The late, great, much lamented Max Townshend was one of my hi fi heroes. Some years ago I attended a demonstration he gave of his Acoustic Isolation Platforms. That demonstration combined with his explanation of the physics behind them had me completely convinced. The only thing that prevented me from immediately buying a set was the fact that they cost 50% MORE than the speakers I would put them under.
More recently I learned of the Isoacoustics Gaia Isolation feet at a slightly more approachable £400. I decided I would try and get a demo if I could. But, before this could happen…
Somebody told me about Moongel Damper Pads. Now this is a product aimed at impoverished drummers rather than affluent audiophiles. So - I thought I could give them a go at minimal risk. They arrived today and - after I had listened to my system as was - I stuck three of them between each speaker and stand.
Well… I’m not going to say it was night and day. But my impression was definitely of a cleaning up of a sound which, until that moment, I hadn’t thought required any cleaning up! There was also a slight reduction in the size of the bass in favour of an improvement in the focus and impact of the bass.
As I say, not night and day, but worth a tenner (yes a tenner!) of anybodies money. Has anyone else tried them? I’d be very interested to hear how you got on. If not - well they’re a tenner - what have you got to lose?
I bought them to try and tame a very ringing snare drum. Mixed results, but need more experimentation with placement. I’d imagine they’d be good under small speakers - if I still owned the Response SC1, I’d certainly try them vs the old Blutac. For the cost, why indeed not?
I just got a set of 6 from Sweetwater here in the States for the princely sum of $7.78 delivered to my door - will try them under my Kef IQ3s in my office system.
I got a set for similar cost here in Canada. I put four under each speaker, replacing both pre-existing blu tak (I bought used) stuck to the bottom of the speakers and dried / hardened rubber bumpers stuck to the top of the stands. I also added four underneath the tempered glass plate that sits under my Nova, replacing some small soft-ish domed bumpers that I had when I bought the glass… maybe originally for cabinet door soft closers, maybe feet for some small electronic box like a drive enclosure. I have no idea if they made a change to the sound or the imaging - I liked it before and I still like it now… so it’s a small thing either way. But I feel better that I’ve cleaned some things up, and the soft gel is new and doing its thing. Good purchase imho.
(Edits: to fix thumb typing, autocorrect, and generally bad spelling…)
I got the six-pack as indicated, which is the perfect count for the shape of my KEFs, and I replaced felt pads - they seem to work fine; a fun attempt at a tweak for essentially no cost, and definitely couple the speaker enclosure to the stand better. (My stands are low-end, to say the least, so it likely isn’t as impactful as it could be.)
