the rest of the time it was immediate and obvious.

At $60 for 3 BDR Cones are still the best tweak for the buck.

Now I didn’t just buy and sell and use. I also tried my best to reverse engineer. Nor did I just use the stuff as intended. I fabricated with it. Had DJ make me some custom bits. Never did find anything or any place the super stiff, highly damped, moderately massive material didn’t perform beyond expectations.

Here’s a prime example of what I’m talking about. https://www.theanalogdept.com/c_miller.htm

It looks a lot different now with a Conqueror arm and new motor drive, but that’s my table. Built from a Source Shelf. Tried building the same from scratch, tried different methods of carbon fiber. Probably have a hard time finding anyone this side of DJ who knows more about this stuff than me. Fairly hard even just to make it look as good. Then use it, never sounds anywhere near as good. Built a plinth or two, built a bunch of Cones, Pucks, etc. Mostly all I got to show for it is a healthy respect for how much work goes into developing something as good as BDR.

Well, that and one pretty darn fine turntable.