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Ceramic insulator cone under phono stage shocker!

I have used small ceramic insulator cones underneath my phono stage for quite some time.
Previous phono was a Gold note ph10 and it did not make ANY audible difference I could detect which way up the cones were so I had left them cone upwards.

When I changed my phono to a Manley Chinook I just left the cones same way.
This afternoon I decided to flip them over so cone down just to see.

I honestly could not and cannot believe the difference!
I may have lost a smidge of low bass but everywhere else is improved in spades.
Much more detail, resolution, air, imaging, dynamics.
Just completely shocking how much better a small change has made.

But I am perplexed why such a huge change on the Chinook where I noted nothing on the ph10?

Any theories here?
128x128uberwaltz
andrewkelley
271 posts
 
My theory is... it’s a shadow.. from a limb,  to a other limb . 
See below:
https://youtu.be/nda_OSWeyn8
slaw's avatar
slaw
20,526 posts
 
@uberwaltz,

One other thing..... when I was dealing with tinnitus years ago....luckily, mine was more due to impacted wax, I was so distraught because of how much very low bass frequencies hurt me. I was ready to give up listening to music. Just driving in my vehicle on the highway, hurt my ears....driving with the window down, etc.... It was from low frequency noise that humans really don't notice in their daily lives. If we had the hearing that dogs have, most of us would go crazy. All of the seismic vibrations from the earth's crust constantly moving would be....well, I hate to think about it. This is on a different scale but needs to be thought about when trying to isolate or decouple out components.
lewm
12,576 posts
 
Except cones are not really inherently diode-like.  We only wish they were.  They can approximate the action of a diode, if very carefully placed on a resonant shelf, on areas that act like vibratory nodes.  Otherwise, energy can go both ways through a tiptoe cone. To maximize any diode-like function, you have to listen to confined areas on a shelf, best done using a stethoscope while tapping on the shelf; look for small areas that do not transmit the tapping noise as efficiently as do other areas.  There you can place a cone and hope for a diode-like effect.
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
What most of you are saying about orienting the cone tips so they point away from the source makes logical sense to drain the energy...but for whatever reason in my setup they sound better pointing up.  However my arrangement is a little different.  My turntable sits on a BDR The Source platform with BDR cones (pointing up) between my rack and The Source platform.  I have flipped them numerous times and it isn't even close - I lose much dynamic range with tips down on the rack under The Source platform - in fact it sounds downright "thin" as if all the musical goodness got drained away along with the "energy".  
slaw's avatar
slaw
20,526 posts
 
@three_easy_payments,

To me your situation suggests that your (rack, I assume) isn’t effectively decoupled from the floor or surroundings.
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