Isoacoustics Gaia Setting Up and Performance

I am interested in these…are the speakers wobbly on these feet??? Are they very compliant??

@Richieroo

I wouldn’t say “wobbly”, but if you really put your mind to it, you can wobble them very slightly from side to side, but fore and aft, not at all, which is how they’re supposed to be when set up correctly.

They were available on a “no like, no keep, money back” basis from Audio T, though that offer may well have expired.

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Every speaker with front mounted drivers - i.e. virtually all with moving coil drivers other than horns - are heavier at the front than back, and so any that are floorstanding as opposed to stand mounted would have uneven front-back load unless the rear feet positioning is more forward than than symetrical with the front feet. (Standmounts may easily be compensated by the positioning of the base relative to the speaker.). How much imbalance is significant?

That’s interesting @dave-marshall I have a pair of Motive SX2’s and was considering a set for them although not sure how the sloping design will effect the loading on the Gaia’s

The sloping design doesn’t adversely affect the function of the Gaia’s, I previously used them on Neat SX1’s and currently on PMC Twenty5 23’s.

They have a habit of working loose over time too so it’s worth retightening them every now and again. Work brilliantly for me with my Gold Note Evos and suspended floor

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May I ask roughly how many days? I just readjusted the toe-in angle of the speakers and rotated a footer on one speaker 180 degrees(logo facing rear) after I rechecked the installation on all Gaias.

One footer on a speaker was rotated 180 degrees(logo facing rear) after I rechecked the installation on all Gaias. Fortunately that one footer is located at the rear and not the front so it’s hidden.

Yeah, that’s what I did. I made sure the front ones were facing forward. The rear ones can’t be seen, so I was free how to face them. You should be able to get them set without wobble now. Set three to get the level and then the fourth to remove the wobble.

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I would say the settle-in period is mostly due to the Gaia’s conforming to the weight of your speakers and temperature variations. As long as you follow the set-up instructions the settle-in period should not be long (few days?).

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I would say this is good advice. This thread peeked my interest and thought I’d check mine and a couple had become slightly loose. All checked and tightened and sound wonderful.

@dave-marshall you may be excused with the weight of your speakers. :grinning:

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Aye, it nearly finished me off, wrestling with them the first time! :weary:

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I was thrilled with the improvements Gaia III’s brought to my 150lb speakers (home made). OP described it well. I personally heard similar improvements to Proac floor standers and Naim Allae’s, and heard from a friend who reported similar gains using them under Kudos Titans.

Any rattling at attachment would of course reduce sound quality, as Cris Bell has stated.

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This is something new to me but will keep it in mind.

After spending more time with the listening, further improvements/changes observed include a different presentation with percussion instrument particularly cymbals and hi - hat. It sounds slightly less tinny with better tone, more like the real thing. All other improvements as described earlier remain valid, very nice indeed.

Without any doubt the Gaias have made a profound difference to my system, fortunately a positive one. They look rather nice too and made my speakers look a bit more elegant which is a bonus apart from the uplift in sound quality.

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In summary, changes of Gaias (in my system);

  1. Overall slightly more relaxed sound with better flow but keeping the dynamics intact
  2. Reduced hardness, harshness and smearing, resulting in a cleaner sound from top to bottom
  3. Tighter and more defined bass. As the bass sounds cleaner, there may be an impression of a slightly reduced bass. The previous (increased) bass response may be just bass resonance.
  4. Slightly improved macrodynamics
  5. Improved tone in the treble and percussion instrument
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I agree with your impressions of the bass performance…the bass loses a bit of liveliness but is much better controlled. Notes start and stop with more clarity and less haze. Mine sit on a suspended floor.

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Indeed setting them up in uneven floor can be quite tricky. What I did for my Dynaudio C1s is to level the speakers using the spikes and measure the height of each spike. Then I lied down the speakers (on a soft surface!), and using these measurements I adjusted the height of each GAIA accordingly. Of course the laying down approach is not very helpful if you have large speakers… And of course if I move the speakers to a different position I would need to re-do the whole process from the beginning…

In my case the speakers are wobbly in both directions… I just had a look and the logo on one foot is not dead on straight, but a few degrees out. I wonder how much difference will it make…

If you put your speakers on a slab of marble or granite, the problem is solved (this was before I got the Gaia III).

I have taken a different approach with my Marten Duke 2. Since it is a standmount, I installed all 4 Gaias onto the stands without any measurement or adjustment. After they were installed to the stand, I placed the stand on the floor(all 4 Gaias on floor) and used a spirit level at the top plate of the stand to ensure an almost flat surface. All adjustments to the Gaias were carried out by tilting the stand and turning the individual Gaias clockwise or anticlockwise, intermittently measuring the top plate with the spirit level with every adjustment. After the levels were done, the speaker was then placed on top of the stands.

The top surface of my speaker is inclined and not flat, hence I have to control the level at the top plate of the stands.

Very interested in these - but unfortunately I have old Slate Audio stands with glued-in spikes.

Previous experience suggests I need the “give” that the Gaia’s seem to offer. Herbies gliders and Blue Horizon pucks were ok, but still a bit “hard” in terms of sound. Best I’ve come up with so far I small brass footers in Vibrapods. But they look dreadful.

Maybe I just need to pull the spikes. Anyone know a good dentist ?