Nobsound springs - load range

Millercarbon is right...

in my case for eaxample,because of the structure and particular resonance of the box speakers for example, the right amount of load damping must be fine tuned BY EARS, like the springs compressive force applied by the weight load on the springs themselves...

They are in my case then , an optimal weight load of concrete around 80 pounds over my speakers, which must be tuned BY EARS in an optimization process  in relation with the speakers densities and resonant geometry and  also in relation to the precise compressive force which could be optimally applied to damp the resonance of the speakers and not only isolate from the the external vibrations...

This fine tuning is an incremental process of listening experiments distributed on a week....I first fine tuned for  the  optimal load of  concrete for the speaker box without springs...

After that adding the springs under the speakers i ADDED some "light " load playing in an optimization process near around 20gram toward 100 grams...

Thanks for the ideas for dampening the Nobsound springs, this works great. The PTFE tape (wrapped around each spring) did not have much effect in my case (However, I tried it only on my DAC).

The dampening with the ear plugs however does magic, the effect for the money can hardly be beaten (I used the ones from 3M, 30 pairs for 10 EUR). It had similar effects on my mono blocks and on my DAC (a little less). The effect (compared to undampened Nobsound springs) is: Foremost, I get a blacker background, there is more air around instruments. Bass gets clearer and more structured, and soundstage gets deeper. In total, music gets more emotional.

I also tried another tweak: Since the springs did make some audible noise when you compress them (metal of the spring scratching against the bore in the aluminum block), I lubricated the bores with PTFE spray. This improved the Nobsounds quite a bit further.

In a thread *** Specifically *** to discuss  Nobsound Audio products the usual suspect starts **** Pedalling **** a competitors product 🙄

All the calculations are a waste of time.

I always get cautious when hearing such dogmatic statements. I would rather consider starting in the dark and doing erratic trial and error on all possible permutations of changes to different variables of a system a waste of time.

I prefer to have at least a basic understanding (or sometimes a hint or theory, e.g. 50% compression for the springs) of the variables and dependencies of a system and how they probably work. It is always good to derive a starting point and some hints/directions for experiments. This saves time in my opinion. And yes, the fine tuning and verification needs to be done by ear. The learnings should then be used to adapt the theory (maybe it's then 75% compression or even different compression for different components or something totally different). This can at least help others for their systems.

Only repeating statements like "the only way is by hearing" renders this forum useless.

Right folks, a little update on the Nobsound experiment under the DAC. This one is a lot trickier as the component is rather lightweight at 15 lbs. I started with 3 footers with 1 spring in each, all in direct contact with the chassis. The springs aren’t compressed enough and the sound got worse. So I did the unimaginable. Guess what, I am now on 2 footers with 1 spring in each. One would think how the component would be stable under 2 footers. In reality it isn’t but the set up is unique since the power cord(which is a very stiff cable) is lending some pull to the DAC which keeps the stability intact. The component is in a near perfect horizontal plane although there’s only 2 footers below it.

Even with 2 footers @ 1 spring each, the gap is rather high at ~7mm (50% compression). This is the maximum compression that can be achieved as it’s impossible to support the component with 1 footer.

Very interesting observations with some very positive results but I still need more time to determine if the 2nd set of Nobsounds will get to stay with the DAC on a long term basis. The Nobsounds are currently up against Finite Elemente Spider footers which use ceramic balls as a form of isolation. So far I would say there’s a difference between the two but will see if it’s significant enough to swap the FEs out for the Nobsounds. I could live with either as the sound quality is already great with either one. More reports later.

Before I wrap up, I have to say that the addition of the Nobsounds to each component in the system has added something to the sound. If I could find the simplest way to describe it, I would say the Nobsounds make music sound more analog. Less digital. They add more body to the sound which makes music sound fuller. If the set up is done correctly, you get this improvement without losing dynamics and bass weight. Otherwise, the sound will get soft and mushy, sounding lean, thin and 2 dimensional with reduced bass response.