Feeling Tweaky

Tablejockey, the Gaia’s appear to be working pretrty well under the VPI Classic 2 although I’ve only had them on for one day so far. I played an old Riverside Cannonball Adderly with vibraphonist Milt Hinton album, "Things are Getting Better" last night. The vibes were so well articulated the footers had to be playing a part. I listened to a Sade album too and surprisingly heard a soft male backgound vocal that was buried in the mix. So far It’s been similar, but not as pronounced difference, as placing the footers under the CD player. It’s really to soon to tell though.

My Magico A3 speakers are good at revealing detail, details which the IsoAcoustic feet seem to help deliver to them less encumbered by whatever mess vibration might be adding to the signal. An older Gato Barbieri album on the Flying Dutchman label (before he went commercial) sounded great too with better separation between instruments and more transparent articulation apparent than ever before. If it wasn’t such a pain to get these footers installed I’d try some A/B testing with and without them to be sure. Please share your experience once you get yours. Thanks.

I also have my Classic 2 and CD player on a left-over 24" x 40" floating slab of marble, which does show off the VPI same as yours. It’s a nice touch and got the unused slab out of the storeroom where it sat for almost thirty years unused.

Geoff, too late now.

Millercarbon, I’ll be seeing how well these tweaks add up as you indicate they will, which does make sense from my limited experience so far. As this point I’m trying to prioritize which are the most productive. It’s a fun project to try and maximize what your components are capable of doing. I think I’ll try to put together a list of the myriad tweaks and see if I can get a consensus on what ones people agree on are the most effective, or the opposite.

You would think there might be limits to what you might accomplish in an additive fashion. For instance a lot of tweaks mention they widen the sound-stage. If they all worked you’d think the sound-stage would extend from one end of the house to another. The IsoAcoustic footers have so far helped define the placement of elements within the sound stage which seems a more realistic, but still amazing, accomplishment.

One other thing if you don’t mind my asking, since you’ve achieved good results, how many tweaks have you incorporated to get to where you are now? And do you have any more in mind to try? Thanks,

Mike

Oregonpapa. hopefully by making the right choices in tweaks, that will turn out to be true, before the bank account runs dry anyway.

SGordon1, I hear you, and what are HFT’s.

Geoff, what was your last tweak and which tweaks have you found to be most effective in your system. Hold that carrot out in front of me.

Mike

This oughta be good. 

Or would be, if he would answer straight instead of cracking some lame joke. OP apparently hasn't read many of his 22k posts. Let me break it to you: he has no tweaks, because he has no system.

Millercarbon, I’ll be seeing how well these tweaks add up as you indicate they will, which does make sense from my limited experience so far. As this point I’m trying to prioritize which are the most productive. It’s a fun project to try and maximize what your components are capable of doing. I think I’ll try to put together a list of the myriad tweaks and see if I can get a consensus on what ones people agree on are the most effective, or the opposite.

There is no consensus, except among those of us who have tried certain things. My all time favorite most universal value leader is BDR Cones. DIY acoustic panels of OC703 is right up there, but you quickly limit out on that. Next would be fo.Q tape. With that you will not hit the wall until you've done a couple sheets on your turntable and speakers. Then after that comes a whole long list from Synergistic that are all very similar in terms of sound improvement value per dollar- HFT, ECT, PHT, Fuses.

You would think there might be limits to what you might accomplish in an additive fashion.

Of course there are limits. But they are a lot further out than you would think.

For instance a lot of tweaks mention they widen the sound-stage. If they all worked you’d think the sound-stage would extend from one end of the house to another.

Good one. Okay so what happens, the greatest extent of the sound stage is the walls of the recording venue. This could be anything from an accurately miked symphony hall to a singer in a recording booth. Whatever it is, its on the recording, and so its what you should hear. The walls of course don't make any sound. They do however reflect back, and that acoustic signature is what provides our sense of the space we are in. So its not that the individual instruments expand farther apart, or even that it sounds like they are in a bigger space. They may after all be in a recording booth- a tiny little space. But when the system gets better our sense of that space - whatever it is - is stronger, and in that sense the sound stage is bigger. 

That's the mostly high frequency aspect of it. There's also the low end. This is where it gets really good. Because of the physics of sound, really low frequencies have really long wavelengths, these just don't naturally happen anywhere but really big spaces. Think of the rumble of thunder. You hear that, you don't need to look, you can judge by the sound alone it was very far away. 

Well okay. So when you are able to accurately reproduce such low frequency bass it creates the unmistakable sensation of being in that large space. This ultra-low frequency fidelity goes hand in hand with the high frequency detail and together is what creates the other worldly sensation of being on the scene. There. No longer in your room.

One other thing if you don’t mind my asking, since you’ve achieved good results, how many tweaks have you incorporated to get to where you are now?

All of them. And more.

Millercarbon, thanks for the explanations and taking the time to write and post them. I still have to research the many tweaks you mentioned in your earlier reply, not to mention decipher the acronyms you and others have been mentioning. Hopefully I'll get on that tonight and tomorrow. I am learning things,  which  has been an ongoing project since reentering the audio equipment world.

Mike