Cones/Bearings for CD player

Sam: I do not yet have it installed, but the plan is to use the stock feet on my equipment resting directly on the shelf. Each shelf will be supported by four upturned brass spikes. This setup seems to follow the the basic advice given at Ken's website, though there are probably many ways to do it. You are familiar with my rack (the Studio Tech, think it's the PA-04) but I have had the rack mig welded into a one piece frame, so that it is no longer a bolt together unit.

Hi Megasam, I also have the Neuance. I use a Manna rack that has 4 adjustable spikes that the Neuance sits on. I was so impressed with this set up that I am going to order one for every component. I use the existing feet that are on my CD player. I have not gone back to the different footers because I am very happy the way it is. I will try different footers in the future to see if there are further benefits.

Just to clarify about "coupling" component body to nueance shelf, I am not asking about removing stock feet, but Symposium shelfs/platforms supply small blocks of solid metal called "couplers" to bypass stock feet and directly
connect/couple component body to metal surface layer of shelf.

Everyone seems to love their nueance shelfs with stock footers, it is amazing that they can work so well given the wide range of different designs/materials used for stock component feet. Although it sure makes life easier, listen to the music and forget about support/footer tweaks.

I have a EAD TheaterVision P DVD Player that I use for cd playback. I happen to like to use a trio of 1" AudioPoints under the unit w/points facing up rather than down (points facing down added a hard character to the sound). With 2 cones up front and one in the rear I heard a very nice upgrade in sound, not to mention a lower noise floor. Check out: www.audiopoint.com

Good point, Sam. I liked the N-shelf under my CDP and would have tried 3rd party footers/cones with it, but I was simply tired of the fussing, and simplicity became a very attractive value to me. The shelf is not under my CDP now but under my TT. Also, if my CDP had more compliant stock feet, I'd be more motivated to try a better coupler between it and the shelf. That said, I am using the tall stock rubber feet of my Planar 3 with the shelf, since they're not just chunks of rubber but have a particular design. But sometime, for kicks, I'll try some other feet. I see the design of the shelf as more successfully following a "first, do no wrong" (i.e., don't add anything to the sound) approach than some other devices, so it's plausible that it could work with a wide variety of stock footers. Perhaps I'll locate the mother of all isolation/footer threads and put some additional shelf comments there. Oh, the shelf directly contacts my metal rack.