I always wondered about the Mana setups…I think when you build up stacks you get good subsonic filtering but with a degree of rigidity. The whole stack should sway slightly…as for tube construction…it rings like a bell so angle steel is superior… so I can see the sense…+ its very good for business! Am I right in thinking that the spikes were slightly offset between levels??? I would think this arrangement would be good for vinyl…especially suspended chassis turntables like the LP12…
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Beauty is what sounds best!
That could develop into a circus act…
How many Mana can a clown balance on his head?
Spinning plates is sooo yesterday.
Looking at that there seems to be a Stage 5 Mana stack supporting a mains block on the left.
Fantastic but totally crazy…that is a bonkers setup…probably sounded good…they look very wibbly…
Could mimic the ‘wave’ in the Statement heat sinks.
Sorry but for me not only does that look horrible it also looks un safe.
Plus the amount of money all them levels have cost, then surely it would have been much better to invest that into better gear, as that would bring much better results and not look crap
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I agree with you on all fronts - however very many would vehemently disagree, especially on the achievable results.
I agree with @Dunc 100%. But luckily people are free to spend their money however they like. They don’t need to justify the enpense to anyone except their better half (or men in white coats).
In perspective, there are people who buy diamond encrusted Bugattis. In comparison, a leaning tower of Mana is positively mundane.
I agree that everyone can spend their well earned money on what they like, but surely it doesn’t take much to stand back, look at what you have done and think, why have I spent X amount on these stands for something that costs much less, trying to change the sound off it to something I like? Surely much better to spend all that money on a better bit of gear, that sounds better out the box.
I don’t know how much each of these mana bits cost, but I guess they aren’t pounds and more hundreds each?
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Quick look on eBay - levels seem to go for £150 - so taking bases and shelves into account, looking at that picture, and assuming it’s all been bought pre-loved then the 75 levels (
) there gets the cost to over £10k…not including postage and/or every Saturday for 2 years to cover the length and breadth of the country to get it!
Much of the gear seems used with it seems to be Olive, I do wonder if people have (as you say) gone full gas with a 500 system on a Mana Acoustics rig. I mean - if it works, it works…right?
And I suppose that last point partially answers your other challenge with it - many people prefer the sound of Olive Naim to the newer stuff, and so there may well be people with a Nait who think they can’t get any better sound from changing their electronics, so Mana is the way….
From what I have read, the more levels you add, changes the sound ever so slightly?
If that’s so, then to me you obviously don’t like the sound it makes and so would be better spending all that cash on a better product that you actually like ?
Having a rack that has cost thousands to put a few hundred quid item on, isn’t a great way to go about it in my eyes.
But then you get people that spend thousands on a car worth £500 trying to make it go faster etc, why not just buy a faster car with that money in the first place
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@Dunc why do people do anything? Yes it’s logically nonsense. But we live in a world where people like line dancing, think boy bands are actually bands, and think MAD is a good way to make the world safer.
To some degree, figuring out why people buy $20k of rack for $2k of hifi, or buy $4k of interconnects for a $4k system is just a whisper in a hurricane of human bonkersness.
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But if you have good kit already, and you like the sound, what other way can you get massive improvements for £150?
NA Dais deck and Naim NDS with 555 ps.
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Massive err don’t think so, plus adding additional shelves starts to change the sound very, very slightly on each level you add apparently, so changing the sound means to me that one is not happy with it and looking for something extra, rather than say a cable or rack will allow the product to provide its best.
Plus that’s much more than £150 worth of extra shelves isn’t it and for what?
It’s not like a fraim is it as if it was we would see base on base on base and then finally a box on top.
Very clever marketing back then I feel is what happened and taking advantage of the consumer, but each to their own as they say
I presume you haven’t heard what it can do then.
I haven’t, but I do know that any rack, cable, etc can only do so much.
It’s never going to turn say a nac42.5 into a 52, but looking at some of the stacks of this stuff you could probably have afforded one and I know what I would rather have
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As I thought.
I think this is my point… People LOVE what it does, and become obsessed with it. I don’t think even the most die hard fan could claim Mana has any beauty, so I can only conclude that it’s all about the sound.
Is it more “accurate” …almost certainly not… Is it more “euphoric” …well, the only conclusion i can draw is that it is.
And no - I’ve not heard it either - but I’d love to if the opportunity ever arose. Not that I’d have a cat in hells chance of getting any in the house.