mwomwell
My speakers are Sonus Faber Serafinos - hence why I have to use the Gaia I.
I also checked with my dealer and he confirmed that the speakers should rock slightly front/back and very little (if any) side to side movement.
As I mentioned I did take a lot of care when installing the Gaia pods - not only to make sure that the pods were pointing in the right direction, but in alos making sure that the speakers were level.
In the case of my speakers mounts the front and back have an equal width.
Interesting, nice speakers by the way, I have checked my levels again and there is a very slight upwards tilt at the front end of the speakers but overall they are pretty level. All isolators are firmly in contact with my wooden floor and facing in the right direction but what I might be experiencing here is minor movement in the floor or possibly some give in the rubber / plastic mounts under my speakers where the original spikes exited the base of the speakers to protect and locate onto the floor if you didnât use the spikes - these are glued onto the base and hence difficult to remove as I tried to remove before. Oh well I think Iâll leave alone, system sounds pretty good as is and I cannot be bothered to dabble further as the speakers, like yours, are very heavy and difficult to move easily plus the IsoAcoustics Gaiaâs are a little bit fiddly to install and tighten up onto the base of my speakers.
Donât know why I get such a laugh with some of the comments about how the Gaia products arenât cheap-especially after looking at the considerable sums of money that has been spent on ones equipment/system!
Obviously if they do nothing for said system, then yes, money wasted of course!
I you put your finger at the top center of the speaker and try to move it slowly, it should not bounce. If it bounces, the speaker is not optimally functioning.
I had personally fitted a little piece of metal slab to compensate one feet, to have a good level.
I first heard the GAIAâs at a show & the demo was with Focal Sopraâs, they were in a hotel with concrete floors & the difference in sound was night & day. I figured if they made that much improvement on concrete floors, they should do wonders on more typical suspended floors & bought a set on the spot. Havenât got to try them yet, as my kit is currently in a carpeted room, but they were bought with the intention of using in my future dedicated listening space.
I wonât say ânight and dayâ but when my dealer convinced me to try them for my Dynaudio C2s I noticed an immediate improvement, more so than any cable (IC, speaker, or power) upgrade Iâve ever done. Of course, YMMV depending on the speaker and what they are standing on.
Having had considerable success with these feet on the speakers, I tried a pair screwed into the soles of my shoes.
They are so good that I can now walk on water. Really, itâs a night and day difference. They made my shoes (less the Gaias) feel broken, despite the inky blackness of the Kiwi polish that was regularly applied to the leather uppers.
I tried the Gaia IIIs on 2 different speakers, I have a suspended wooden and quite springy floor.
Small floorstanders at 16kg each had a small improvement over spikes, mainly cleaner bass and removed some mid harshness. I got very similar improvements using other methods such as granite slabs and rival isolation pads.
I got much larger differences for 26kg speakers using the same Gaia IIIs. Spikes were giving the same issues as the smaller speakers and these issues were fixed. However the bass response was much more noticeably reduced compared to the smaller speakers. I had to return them the day the large speakers arrived so that test was short. I canât say I preferred the change on the larger speakers but I do want to test again.
I have no idea how well these work, having not heard them, but Iâm sure they have as much chance of having merit as a very well discussed and much lauded network switch or a power supply for a source component. People describe the impact they hear in different ways and Iâm enjoying reading what people think, if I wasnt Iâd just scroll past. Thanks for sharing guys
I see they have optional carpet spikes. Are you using the spikes? Is the idea to just anchor the speaker position rather than get onto the screed? Did you have to lay the speakers flat to fit them?
I have put in a demo request out of curiosity. Iâm pretty happy at the moment.
Hi Phil,
I use the Gaia with the optional tripod feet.
The main reason was to avoid the circular dents left in the carpet when the speakers have been resting in one position for more than a couple of hours.
The other reason was to provide a firm base for the feet to work on. After all, when Isoacoustic designs in a known level of compliance, it can hardly be helpful if the customer then puts that engineered level of compliance on top of an undefined and varying level of cushioning that the carpet & underlay present. The tripod feet really just anchor the base of the Gaias rather than drill into the screed. Having said that, I suspect that many customers donât bother with the tripod feet.
re fitting the feet, I carefully tilted each speaker back a few degrees in order to fit the front feet, then tilted it forward to fit the rear feet. You need to choose the correct diameter thread that matches the thread in your speaker base. The ARTs needed the M8 thread (i.e. 8mm diameter) but the Gaia feet come with 3 different diameter adaptor threads that will cover most speakers. If your speakers need something different, then I think that a custom set of adaptor threads can be ordered for a very reasonable ÂŁ30 or so.
Itâs great that dealers such as Signals are willing to let us try a demo set, as they may or may not work for your speakers on your floor.
Of course, if you own a pair of Magico speakers and want to do the job properly, you can now order a set of Magicoâs magic feet which work on exactly the same principle but must be far more effective, as they cost about ÂŁ7,000 last time I lookedâŚ
If you werenât at the demo you probably canât judge the difference that was experienced could you? Maybe I should have gone into more detail, the footers were also used on one of the included subwoofers they were using for the demo. In this case the difference is bass response was a night & day difference, by this I mean even anyone who isnât into audio would have easily picked up the difference (at least in bass response). I think that is about as ânight & dayâ as you could get when it comes to audio.
If you have heavy speakers, and are a mad Formula 1 fan with a lifelong dream to be the pit crew jack man, then your only real option is to acquire the isoAcoustics âF1 Speaker jackâ!
As of today, I have the Gaia IIIs and carpet spikes under my Totem Tribe Towers. Looking and sounding great!
I will have more impressions to share in a few days.
I would not use aluminum or metal or stone or rock, etc. Metal especially rings like crazy and will act as a transducer and cancel out critical sound waves. Donât believe me? Take out an aluminum tuning fork and ding it against anything in your listen room while the stereo is playing. My recommendation is that you use a 2.5 mm thick piece of good quality maple. Maple will absorb low frequency vibrations and wonât damage sound quality.
Concrete might be stiff but is not oblivious to seismic vibration. If you donât believe me go download an ap on your phone that measures seismic vibration and put it on the floor. Jump up and down and watch that need move like crazy. Also, plastic, nylon or any other synthetic material carpet over concrete is really degrading to sound quality. You would be better off putting a one or two inch piece of good quality maple under your speakers. In addition, lay a natural material over your carpet like a pure wool throw rug. You also want to take any power cables or speakers cables off of carpet if possible. Footers should be the last thing you place as a tweak as they will help drain vibration away from the speaker cabinet and improve sound quality.
Does anyone know, the answer to the following question. If fitting the Gaia feet to PMC Twenty5 26 speakers, do you fit the feet to the plinth bars or discard the plinth bars and fit directly to the speaker?
