Knife and balls

Streaming Audio
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I have been searching for that elusive PRAT and tight bass and soundstage for over 2 years and getting frustrated.
am running tidal via 272/250dr/xpsdr through proac d40r floorstanders.
Sound was good but not great. The 272 is stacked on 250dr on an antique mahogany cabinet. With the xpsdr a couple of shelves below.i have looked at upgrading to nds and also ndx2 but didnt seem to make a significant difference running through the 272. ( This was at a dealer in the uk and not in my setup)
After a lot of people recommended i look for a good audio rack i did some looking around at dealers in london while home this summer.( I live in dubai and no dealers for isoblue, quadraspire atacama. Etc) And I didn’t want to spend too much more Also, I am loathe to buy anything without trying it first in my setup and that’s next to impossible out here.

Back in dubai, I read about an old hack online. After a quick trip to the local sports shop got 6 squash balls , cut em in half and placed 4 halves under each box.

Magic, bass is tighter, soundstage improved and i finally understand what the Naim sound is all about. Even my wife who didnt understand my obsession noticed a big difference.

All for about 6 quid!
Sorted (for now)

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Sounds like something Jimmy Hughes would have recommended back in the day.

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“knife” and “balls” are not two words I like hearing in the same sentence.

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Yeah my teens couldn’t stop laughing when they saw me with the knife and chopping board…

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This evokes memories of an old news story. Someone in the USA doing a “Bobbit”
Ouch

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It’s a fairly well known and understood hack
And also works (maybe better) with soft sorbothane blocks used instead…

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What, as I often say, shows that, in the HIFI and the SQ world, as in so many other things, the best solutions are not the most expensive and the least is more.

Isoacoustics Gaia, II in this case, work even better, :wink:

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Yeah the idea was to prove it works in principle in my setup with all the other variables of room size acoustics, placement etc .

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In a different context Loricraft use whole squash balls in their Garrard / Thorens plinths for vibration isolation. I think Terry knows his TT stuff.

Phil

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Well done for finding the hack out, and thanks for sharing.

Curious… are you using Tidal directly through Naim connectivity, or via UPNP or equiv (eg . Bubble UPNP Server, Roon)?

If direct, you’ll get even more improvements by switching to a UPNP server, I’ve noticed a huge improvement since introducing Bubble UPNP as have others on here…

Regards, Carl

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Thanks !
Yes I am using tidal and spotify through Naim connectivity and will look up Bubble upnp , do you have a handy link for setup ?

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Hi
Found the app, will check the sq through bubble n get back!

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Does it work on iPhones?

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Dont have one, but sure it will. Works on my Samsung…

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So what Bubble upnp server are you using?
Why does it make Tidal sound better?

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Hi, I’m not great at navigating this forum, but there is plenty of background if you want to search for Tidal, UPNP, etc

Basically I was using Tidal connecting directly from my Naim Nova, and always felt it was lacking something … PRAT I guess. You’ll see from my previous posts that I assumed my speakers were not capable of delivering what the NAIM offers (B&W 805D2) so started to research alternatives, but then I read a post about using Tidal via UPNP so gave it a try.

I have an old NAS that I run Bubble UPNP from, you can also run from a laptop or anything really, certainly to try it out for yourself. Bubble UPNP connects to Tidal, or Spotify, google how to set it up if you have problems, its quite straight forward.

I then use the LUMIN app on my iPhone/iPad to control the NAIM and Bubble UPNP server, so LUMIN does the job of the NAIM app, you search for tracks in a Tidal or even on your NAS/hard drive, and select which UPNP device to play them on (eg Naim, but I also have a Ruark that I control through a LUMIN).

It even improved my Muso sound.

I posted on the forum to say that i was convinced that it made a big improvement, but it may be my imagination, and plenty more members said they confirm there’s a bit improvement, including through A/B testing!

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Thanks
I read those type of threads a year ago and got the impression that upnp with good nas files was better than Tidal - but I was not aware that people found upnp improved the sq of their Tidal access

Does anyone else find this effect too?

Thanks Jim

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Some years ago I designed a rack system which came in individual levels, each level separated by sitting on squash balls (located in suitably-shaped (hemispherical) cups on the bottom and top of each level). Worked very nicely.

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Found the post that first inspired me to try the UPNP route, this also has a link to the guide for setting up Bubble UPNP.