@Andyblain and @mikebu - aren’t we just agreeing to judge these things with our ears?
Fwiw, I have a guitarist and a bass clarinet player arriving later today. Apart from tea and cake, the purpose is to listen to different ways of supporting LP12 and a pile of Naim boxes.
We have MDF (part of the Wall shelf), glass and granite, with spikes, Naim’s cups and balls and clever HRS Nimbus feet. All 3 are hoping that none of this makes an audible difference either, but we’ll admit the fact if it does.
Based on some of the comments on here, I’ve just removed the mirror which is near my left speaker.
Gosh, the change is astonishing! I just can’t believe the improvement in sound quality. Wish I’d done it before. Better than spending £30k on an amp! Thanks forum
I’m too tight(read poor) to spend 30k on amps but I have glass on 3 sides of my listening room. Shutting the curtains makes it sound better. Not a lot but it helps. I don’t shut them in the day though, SWMBO wouldn’t approve!
Some of these details/myths are explainable scientifically ie shutting the curtains means the HF vibration of the glass is not going to be as audible. This is easily demonstrable in my room.
Similarly put an undriven speaker next to a driven one and you will see it vibrate. The extent of which this is audible is debatable.
Brain and brawn is about keeping delicate precision electronics away from big toroidal power supplies with their magnetic fields. Not unscientific.
On the other hand different racking systems and surfaces and mains plugging orders are not fully understood and likely to differ from system to sytem. Having played around with my system in my room I know what my preferences are but fully understand other peoples systems will be different or relatively un-noticeable.
For me this stuff is a case of free upgrades so i’ll usually try things out. Most of the above are small differences but they are additive.
All with a view to enjoying the music more.
@mikebu -that’s pretty much where I stand too, hence this afternoon’s experiments. If we reach strong conclusions, we’ll report them. However, no-two of us have identical kit, room and preferences, so there’s no replacement for giving it a try yourself.
I know you are taking it in a funny way. However I remember your ex Naim system, where all the components were stacking on each other, on a low effective rack.
Your new non Naim system fit much better in your space.
But Naim needs, on the contrary of most other brands, very careful set up to sound optimally. Specially the power supplies have to sit on a different rack and burndys need to be well de stressed and not touching themselves or anything. You find it funny but it’s a reality. It’s a bit sad you have not tried an optimal set up with your ex Naim components. You would be very surprised.
Now you have Dagostino and DCS. If you try one day some HRS stands under them , a good rack, or some Stillpoints, you will gain 15/20 % increase in sound.
Thanks Mr French Rooster. It is, indeed, irony/sarcasm/British sense of humour (or all three).
In all seriousness, I accept there is a strong element of compromise around my system. I choose to have a combined hifi and AV system, and like playing 4K movies with the D’agostino/Kudos as the front channels. This leaves the TV between the speakers, to get the full cinema effect.
If I did have a dedicated hifi room, Stillpoints would definitely be a rack I would go for, as per your suggestion. Take care
You can try and would know more than me. It came over from the UK with us 10 years ago, left over from some bedroom project in the past iirc. Works surprisingly well in this French ex farmhouse.
I have finally closed the lid on my project to repurpose an old (non working) Sony TC-209 SD cassette deck, which is now an RPi based music streamer using Picoreplayer software which I have found to be very competent.
I’m now feeling a bit lost for something to do, in that i’m not sure what to do for my next project, ideas anyone?