Stillpoints Ultra SS under my Magico Q3's

[cma29]

Originally Posted by tima

In terms of greatest impact, Stillpoints suggests speakers, then amps followed by power conditioner and front-end electronics.

I'm thinking an active power conditioner reaps greater benefit than a passive one.

I remember AA user audiot servant speaking v. highly of Ultra5s under his 20.7s. I suspect Stillpoints could have an adapter to fit with your Mye stands. Yes, the Ultra5s are pricey but become a permanent investment that you can keep across component changes. You might be able 'to get away with' Ultra5s under the panels with UltraSS on the back braces, but I don't know anyone who has tried that approach. It would be worth a quick e-mail to John or Paul at SP to discuss.

After that four UltraSS under your Pass mono-blocks. You could do these first; I found the impact under my amps almost as great as that under the speakers. But I suspect that may be somewhat component dependent. Of course amp stands designed for isolation are another option.

Different components and systems will respond accordingly but it is rare that proper isolation fails to bring positive gains.

Thanks, Tim. I'll look into this upgrade.

[ylee]

Isolating speakers is something that seems counterintuitive to me. You want the cones (or membrane) - especially bass cones, to be able to reverberate very quickly. This means the cones have to change their direction of travel very quickly. The best way to do that is for the cones to be connected to a rigid cabinet that in turn is solidly anchored to the floor. Hence most speaker companies provide spiked feet for carpet use. I know speaker cabinets are rigid more for avoiding resonance than anything else, but the need for spikes tells me speaker companies have found their products to perform better if they do not move with respect to the floor in any way. Isolation by definition needs to provide the means to blunt the initial impulse of the sound wave either impinging on (or being launched from) your audio component.

In thinking it through with the concepts I'm familiar with, perhaps Stillpoints and other isolation accessories improve the higher frequency tones and retract ever so slightly from the bass tones when used with speakers. The reason I think that is because higher frequency drivers move much faster by definition than lower frequency drivers. Given the relative weights of these drivers with respect to the cabinets in which they're mounted, the isolation of the cabinet from the floor may lessen cabinet resonances for the higher frequency drivers. The bass drivers on the other hand may experience subtle doppler effects that detract from their ability to provide as defined of a tone compared to a cabinet that does not move from the floor - however slight this movement and affect is.

That said, this is all conjecture on my part. I know my fellow audiophiles here have good ears and I believe in the sonic benefits being reported. So that leaves me no choice but to acquire some and hear for myself with my own speakers!

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by ylee

Isolating speakers is something that seems counterintuitive to me. You want the cones (or membrane) - especially bass cones, to be able to reverberate very quickly. This means the cones have to change their direction of travel very quickly. The best way to do that is for the cones to be connected to a rigid cabinet that in turn is solidly anchored to the floor. Hence most speaker companies provide spiked feet for carpet use. I know speaker cabinets are rigid more for avoiding resonance than anything else, but the need for spikes tells me speaker companies have found their products to perform better if they do not move with respect to the floor in any way. Isolation by definition needs to provide the means to blunt the initial impulse of the sound wave either impinging on (or being launched from) your audio component.

In thinking it through with the concepts I'm familiar with, perhaps Stillpoints and other isolation accessories improve the higher frequency tones and retract ever so slightly from the bass tones when used with speakers. The reason I think that is because higher frequency drivers move much faster by definition than lower frequency drivers. Given the relative weights of these drivers with respect to the cabinets in which they're mounted, the isolation of the cabinet from the floor may lessen cabinet resonances for the higher frequency drivers. The bass drivers on the other hand may experience subtle doppler effects that detract from their ability to provide as defined of a tone compared to a cabinet that does not move from the floor - however slight this movement and affect is.

That said, this is all conjecture on my part. I know my fellow audiophiles here have good ears and I believe in the sonic benefits being reported. So that leaves me no choice but to acquire some and hear for myself with my own speakers!

Interesting thoughts; FWIW, my most expensive speakers did not even come with spikes, SF Aida's and TAD R1's

[Yardbird]

Originally Posted by ylee

Isolating speakers is something that seems counterintuitive to me. You want the cones (or membrane) - especially bass cones, to be able to reverberate very quickly. This means the cones have to change their direction of travel very quickly. The best way to do that is for the cones to be connected to a rigid cabinet that in turn is solidly anchored to the floor. Hence most speaker companies provide spiked feet for carpet use. I know speaker cabinets are rigid more for avoiding resonance than anything else, but the need for spikes tells me speaker companies have found their products to perform better if they do not move with respect to the floor in any way. Isolation by definition needs to provide the means to blunt the initial impulse of the sound wave either impinging on (or being launched from) your audio component.

In thinking it through with the concepts I'm familiar with, perhaps Stillpoints and other isolation accessories improve the higher frequency tones and retract ever so slightly from the bass tones when used with speakers. The reason I think that is because higher frequency drivers move much faster by definition than lower frequency drivers. Given the relative weights of these drivers with respect to the cabinets in which they're mounted, the isolation of the cabinet from the floor may lessen cabinet resonances for the higher frequency drivers. The bass drivers on the other hand may experience subtle doppler effects that detract from their ability to provide as defined of a tone compared to a cabinet that does not move from the floor - however slight this movement and affect is.

That said, this is all conjecture on my part. I know my fellow audiophiles here have good ears and I believe in the sonic benefits being reported. So that leaves me no choice but to acquire some and hear for myself with my own speakers!

Ylee, I agree with your point about speaker manufacturers' need to control cabinet resonance for the sake of clearest possible sound reproduction, but as far as any doppler effect compromising the deeper bass notes with speakers using isolating footers, I will only address my own results, and can say I heard deeper and better-defined bass from my speakers with the Stillpoints installed. The Stillpoints are designed to dissipate the energy as heat into the device itself, without interacting with the floor. My results led me to the conclusion that when using the factory spikes on the floor system in my home, due to apparent resonances in my floor that evidently added to cabinet motion and compromised my speakers' ability to resolve, I was unable to enjoy the same degree of resolution with my system on factory spikes as on Stillpoints footers. The benefits were not subtle. As audiophiles, we are all interested in optimizing our system's abilities to reproduce sound as accurately as we possibly can. No two rooms or systems are identical, which helps to keep things interesting, and so YMMV, of course. Good luck, and keep us posted! Ted.

[zorronj]

What's the difference between the Ultra SS V1 and V2?

[Masterlu]

zorronj… Welcome to AA!

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by zorronj

What's the difference between the Ultra SS V1 and V2?

Ultra SS v1 is long discontinued. Ultra SS v2 is the improved, current new version.

[Easy Gliders]

I used Ultra 6 V2 under my Vitus SIA-030 amplifier and MSB Reference DAC unit. Ultra 2s are screwed into the CNC machined chassis of the MSB Powerbase unit.