OTL Asylum

OTL, Output Transformerless Amplifier User Group.

Return to OTL Asylum

Message Sort: Post Order or Asylum Reverse Threaded

Amp Footers

75.71.37.161
Posted on April 12, 2016 at 15:17:26
throwback
Audiophile

Posts: 762
Location: Colorado
Joined: December 8, 2003
 Once I get started it's hard to stop. So: Stillpoints, Herbie's, Rize Footers by Critical Mass Systems, the stock feet, or it don't make no nevermind?

 

Hide full thread outline!
    ...
IMO, each one will sound different. I decided years ago..., posted on April 12, 2016 at 22:08:30
jeffreybehr
Audiophile

Posts: 5707
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Joined: December 10, 2004
Contributor
  Since: December 13, 2004
 ...that the isolation or coupling of equipment was a black art and I wasn't spending many hundred$ on fancy feet. I do believe in isolating amps and other equipment with Herbies' Tenderfoots*, and I have dozens in my system. You might try the Wagner-brand isolation pads discussed here...
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/tweaks/messages/20/200456.html
I'm now isolating amps from my carpeted floors (over a concrete slab) using these; can't say I hear a difference between that and my much-labored-over newish constrained-layer-damped amppad spiked to the concrete.

* 'Tenderfoot' is Herbies' trademark, and I've never seen him use the term 'Tenderfeet', so Tenderfoots it is.

 

RE: Amp Footers, posted on April 15, 2016 at 08:17:09
Lew
Audiophile

Posts: 10911
Location: Bethesda, Maryland
Joined: December 11, 2000
 I use the huge Mapleshade brass tiptoes sitting on or in a hardwood cutting board that I bought from a kitchen supply store, not from an audio vendor. (Three tiptoes per Atma-sphere monoblock.) That big heavy board sits atop a pair of Sound Anchor amplifier stands, which itself has Simply Physics tiptoe feet. I don't like mushy things under my electronics, in general, but I do use Herbie's squash balls in a cup under something somewhere. ( I lose track of the two systems at times.) Herbie's balls compress up to a point but are not mushy. (Apologies to Mrs Herbie.) I am also a big fan of Goldmund cones under my preamplifiers. As you may know, I use small cans of Mandarin Orange slices in water, sitting on a tiptoe, under two of my turntables with home-made slate plinths. The SP10 Mk3 has Stillpoints.

 

RE: Amp Footers, posted on April 17, 2016 at 07:20:30
throwback
Audiophile

Posts: 762
Location: Colorado
Joined: December 8, 2003
 OK, so you guys have found that different footers DO make a difference. It's not just my imagination. Now it's just a question of which one sounds best (and if I can afford the answer). The Critical Mass footers made a nice difference under my Dynamic Sounds Associates Pre (amp) and Phono II so I guess I'll try them under my Atmas. Nice that I can send them back if they don't do it for me.

 

Amp Footers and how to use them, posted on April 19, 2016 at 09:48:00
Ralph
Manufacturer

Posts: 4769
Location: Minnesota
Joined: April 24, 2002
 Points and squishys have their uses!

Generally points are used when you want to move vibration away from whatever is resting on the points. This is an old concept- the table for my LP mastering lathe, which was made in the late 1940s, employs points. So audiophiles are not making that idea up!!

Squishys are used when you want to isolate the device from vibration that might be around it. Again this idea is very old- Ampex used special isolation grommets on their tube sockets decades ago for this reason.

Its up to you to sort out if the surface on which you place your amp or preamp is going to be more or less dead than the unit itself. If more dead, as in the case of an isolation platform, use points. If less dead, as in a wooden shelf that might be part of some non-audiophile furniture, use squishys.

Points that can relieve side to side vibration without impairing vertical vibration will be superior in most cases to points that lack this ability. Examples of such are Symposium, Stillpoints and Aurios.

If you are using an equipment stand, it should be dead and non-resonant! At least one stand we know of from a well-known points manufacturer is highly resonant and makes things worse instead of better. Generally if you can tap on the stand and hear it through the speaker that is a bad thing. Sound Anchors and SRA are examples of two stands that can be quite dead.

My installation at home uses a Sound Anchors stand mounted on three Aurios Pro bearings which relieve side to side motion (and eliminated foot falls). The stand is custom-built to accommodate my preamp and turntable, both of which are perched on isolation platforms (and employing squishys between the platforms and the stand itself).

Doing these things paid off- I can play the system at really high volumes and it never sounds loud. It also helped with bass impact.

 

Page processed in 0.020 seconds.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]