Wilson Audio announces The Pedestal isolation pod.

tima

Industry Expert
Mar 3, 2014
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Not for speakers! Here's a bit from the press release:

Wilson Audio Special Application Engineering™ (WASAE) Announces The Pedestal™ Isolation Pod

A Uniquely “Wilson” Approach to Vibration Mitigation

As any physicist knows, no device, no matter how clever or sophisticated, can eliminate energy. It can only convert undesirable energy into a more benign force. This applies to unwanted vibrations that hamper the fidelity of both transducers (such as analog playback devices) and electronics (which are susceptible to vibration-induced microphonics).

With this understanding, Wilson Audio’s Special Application Engineering team has always approached the problem of vibration mitigation from a scientific perspective. When designing its new isolation device, the WASAE team leveraged Wilson’s industry-leading measurement capabilities, which have evolved continuously from their perennial quest for the best solutions for ultra-low resonance speaker enclosures. The Pedestal reduces musically destructive vibrations systematically. Its small bottom element partially absorbs vibrations traveling from the surface underneath the piece of equipment. Next, energy migrates into the Pedestal’s austenitic (non-magnetic) stainless-steel housing, where the material’s mass and solidity further turn unwanted energy into heat. Where other manufacturers use low-grade magnetic steel in their isolation pods, Wilson is committed to metals that have superior vibration-mitigating characteristics as well as the ability to minimize electronic interactions of the components which the Pedestals support.

The damping material inside of the Pedestal—“V-Material”—provides the next step in vibration reduction. V-Material, along with a proprietary viscous damping material inside the Pedestal, act as a spring to minimize, absorb, and dissipate the vibrations into heat.

When weight is applied to the Pedestal, the internal V-Material element, along with the other critical elements within the housing, are decoupled from the stainless steel exterior.

From the reverse direction, from the component on down, any vibrations caused by environmental factors or from the audio system itself, travel into the top pad of the Pedestal, where they are reduced. From there, any remaining vibrations are guided directly to the V-Material where they are effectively absorbed
and dissipated as heat.

Low-frequency, high-amplitude vibrations, such as those generated by footfalls, are reduced via the spring-like action of the V-Material and damping material combination. "

Pedestal Trio.jpg

Edit:
Pedestal Set (three): $2225 US msrp
Single: $775
 
Last edited:

XV-1

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May 24, 2010
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Does it need 14 days to sound good? :p
 

spiritofmusic

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Here we go, 3-4x the price of the competition.
 
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Maril555

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Piece of SS with some elastic material- $775???
That's a new one.
Is there ever going to be a ceiling to the insanity
 

spiritofmusic

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I guess they thought this would be a little offering in these Covid-threatening times...you know, a single footer for $800. What could be more generous and altruistic in this age of unknown austerity?
 
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Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
...how does this price compare to the CMS footers?

Center Stage is sold in sets of4 as that is how they were designed.The Wilson uses 3 per set

These look about the size of the CS 0.8 or the 1.0" so MSRP is way higher than the CS footers

0.8" is $960 per set
1.0's are $1680 per set

The 1.5's which are much taller and heavier than the Wilson are $2780 per set

And for the record the CS version 2 settle in, in 3-7 days not 14
 
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Elliot G.

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My Kudos to the person or persons that wrote the press release. It is SO masterfully High End Audio.
 

Bar81

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So basically a press release that serves no other purpose than to "explain" the magical properties justifying the magical MSRP.

Uniquely Wilson indeed!
 

PeterA

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Piece of SS with some elastic material- $775???
That's a new one.
Is there ever going to be a ceiling to the insanity

I just did some calculations:

I read that each pedestal can support up to 25 lbs, so a set of three for a 75 lb component. Add more units for heavier components, so for the large D'Agostino or Pass amps which seem popular with Wilson speakers and weigh about 150 lbs each, one would need two sets, six total per monoblock or $4,500 per side, $9,000 per pair of amps, and double that for the Pass Labs XS150 or XS300 four box chassis to $18,000. Almost as much as speaker cables.

I suspect a speaker footer will soon follow for existing Wilson owners to retrofit. Magico did this with their speaker footers. I would be curious for a direct comparison with the CS2 1.5s. Calling Bonzo....
 
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Maril555

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I just did some calculations:

I read that each pedestal can support up to 25 lbs, so a set of three for a 75 lb component. Add more units for heavier components, so for the large D'Agostino or Pass amps which seem popular with Wilson speakers and weigh about 150 lbs each, one would need two sets, six total per monoblock or $4,500 per side, $9,000 per pair of amps, and double that for the Pass Labs XS150 or XS300 four box chassis to $18,000. Almost as much as speaker cables.

I suspect a speaker footer will soon follow for existing Wilson owners to retrofit. Magico did this with their speaker footers. I would be curious for a direct comparison with the CS2 1.5s. Calling Bonzo....

At least Stillpoints Ultra 5 offers some real engineering and complexity of construction for about the same $$.
I use them under my speakers.
But these Wilson’s don’t seem to be neither complex, nor innovative.
Just some BS marketing language.
 
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LL21

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I just did some calculations:

I read that each pedestal can support up to 25 lbs, so a set of three for a 75 lb component. Add more units for heavier components, so for the large D'Agostino or Pass amps which seem popular with Wilson speakers and weigh about 150 lbs each, one would need two sets, six total per monoblock or $4,500 per side, $9,000 per pair of amps, and double that for the Pass Labs XS150 or XS300 four box chassis to $18,000. Almost as much as speaker cables.

I suspect a speaker footer will soon follow for existing Wilson owners to retrofit. Magico did this with their speaker footers. I would be curious for a direct comparison with the CS2 1.5s. Calling Bonzo....

And then there is the complication of a 150 lb amp...and trying to get the unit to actually sit and apply proper pressure to SIX footers under the component! Most of us have strained, breaking our backs, craning our neck, holding up one corner of a component, leaning on our elbow for leverage, trying to get it sit on something, or get the spike onto the disc, or slide backwards just a touch...can you IMAGINE 6 footers and 150lbs?
 
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MikeHorns

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Not to worry.

They'll soon introduce the 50 pounders at double the price for easier weight balance of your high-end components, 100 pounders for your speaker load distribution.
 

TLi

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May 27, 2016
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At least Stillpoints Ultra 5 offers some real engineering and complexity of construction for about the same $$.
I use them under my speakers.
But these Wilson’s don’t seem to be neither complex, nor innovative.
Just some BS marketing language.

I have a lot of Stillpoints SS, Ultra5 and Ultra 6 in my system. They are different from CMS Centerstage, Wilson Audio Pedestal or Magico QPods. Stillpoints is ball bearing design, that means it changes the direction of vibration. Vibration is in 3D, Stillpoints restricts vertical plane and only allow vibration horizontally, by reducing the degree of freedom and the damage of vibration is attenuated.

The other footers from CMS, WA and Magico use layers of different materials to damp and absorb the vibration. There is a layer of thermoplastic material to further damp any movement in 3D. The sound is different. Ball bearing footers tend to give sharper image and stronger sound. Thermoplastic material is softer and mellow.

Often the best sound is achieved with a combination of both. I have Magico QPods in my DAC and Stillpoints SS in upsampler.
 

tima

Industry Expert
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My Kudos to the person or persons that wrote the press release. It is SO masterfully High End Audio.

Chuckle. And many of the responses in this thread are SO High End Audio forum. So there we have it. :)

I'm pretty sure the author is John Giolas, long time Wilson VP and Director of Marketing. All the Wilson speaker press releases I"ve read were written by him. He is also the author of The Wilson Way, the official history of the company from start-up through its transition to son Darryl. Imho, John is a superb writer, one of the very best in audio and Wilson is fortunate to have him.
 

JackD201

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I have a lot of Stillpoints SS, Ultra5 and Ultra 6 in my system. They are different from CMS Centerstage, Wilson Audio Pedestal or Magico QPods. Stillpoints is ball bearing design, that means it changes the direction of vibration. Vibration is in 3D, Stillpoints restricts vertical plane and only allow vibration horizontally, by reducing the degree of freedom and the damage of vibration is attenuated.

The other footers from CMS, WA and Magico use layers of different materials to damp and absorb the vibration. There is a layer of thermoplastic material to further damp any movement in 3D. The sound is different. Ball bearing footers tend to give sharper image and stronger sound. Thermoplastic material is softer and mellow.

Often the best sound is achieved with a combination of both. I have Magico QPods in my DAC and Stillpoints SS in upsampler.

The older CMS RiZE footers had a tungsten elbow/bearing interface inside. The CS' retain an elbow inside too but now one way as opposed to a double elbow used for bearings (top and bottom of bearing). Just sayin' :)
 

spiritofmusic

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Depends on what you consider the competition. A set of 4 Pedestals for $3000, a set of Stillpoints Ultra5s for about $5600. I'm not defending the pricing. What competition did you have in mind for $750-1000?
IsoAcoustics Gais, Arya Audio Revopods, Symposium Acoustics Rollerblocks.
 

LL21

Well-Known Member
Dec 26, 2010
14,411
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I have a lot of Stillpoints SS, Ultra5 and Ultra 6 in my system. They are different from CMS Centerstage, Wilson Audio Pedestal or Magico QPods. Stillpoints is ball bearing design, that means it changes the direction of vibration. Vibration is in 3D, Stillpoints restricts vertical plane and only allow vibration horizontally, by reducing the degree of freedom and the damage of vibration is attenuated.

The other footers from CMS, WA and Magico use layers of different materials to damp and absorb the vibration. There is a layer of thermoplastic material to further damp any movement in 3D. The sound is different. Ball bearing footers tend to give sharper image and stronger sound. Thermoplastic material is softer and mellow.

Often the best sound is achieved with a combination of both. I have Magico QPods in my DAC and Stillpoints SS in upsampler.
Interesting...since I am no techie, I just experimented a lot with Stillpoints and ended up using HRS Nimbus Couplers with each pair of Ultra 5s or Ultra 6s finding it the clearest but also bringing the tonal qualities back to where i like it. Overall, the clarity of the Stillpoints is fantastic, but it did actually seem to change the way violin sounded just slightly...thinning out the mids a touch. By adding the HRS in, it put that back in again, but maintained the ability to hear choral words, background voices, etc, etc which are one of my key tests for clarity.
 
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