Yes, I still use them. It’s 272 on glass, glass on sorbothane, flat side down, a piece of bin bag plastic cut to the exact size of the sorbothane pad underneath the pad (because I’d heard direct contact with sorbothane can discolour wood), on an Ikea Bestå TV cabinet.
The less than extravagant furniture was one reason for trying the glass etc, and I do remember thinking it sounded better with them than without when I put them in place. Though they’ve been there for a while, so I’d struggle to describe exactly how.
I got them via ebay, they were listed as sorbothane anti-vibration feet in a variety of diameters/load capacities. It was a while ago, but IIRC there was a guide to show what diameter you needed for what weight of component - I suspect if you have a check through eBay you’ll find either the same thing relisted, or at least something similar.
Stillpoints are maybe the best of their kind but are expensive. I’ve been using Herbies Audio Tenderfeet and other items they work well and are fairly priced. Finite Elementa make good products, and Gaia is a newish company… FWIW I prefer isolation to coupling ( cones/spikes)
Looking at the Iso Acoustics Orea, these look like a good option for me and very cost effective. I’d put a bronze one under each foot of the Naim box (between the glass shelf and the rubber foot). I’m guessing that it is the streamer and SN I’d do and not worry about the XPS DR and HiCAP?
Hi I used to use under my CDX2 when I had my 282 and earlier NACs.
When I upgraded to Fraim I found Sorbothane redundant and actually seemed to filter some of the sound some how, like making it somewhat lifeless compared to using a proper support like Fraim. When I upgraded the NACs this filtering effect of sorbothane on Naim components became worse in my opinion…
I don’t use sorbothane now, apart from acting sometimes as cable spacers
I used 19mm hemispheres under my CDX2, or better said inside the hollow feet of my CDX2. This was mounted on a wood cabinet top, more for wood protection than anything. It was then moved to a pukka hifi rack shelf where I tried it with both the sorbothane & without. It was better with & that’s the way it stayed.
Sorbothane made no difference to the amp or subsequently when I tried it on NDX.
I now have it under my Synology NAS as it silences a very ‘slight dead’ of night level noise.
@Mike_S I’d start with the source. Then the SN2… typically 3 work the best 2 in front 1 in the rear. Placement of the one in the rear is simple, centered and about an inch in . Front two I like to be near the stock front feet but not touching. HTH
One word of warning on that, sorbothane will leave a stain on wood if left for long enough, maybe months rather than days.
I had it under a TT glass sub-shelf & it got under the polish on the wood wall shelf, it discoloured the wood & went quite deep into the grain. I was able to fix it but I do have access to a professional machine shop, but I’m not so sure about normal home DIY’er & especially so if the wood surface is a veneer.
Re damaging your Naim & other stuff, no it does not damage anything IME, if any residue is left on metal or paint its easily cleaned.
Best results I had with them was using 4 supporting a granite shelf with the hifi just sat on said shelf.
This was within a less than ideal cabinet rather than a proper rack as such. Never tried using glass.
I tried it the other way with 3 sat on the granite shelf and bypassing the feet on the device, this impressed at first but I later decided it lacked leading edge definition. Almost sounded like how they look - squidgy and round.
If you have a decent rack this stuff shouldn’t be necessary. It really is a tweaker’s paradise. Take a bog standard cabinet or shelf. Add some funny feet, maybe some sorbothane balls. Add some glass, maybe ball-nutters. Sound goes a bit hard? Add some wood. Too soft? More glass. Black Ravioli? Sheets of uncooked lasagne? Very soon there is a ridiculous pile of supports all offsetting each other’s impact. I visited a chap once who had all sorts of rubbish under his equipment, which he’d added over time. I took it all out and lo and behold, it sounded better. Now there is a surprise.
Naim go to extraordinary lengths to design their cases and feet to manage vibration and then someone shoves some £10 bits of plastic between the case and the stand, negating all the work Naim have done.
Why this incessant desire to play about? Is it not possible to just install the equipment as the maker envisaged? If one wants to improve the sound then surely the answer is to get a better rack? Life’s too short. But then I suppose for some playing with the equipment is more important than listening to music.
I have sorbothane hemisheres under Dave. I also have them under my active crossover that Dave feeds. Do they make a difference? No idea as I haven’t compared with or without.
I used with Dave because I was positioning angled forwards and needed something in place of the standard feet, and it made sense to use a vibration dampening feet because it is on an open wooden shelf potentially susceptible to being excited by the music it made sense. And having stripped the AXO apart for its upgrading it needed feet, and because I was buying the other sorbothane feet at that time I got for it as well, which might help as the fairly thick aluminium shelf it is on does have a resonant frequency so helps with damping as well as reducing transmission into the AXO, which will do no harm even if it doesn’t do good.
Yes, you never play with your equipment.
Apart from buying posh AQ ethernet cables, and then buying cheaper ethernet cables, then selling the posh ones, etc.
Whenever anyone on a hifi forum starts saying that maximizing the SQ of the hifi set up is a waste of time and that they only listen to the music, you know the nonsense has begun.
If you had bothered to read the thread, you might have noticed that various people have had good results with isolation devices.
They do not need to be condemned in a bad tempered outburst by you.
It’s ignorant to claim that the only answer for all of them is a better rack.
Not sorbathane, but an acquitance is using a combination of Tenderfoots and Baby Bootie’s from Herbie’s Audio Labs under his non Naim components to great affect. According to the company, “Herbie’s compliant feet are molded from proprietary blends of platinum-cured silicones and inorganic fillers. The blended materials have a strategic balance of compatibility and incompatibility, resulting in strong viscoelastic compounds that never fully cure and achieve incredible vibration-absorbing and vibration-blocking ability.”
With sorbothane, as they deform under load the 3-point contact approach isn’t usually needed - however if the weight distribution of the thing being supported is off-centre, e.g huge transformer at one end of box, then the feet positioning may need to be adjusted to get the best/most even (level) support, or use different grades of sorbothane in different positions to compensate. (If you have flat digital scales of adequate capacity and smallish surface it is possible to measure the load at different positions if trying to choose the grade to order.)
The mass is better loaded from what I read often. I also tried 3 vs 4 , heard no differences. So with 9 devices you can isolate 3 devices, better for money!
3 is always best, as there is less of a path for any vibration to travel through. Also 3 feet can never wobble. You might have to place them for best weight support though rather than for aesthetic reasons.
