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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
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
It's good to have a week at home to experiment although the reason for it not so good ... Lol.
So the Cocobolo pen stock worked out really well under the zx7 tape deck.
What I find interesting here is that both tape decks ( Cassette and r2r) appeared to benefit from the exotic wood stock.
Both exhibited similar apparent gain in volume and depth of bass with better dynamics all round.
No idea what that is telling me at all.
slaw's avatar
slaw
21,017 posts
 
@uberwaltz,

I had an idea a while back I thought about trying, just thought I'd share. If you have a high quality wood store/shop in your area, have them shape a half circle piece of (moulding)(flat on the other side) a little larger than the wooded dowel you'll place in it. These pieces would be about 2" long. The dowel should be of smaller diameter than the channel cut into the "moulding" for movement. I suspect this would sound even better than just blanks. It would be an inexpensive enough project to try anyway.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Interesting Slaw.

More food for thought.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Just one Mpingo disc in the room will change your whole way of looking at wood and looking at the world. And get this. The Mpingo disc is only 1 1/2” in diameter. Hel-loo! Imagine my embarrassment when I was with Mapleshade at the show in 1997 with Mapleshade and the Mpingo disc I had knocked off was sitting right there on the floor in plain view near the speakers where Pierre put it when who should come walking through the door but the two dudes from Shun Mook. Knocking off the Mpingo disc is no easy chore, don’t try this at home kids, stay in school, for a number of reasons, including but not limited to the fact it’s directional in the azimuthal direction as well as top to bottom.
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