Confessions of an Audiophile Junky-I Got Center Stage With Pitch Perfect Sound

Steve Williams said:

Hi Peter

The feet are totally neutral

Perhaps what I should have said was that 3 sound good but the magic is with four. They are totally neutral.

As for the 1.5 the answer to your question is unequivocally yes BUT they were designed specifically for large SS amps as well as tube Amps allowing for adequate ventilation. Because they are designed for these amps sitting between speakers they are subject to more vibration from the speakers. Hence they were designed differently. When I put the 1.5 under my amps and power supplies there was instant noticeable improvement with little or no sonic degradation.

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Thanks Steve. Fascinating stuff. Congratulations again on the success of the Center Stage Footers.

Most of the feedback has been regarding classical recordings (I believe). Any experience with acoustic folk, rock, jazz?

ptman said:

Most of the feedback has been regarding classical recordings (I believe). Any experience with acoustic folk, rock, jazz?

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Two recordings that IMHO strongly benefited from the footers were Jorma Kaukonen – Blue Country Heart and Chico Buarque - Opera do Malandro. Both recordings are very rich with several instruments, and the energy and focusing of the footers gave them more believability - instruments seem to have better "illumination".

If you enjoy ECM recordings you will probably be pleased with the footers.

ptman said:

Most of the feedback has been regarding classical recordings (I believe). Any experience with acoustic folk, rock, jazz?

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I made some notes on some recordings which gave me the most significant improvements with the CS Footers. And these are the recordings that while listening with my eyes closed, I had to open my eyes to 'see' to believe. These vinyl recordings now sound more incredible than ever in my system.

Patricia Barber - Original Black Label Premonition Records LP. Side 1 cut 2 Nardis. The stage has really expanded and the drum whacks are very fast, detailed and tight. The sound stage has gotten out of the front plane of the speakers and it is like imagining a satellite picture of a hurricane.

Bob & Ray Throw a Stereo Spectacular - Original RCA Living Stereo LP. The 'Buck Dance' cut is so lifelike, and the foot tapping now can be 'seen' in front of the speakers, near the floor. The super killer is Side 2 cut 3 'Song of the Volga Boatman', where the liner notes says 'expanded from here to there for stereo! My feelings after listening to this with the CS Footers is, you can say that again a hundred times! The band is now so large that I cannot believe that they are playing in my medium sized room. The horn section was blaring away and while there is bite, there is no glare nor hardness from the instruments. And the music, while so complex for a big band rendition, stays so much in focus, not just individually, but as a total mass or air of music floating in the stage, and this is one time I can truly say, that I've got the best seat in the house.

Imo, the footers excel in large scale music, where many players are involved. Acoustic solos, guitars, violin trios, vocals and guitars are less dramatic, but that is not to say there aren't any improvements. The tonal quality improvements are actually quite evident in small ensembles, the piano particularly stands out in timbre, even in medium to soft volumes.

microstrip said:

- instruments seem to have better "illumination".

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This is the word I have been looking for. Some People might interpret the meaning negatively but I think it can be used to describe the sound positively effective. Thanks Micro.

Kindest regards,
Tang

I hope it is okay to add a bit more background on the new 1.5 foot. Most of the following is from the white paper.

The Law of Inverse Squares states that wave amplitude is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the actuator. This means that there is an exponential increase in vibration as components come closer to the loudspeakers. So, I was looking for a way to help amps in general and, while at it, I thought I would try to do more for tube and "hotter-running" solid state amps that could benefit from increased ventilation.

To mitigate the negative effects of proximity-related vibration and to improve ventilation, the height of the foot was increased to 1.5”. This resulted in the diameter of the foot increasing to 2”. Internally, precise changes were made to accommodate the increased mass of the foot. In the end we were able to produce a new Center Stage foot that performs better than the standard feet (logically, it must).

The Center Stage 1.5 is designed to be more effective for amplifiers set up in close proximity to loudspeakers and is especially helpful for tube and class A solid state amplifiers.

The only thing I’m not totally clear on is the issue of degradation. Steve and I both inserted the new Center Stage 1.5 under components that had already settled onto the 0.8 and 1.0 versions of the foot. I agree there was virtually no degradation, but I’m not sure that Steve and I are the best predictors of degradation in a “new” installation. So, any future feedback on this point would be appreciated.

All the Best,

Joe

Steve: The description on your website of the size of the Center Stage is, I believe, incorrect - unless they are 18 inches tall. It says (see attached) "1.5 feet" and my guess is "1.5 inches".

This is a bit like the Spinal Tap scene with the misread dimensions for on-stage Stonehenge prop.
That one didn’t end well (hilarious, though).

After I got back from the AXPONA show I asked Steve Williams if I could come over and have a listen to his system again...but this time with his system having all the CS footers in which I have not heard before and he welcomed me over. Saturday, I went for a listen. I will post what I heard at Steve's on his thread a little later.
What I was really excited about after hearing his system again and the pretty dramatic difference than what I have heard before, was that Steve was so gracious to send me home with 20 CS footers for me to experience for myself After all the post I have read on these and about the super long settling period and the loss of sound quality during this time I must say my results so far have been quite different the first night.

The system I am trying the footers with first are the Von Schweikert E-5 tower speakers and Audio Alchemy's 200 watt monos,dac,media server,pre and external power supply. MasterBuilt Signature speaker cables, Reference USB, Interconnects, and power cords. The rack is just a cheap 4 tier wood rack.








When I got home Saturday early evening I immediately put the footers in. Putting music on immediately had a severe impact on the bass. It was loose and all over the place and the mid and treble were also all over the place. I continued to listen for the next hour and heard the system transform. It was shocking to hear the bass go from completely uncontrolled to within an hour FAR surpass the bass before the footers went in. What the hell? Why am I having such huge improvements within the first hour? Not only did the bass blow me away now the mid and treble are way more focused, and the sound stage is even bigger than ever. From everything that I have read this is not supposed to be happening. My wife just got home, and I immediately had her come over and gave up my seat for her to listen. My wife is not an audiophile but just a plain and simple music lover. I asked her what she was hearing. The first word out of her mouth was what did you do. She said the sound was immersive lol. This is not a word I would ever expect her to say and I found it very funny since this word has been used quite a bit in the description of what these footers do.

I listened for a few hours with my wife to music we are both so familiar with. The sound stage was extending so far past the right and left speakers and crept up beside us. It was quite haunting. And then play something with Q-sound like Roger Waters (holy ****!!) This system has always had a far right and left of speaker’s sound stage, but this was ridiculous. Instruments had a focus and clarity that I have not heard from this system before. In fact, the footers were a greater sonic improvement than me swapping out the Alchemy amps for a $27,000 amplifier. I think the footers I have right now are roughly around the $6,000 retail. $27,000 vs. $6,000 lol. Talk about a no brainer. But the footers are going to go under the $27k amp next We left all the electronics on with no volume and went to bed.

First thing Sunday morning I plopped myself down for a listen and the system had changed quite a bit from the night before. The overall tonality was fine, but the sound stage was now trapped between the right and left speakers. After a few songs I said screw this and we let the system play at a moderate volume for several hours while we spent the day on the lake. When we got back I took a quick listen and it didn’t seem to sound any different than it did in the morning. I turned the volume down and did not return until the next night after work. Of course, all day at work running through the back of my mind I’m trying to grasp what the hell is happening. How could the sound get so good on the first night of having these footers in and on day 2 a total collapse of sound stage.

When I got home from work Monday night we were now right at the 48-hour mark of the footers in play. I was extremely excited that the sound stage was back above the norm like the first night the footers went in. Something still wasn’t quite right though and I’m not even going to begin to describe it. I listened for a while using all the same songs I used the previous listening sessions. Even though something wasn’t quite it still had qualities that exceeded not having the footers. I left the gear on overnight and didn’t return until Tuesday night after work.

While I was at work I had talked to my wife a couple of times that day to see if she was hearing any changes to the system and she seemed excited with what she was hearing which made my anticipation go up and seemed to make the day go slower. By the time I got home the system had changed for the worst. Now the highs were way out in front and the deep bass nonexistent. I listened to a few minutes of a couple songs and couldn’t get in to it. For the next several days I could here the system go all over the place. Pretty much not fun to listen to at all.

After 11 days of having the footers in the system took a major change. The deep bass is back and more powerful than ever. The sound stage has returned like the night the footers went in for the first time. What is scary is I have a feeling they are still going to get even better. This is a major upgrade to a system and I look forward to hearing what happens with some more time on these

It sounds as if I'm listening to $150k system. How the hell is this possible? Joe you are a genius! Hurry up with the other footers would ya lol

Leif S said:

It sounds as if I'm listening to $150k system. How the hell is this possible? Joe you are a genius! Hurry up with the other footers would ya lol

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You made my day. too funny. Loudspeaker feet coming.

joelavrencik said:

You made my day. too funny. Loudspeaker feet coming.

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Very excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even though the show canceled maybe you should still send the Maxxum's!

All my main system (except speakers) is now supported with Center Stage footers, when I got the Lamm L2 preamplfier a spare quad set of footers immediately went under the preamplifier. I let the system burn-in for one hour - the time to play the Purist Audio CD-enhancer - and then listened. The SoundLab A1 Px's with the Lamm's sounded superb. More detail and an extremely controlled bass - the opening bars of Shostakovitch 8th (Decca digital, Haitink) , had an authority I never experienced with SoundLab's. The orchestra had a lovely timbre, the music waved along the orchestra and when needed impact blazed the whole room coming from a well defined position. My usual tracks of vocal music were sounding extremely natural due to the voices having each a more characteristic sound of itself and becoming easier to identify. Even a track of portuguese music with a few seconds of a voice that I know pretty well was more familiar. The Lamm's were immediately promoted!

I talked about it with a friend (who loves the SoundLabs but prefers the XLF's...) next day and the following day he came to listen. However, he just come in down moment of burn-in. The bass was bloated, and although the sound was very detailed it lacked energy enough to build a coherent stage. To entertain ourselves we changed cables - even Mogami's were tried - but no hope. So a firm decision was taken - no more reports until the system settles!

I have been listening since then, changes were becoming very noticeable. Unfortunately burn-in had to be interrupted by logistic reasons for two days and will now be re-started with another set under the preamplfier power supply. Meanwhile some analog goodies appeared and I got some new toys to entertain myself this weekend ... I also ordered some new 1.5 footers - I was very happy to read they seem to be less capricious considering burn-in than the previous version.

I have reported a similar behavior with Audio Research electronics - they sounded good for the first hours, than sound quality decreased to a bottom and started ameliorating with a regular slope till they reached their best. But the Center Stage footers seem to have a much more complex and dramatic burn-in behavior. Damned entropy ...

Leif S said:

Even though the show canceled maybe you should still send the Maxxum's!

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Hey, that was for me! ;-)

Steve Williams said:

Some thoughts about the CS 1.5

With these new feet having been recently released with a specific function in mind, specifically to be used under either large solid state Class A amps or large tube amps laced between speakers and are therefore susceptible to air borne vibrations from the speakers as well as the need for adequate ventilation, I have gotten a lot of feed back from the initial users. Those who have used these under their amps as recommended have all reported to me either no sonic degradation or very minimal degradation in the deep bass which seems to resolve quickly over the first day of use. Personally I found exactly the same result when I replaced 16 of the 1.0's under my amp and power supplies with 16 of the new 1.5 CS feet. These feet IMHO do indeed function to a level that exceeds that of the 0.8 and the 1.0 when used for the desired function


Having said that I have gotten feedback from several members who are using the 1.5 under different components. One in particular I found interesting and would like to share his comments. He has been using a set of CS 1.5 under his preamplifier which is not unusually heavy BUT it is sitting between his speakers and equally important was the fact that the stock feet of his preamp were almost 1.5" tall.

Just wanted to drop a quick line on the CS 1.5 footers. I received them on Thursday and installed them immediately as I was anxious to hear if these were any different from the CS 0.8 and 1.0 that I previously ordered. While initially (for less than one hour), the soundstage blossomed in all directions and sounded marvelous, the sound thereafter contracted to exist only between the speakers. As I further ran them in, the sound started to become more strident and in your face. Yesterday, Day 2, the sound further deteriorated, now becoming more recessed and the soundstage becoming more two dimensional and lacking body and diminished harmonic overtones. I had to stop listening, it became so bad. Having previously gone through this with the other CS footers, although not as dramatically as this, I know I need to be patient and hope that the magic I initially heard from these footers returns in one to two weeks.

Two days later he stated, 'It's starting to improve a bit"

And by day 7, "Now we're cookin' at day 7; all is right and the smile has returned to my face as I listen to the music "

The point I am trying to convey is that the CS 1.5 works quite well sitting under an 80 lb preamp on an HRS rack between his speakers HOWEVER what I cannot understand is the rapid settle in when the 1.5 is placed under large amps as recommended as compared to the standard one week settle in when used under other devices such as an 80 lb preamp with large stock feet.

What I also want to remind members about is that the 0.8 and 1.0 feet are superb in the functions for which they also were designed. I say this as I am flooded with members asking the same question, "if the 1.0 and 0.8 are superb in their function, can the 1.5 used under the same components be better. My answer is that when used for their specific designed functions the 0.8 and 1.0 are wonderful. As the saying goes, you can kill a fly with a hammer when all you need is a fly swatter.

I bring this information forward as the necessity to use the 1.5 by this member was dictated by several facts, but the main one being that his stock feet on the preamp were almost 1.5". The result was excellent but the settle in took one week

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Interesting report, Steve.
I wonder if heat has anything to do with the results. Usually a large tube amp or ss amp gives off far more heat than a preamp...even a large and heavy one like you mentioned. Perhaps heat has to do with the immediate settling process that you report with the larger footer under the amps?