Isolation devices and CDPs

Starsound sistrum 101 = Pure musical enjoyment-Dennis

I use U.S. Amperex 7308s. I've tube rolled about 15 brands including other 7DJ8s, Valvo, Telefunken, Mullards, etc. and found most Amperex gold pin and 7308s sounded best overall in dynamics and tonal balance. Siemens is the one top brand I haven't tried. Telefunkens sounded too harmonically thin and the Valvos too lush and soft. Mullards were also too lush. I forgot which ones were mushy and rolled off but the Amperexes were best. The stock tubes just don't make it though and I had a pair of older Tungsrams that were before I tried the Amperex and they were quite nice as well but too microphonic.

Tbg - You are right on target regarding Halcyonics. Hands down best platform I've ever seen. I too wish I could have more of them. Sadly they aren't cheap and have been made even more expensive because of the relationship of the dollar to the euro.

By the way, the original poster asked about a cdp with tubes. If you are addressing isolation/damping, the tubes need to be treated as well. Herbie makes devices that I recommend you try out on any tubes in your system. There are many tube dampers on the market and each may have it's own characteristics. I don't use tubes anymore, myself, but if I did I would experiment to see which dampers would tune your system to your liking.

Willster, I had been using Herbies on the tubes on my Reimyo PAT-777. After putting it on a Halcyonics, I found removing the Herbies on the WE310s were now hurting the sound. I had the same thing happen within my tube output cd players when they were on the Halcyonics. I guess what is going on is that the Halcyonic is removing some of the internal vibrations, negating the benefits of the dampeners.

Hi Tbg (Norm), very interesting insights and no doubt correct. When the cost of the isolation approaches or exceeds the cost of the components, though... :-)

Curious if you've had the opportunity to try any of the SK Research shelves and blocks. They're out of Austin.

Hope to see you at CES.

Brian