2. analog
  3. 150881-90127

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
toetapaudio
474 posts
 
For those unfamiliar with Barry Diaments findings on seismic isolation control, this is would be worth reading

http://www.barrydiamentaudio.com/vibration.htm
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geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
It’s like looking in the mirror. Barry is the man! But for Led Zeppelin CDs I somewhat prefer George Marino, who remastered the Led Zeppelin Remasters Box set of 1990, which apparently used the original master tapes, at least as far as I know. As fate would have it, I heard some of the Led Zeppelin 1990 Remasters on a BSOTA (that’s Beyond State of the Art) system Saturday. If you could hear what I heard with my ears.

By the way, don’t fall into the trap of trying to figure out if something falls into the Tuning category or vibration control. It’s not that simple. Michael Green uses springs yet calls them “tuning.” He is a staunch anti isolation kind of guy. See the irony? But I digress. Wood is a know resonator, you know, like Mpingo discs, so I would put wood squarely in the VIBRATION CONTROL category. The only good vibration is a dead vibration. 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
The Nirvana Isolation Platform, Special order only. Dual heavy mass-on-spring layers. Three granite, bluestone or slate slabs, each heavy slab separated by a number of springs. The number of springs of each layer varies along with the load. The lower set of springs obviously must support more weight than the upper set. The lowest slab is supported by SUPER DH Cones and the component on the topmost slab is also supported by SUPER DH Cones. This dual layer platform provides two stages of isolation for the component. The trick is keeping the resonant frequencies Fr of the two iso systems sufficiently separated so they won’t interfere with each other. That would be a very bumpy ride if they did.

No, I do not ship granite, bluestone or slate slabs. 😛

Thought for the day - LIGO was able to detect gravity waves by using isolation not tuning.
boxer12
8,656 posts
 
I have good results with DH Jumbo Cones under my speaker stands (points down) & Isoacoustic pucks between the speakers & the stands. Always looking for improvements, but this combination works well so far. The speakers are Wilson Cubs & the stands are Sound Anchors. FWIW the combination of speaker & stand is 150 lbs. I’ve tried the cones in both directions & there is no contest. I’ve also tried various spikes under the stands. Again, the DH cones win. BTW, the stands sit on a slate/cement floor. Just saw a mouse run out from behind the rig... gotta go, crap.
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