Greetings, What's Best afficionados. Just thought I'd start a new thread on the recent changes I've made to racks/supports/isolation. An overview to begin, and happy to answer any qs.
Always had great results improving power in my system, culminating in current 4kVA balanced power and Entreq Silver Tellus grounding (see my Entreq thread in 'general audio discussions'), but less clear cut results with racks, even after auditioning HRS and Grand Prix Monaco. However I picked up a used 3 tier Symposium Acoustics Isis rack with upgraded Ultra shelves, and a couple of Svelte Shelves for under spkr duties, and finally started to "get" the advantages of isolation.
The system works on the principle of alternate layers of stainless steel and absorbent foam to disrupt vibrations, and Rollerblock modules (ball bearings in magnetic cups), both BETWEEN shelves in the rack to isolate individual components from each other, and the floor, and UNDER individual components to isolate each shelf from the effects of component-borne vibrations. Rollerblocks btwn shelves I'm using, but not those under components just yet, except for four under the corners of the bases of each spkr.
So, the sound. Well initially a little disconcerting - a reduction in haze and grunge, but a seeming thinning in bass, mostly attenuated by the modules under the spkrs. I find these aspects of upgrades so hard to work out if an advantage, since warmth always seems to go missing.
48hrs later, and the sound clicks into place - what appears to be bass MIA is in effect euphonic bloom gone. Now I'm aware of fretwork, and the leading edge of bass notes finally clearly delineated, but with full harmonic decay, hence the true warmth of the bass end finally revealed with much reduced cloying.
Such an interesting result, and complementing my recent Entreq grounding to really reveal the true musical message.
My next port of call is to place Rollerblocks under each component to take passive Symposium isolation to it's logical extreme.
My desire to go down the Stillpoints Ultra 5s route is gone now. Luckily since a full system complement would be over 3x the cost of Symposium.
Mark me down as a convert to effective isolation.
Always had great results improving power in my system, culminating in current 4kVA balanced power and Entreq Silver Tellus grounding (see my Entreq thread in 'general audio discussions'), but less clear cut results with racks, even after auditioning HRS and Grand Prix Monaco. However I picked up a used 3 tier Symposium Acoustics Isis rack with upgraded Ultra shelves, and a couple of Svelte Shelves for under spkr duties, and finally started to "get" the advantages of isolation.
The system works on the principle of alternate layers of stainless steel and absorbent foam to disrupt vibrations, and Rollerblock modules (ball bearings in magnetic cups), both BETWEEN shelves in the rack to isolate individual components from each other, and the floor, and UNDER individual components to isolate each shelf from the effects of component-borne vibrations. Rollerblocks btwn shelves I'm using, but not those under components just yet, except for four under the corners of the bases of each spkr.
So, the sound. Well initially a little disconcerting - a reduction in haze and grunge, but a seeming thinning in bass, mostly attenuated by the modules under the spkrs. I find these aspects of upgrades so hard to work out if an advantage, since warmth always seems to go missing.
48hrs later, and the sound clicks into place - what appears to be bass MIA is in effect euphonic bloom gone. Now I'm aware of fretwork, and the leading edge of bass notes finally clearly delineated, but with full harmonic decay, hence the true warmth of the bass end finally revealed with much reduced cloying.
Such an interesting result, and complementing my recent Entreq grounding to really reveal the true musical message.
My next port of call is to place Rollerblocks under each component to take passive Symposium isolation to it's logical extreme.
My desire to go down the Stillpoints Ultra 5s route is gone now. Luckily since a full system complement would be over 3x the cost of Symposium.
Mark me down as a convert to effective isolation.