When is isolation bad? When it overdamps.
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marvda1
Posts: 4,873
Hear me out, Skip came by to drop something off for me to review. He made the comment that my system had become a little dead sounding. We tried changing cables, then dacs, then removing my homemade bass traps and sat there for a while and he asked me if I had isoacoustic isopucks under all my components. Of course yes was the answer, so we started by taking them out from under the Mastersound Compact 845. WOW! back comes dynamics, liveliness, larger sound stage. After he left I took the isopucks from under the transport and dac and I get better harmonics and musical texture.
I summed up what had happened was I put isopucks under one of my components with a positive result and then went crazy adding them to one component after another not noticing that I was sucking the life out of my system.
Morale, don't over damp your system, too much of a good thing can be bad and if you do it a little at a time you will not notice it.
It helped a lot that Skip had heard my system before I had the isopucks and later after I had added them to the system. Keep bringing in good ears, it takes a village
I summed up what had happened was I put isopucks under one of my components with a positive result and then went crazy adding them to one component after another not noticing that I was sucking the life out of my system.
Morale, don't over damp your system, too much of a good thing can be bad and if you do it a little at a time you will not notice it.
It helped a lot that Skip had heard my system before I had the isopucks and later after I had added them to the system. Keep bringing in good ears, it takes a village
Amplifiers: Norma IPA 140, MasterSound Compact 845, Ayre v6xe, Consonance Cyber 800
Preamp: deHavilland Ultraverve 3
Dac: Sonnet Morpheus 2, Musical Paradise mp-d2 mkIII
Transport: Jay's Audio CDT2 mk2, Lumin U1 mini
Speakers: Rosso Fiorentino Volterra II
Speaker Cables: Organic Audio Organic Reference 2
Interconnects: Argento Organic Reference 2, Argento Organic 2
Power Cables: Argento Organic Reference, Synergistic Research Foundation 10 and 12 ga.
Puritan PSM156
Preamp: deHavilland Ultraverve 3
Dac: Sonnet Morpheus 2, Musical Paradise mp-d2 mkIII
Transport: Jay's Audio CDT2 mk2, Lumin U1 mini
Speakers: Rosso Fiorentino Volterra II
Speaker Cables: Organic Audio Organic Reference 2
Interconnects: Argento Organic Reference 2, Argento Organic 2
Power Cables: Argento Organic Reference, Synergistic Research Foundation 10 and 12 ga.
Puritan PSM156
Comments
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Probably the best advice on the internet.Keep bring in good ears, it takes a village
Analog: MoFi MasterTracker > MoFi UltraDeck > Sutherland 20/20
Digital: Cambridge CXC / Streaming > Cambridge CXN v2
MastersounD Dueventi > Rosso Fiorentino Certaldo or Arcam rHead > Hifiman HE4XX
Discogs -
Danny did the same thing at LSAF. Not with isopucks but with room treatments. He was tearing down the room while still listening to the rig set up and he had mentioned that he didn't realize it until he was tearing it all down and heard the difference.
Tom~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
I did that in my HT with acoustic panels on the walls. After removing them from the side walls, and ceiling, but leaving them on the rear wall it was fine.Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes
Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables
Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
Three 20 amp circuits. -
I think those "isopucks" can actually cause a vibration hump (vibration transmission boost) at their resonant frequencies. Above the resonant frequency the vibration transmission drops rapidly. That may be what improved your system when the pucks were removed.George / NJ
Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
Crown D150 amp
Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
iFi nano iDSD DAC
iPurifier3
iDefender w/ iPower PS
Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform -
tube people listen, tubes are the same way, they degrade slowly over time and your ears adjust so you won't notice it until you replace with new tubes.Amplifiers: Norma IPA 140, MasterSound Compact 845, Ayre v6xe, Consonance Cyber 800
Preamp: deHavilland Ultraverve 3
Dac: Sonnet Morpheus 2, Musical Paradise mp-d2 mkIII
Transport: Jay's Audio CDT2 mk2, Lumin U1 mini
Speakers: Rosso Fiorentino Volterra II
Speaker Cables: Organic Audio Organic Reference 2
Interconnects: Argento Organic Reference 2, Argento Organic 2
Power Cables: Argento Organic Reference, Synergistic Research Foundation 10 and 12 ga.
Puritan PSM156 -
Did you leave them on the one component that you heard a difference on to begin with?
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i think it started when i put the gaias on my speakers, that i liked so much i went full on buying isopucks putting them under the components.
they have the oreas now which are suppose to be better than the isopucks and designed for audio components but i'm not going to put out the cash to try them, gaias were expensive enough.Amplifiers: Norma IPA 140, MasterSound Compact 845, Ayre v6xe, Consonance Cyber 800
Preamp: deHavilland Ultraverve 3
Dac: Sonnet Morpheus 2, Musical Paradise mp-d2 mkIII
Transport: Jay's Audio CDT2 mk2, Lumin U1 mini
Speakers: Rosso Fiorentino Volterra II
Speaker Cables: Organic Audio Organic Reference 2
Interconnects: Argento Organic Reference 2, Argento Organic 2
Power Cables: Argento Organic Reference, Synergistic Research Foundation 10 and 12 ga.
Puritan PSM156 -
Interesting
So I have the bronze (lightest) ones under the G1 and did notice a subtle difference. But nothing that was dull sounding.
The Gaia’s definitely made big steps on my setup.
But the biggest difference by far was replacing my TT feet with the isopods. Much darker background.
Synergy is everything I guess. -
i had five under the mastersound and it made a big difference when we took them off.
i didn't take them from under the transport and dac until after skip left. didn't make as big of a difference as the amp.
dac and transport was more subtle i just noticed better harmonics and instrument textures.Amplifiers: Norma IPA 140, MasterSound Compact 845, Ayre v6xe, Consonance Cyber 800
Preamp: deHavilland Ultraverve 3
Dac: Sonnet Morpheus 2, Musical Paradise mp-d2 mkIII
Transport: Jay's Audio CDT2 mk2, Lumin U1 mini
Speakers: Rosso Fiorentino Volterra II
Speaker Cables: Organic Audio Organic Reference 2
Interconnects: Argento Organic Reference 2, Argento Organic 2
Power Cables: Argento Organic Reference, Synergistic Research Foundation 10 and 12 ga.
Puritan PSM156 -
Marv, this kind of goes along with Robert's ( star sound ) theory's on his racks.Klipsch The Nines, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
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I had experienced a similar 'viola' moment with my Bryston BCD-3 CDP. I had Stillpoint Ultra 5s under it and felt a bit was missing. I replaced the Ultra 5s with Ultra minis and the dynamics returned.[
