I came back from my dealer today with some medium sized legs for my Fraim, but the most the interesting addition to my setup is a set of black disks. These little beauties seem to lower the noise floor and make each musical element distinct.
I don’t know what tricks are being played on my ears so for now these disks are underneath my 52 and the Audiostore Black Box (between the feet of each box and the shelf they sit on).
“A further cheap, easy and frankly extraordinary upgrade came with putting Les Davis constrained layer pads underneath everything.
They are one of those products where you just shake your head and ask how on earth they work to produce such an extraordinary sonic upgrade, but IMO they are a ‘no brainer’.
They are hundreds of dollars to do an entire system, but are the equivalent of box, cable, and shelf upgrades costing many thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars.
I thought I had room acoustic problems, but putting these underneath everything tightened and controlled all levels of bass to a degree that just makes me smile constantly, and has me interested in some electronic music for the first time (try Kruder and Dorfmeister - The K&D sessions on vinyl).
They showed that I don’t have room acoustic problems, and have elevated transparency, clarity and air in the soundstage to degree that I don’t hear in perfect dealer listening rooms.“
I have not listened to most of my Genesis collection for a long time, but with these isolators / dampers under the Black Box and 52 I’m enjoying them again.
Not wishing to upset Forum etiquette… so Richard please remove if necessary.
Here is a photo from the website, the discs are unobtrusive when placed under equipment (especially as my equipment is in the dark most of the time …).
Indeed from your local friendly dealer … £120 for 8
On the global market place … not available/sold out.
They are made in Australia, but I managed to order some from NZ at half price including shipping.
@Camphuw,
I’m glad to see that you’ve found these Les Davis viscoacoustic(?) pads, and that someone else now ‘gets’ the head shaking nature of the beautifully rendered sound quality increase that you hear so immediately.
I haven’t pressed on it with this forum, as hyperbole of course comes cheap, and it’s hard to avoid with these little wonders.
For me, short of further innovations in this area, I can’t imagine ever having a system without them being used, as not doing so is to leave a material percentage of performance on the table.
They simply improve every type of audio component, for a non-material cost, and for me are now phase 1 hygene.
I started with some under two components also, but quickly added them under every foot of every component, after I heard what they did in my system.
Its hard to understate how much it improves transparency, resolution, bass control - everything really.
When I thought it couldn’t get any better (and given that it becomes obvious that any potential point of vibration is a weak point ripe for sound improvement) I tried putting them between the balls and glass of my fraim shelves.
That was a big moment and quickly showed that these joins were the weakest point in my system, the addressing of which took it to further new highs.
It’s particularly effective on tt components also, as of course the amplification factor of removing micro vibrations before they can influence the cartridge/transducer is leveraged to benefit so much. As such I recently also added one of his record mats, which not unexpectedly completely blew away any mat I’d previously used.
I’ve added some photos to show how they look in situ for me, but you don’t really visually register them from normal viewing positions from a metre or two away.
@OrdioG, @Camphuw,…Interesting,and so it is.
And you get just as surprised every time,that such “small things” affect the soundquality in such an obvious way.
Torque-setting of audioboard,.speaker-elements,powersupply,contacts to powercables etc,etc is also important.
And affects soundquality more than many want to believe.
But strange that you have not been ridiculed yet,.by a few here,because of this suggestion .
I myself was ridiculed and insulted,.and was compared with Peter Belt (a very big insult to a Swedish person) by two members here.
This when I wrote,.that small rubber-feet made a difference in soundquality on a Cisco 2960.
So beware of writing about such experiences like this,on this forum .
It says on their site:
“Since its release, studies in conjunction with staff of The University Of Sydney have enabled a development of a new higher performing version that takes advantage of its properties in being sensitive to electrical noise.”
Do you know when the newer version was made?
And whether it is visually different from the older version?
The sandwich construction is about the thickness of 1 p(no micrometer at hand …). One side is silvered check, the other black. I note on the website some of these pads are gold in colour. I don’t know if these are the new ones …
I have not moved them since yesterday, but I plan to play around at a later date, perhaps with @Filipe in attendance (?). In any event I have some more ordered from NZ. I will play more when I dismantle the Fraim, once I have got hold of a Tommy Bar, perhaps placing them under the NAT01, Snaxo before trying under PS and 135s.
Pictures…
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