Any experience with Isoblue?

undertone: a five-level isoblue supports all my "source" components - have had for > 2 years now - good rack. the power stuff is on an old quadraspire. i feel there is no need to change my racks till i can afford the fraim.

what are you using currently?

enjoy

ken

As you're aware, it's made in the UK by a small specialist manufacturer, so there's no need to ask if it's any good or not. Just buy it.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mike Sae:
As you're aware, it's made in the UK by a small specialist manufacturer, so there's no need to ask if it's any good or not. Just buy it.

---

Cheers Mike. It's nice to know I can always depend on you to pretend you care.

What, nothing to do on a beautiful sunny Vancouver day? Don't tell me that the Naim Groupie meeting down at Alex's house of rudeness get cancelled today?
How's his business doing, haven't heard a squeak in the longest time?

It's actually raining today, I have to work and on top of that, the meeting was cancelled at the house of rudeness.

They have replaced their company fleet of Chryslers with customized Mercedes wagons, so I guess they've got the proverbial license to print money.
Not that I condone that type of thing.

In any event, I reckon the Isoblue will be anything but ear bleeding, so I suggest you have at!

Raining in Vancouver, go figure.

A fleet of customized MB's? I wonder if his creditors know?

They do now.

Kaboomching!

ps check your private topics

[This message was edited by Mike Sae on SUNDAY 13 July 2003 at 02:55.]

mr. undertone

The isoblue is fantastic value for money. It's an acquired taste in terms of looks, and in my view the cherry is the best colour for it. The maple tends to look tired I think, whereas the cherry looks smart.

Sonically it's right up there. It doesn't have the see-through transparency of the Fraim or the solid feel of the Hutter, but it has a great sense of rhythm and music just flows progressively when it's used. It's an effective system and the price is just the icing on the cake.

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

I use a seven shelf stack of Isoblue - looks very neat in Light Oak finish and I am happy with its performance in terms of sound quality. Seems to be fairly neutral and does not have a noticeable sonic signature, although I have not compared it to other popular stands in my home, only at the dealer. Also doesn't have any tricky set-up issues so is user friendly in that respect.

Jo

Frank,

quote:

---

Sonically it's right up there. It doesn't have the see-through transparency of the Fraim or the solid feel of the Hutter, but it has a great sense of rhythm and music just flows progressively when it's used.

---

how do you compare the Isoblue to the standard QS? Does it solve the timbral and resolving limits of the latter?

As a side issue, I'm wondering if it is worth the money compared to the Hutter, cause the general opinion seems to consider Hutter a superior table and the Isoblue's cost doesn't look to me sensibly inferior. Sorry for my purely theorical considerations, but I cannot compare any of these tables - bar QS, which I own - by myself cause they aren't imported in Italy.

Best regards,
Ciao
Paolo

Paolo,

I've never used the Isoblue with Linn gear so take this into consideration when you read my reply.

With other systems such as Naim, Chord Electronics, TAG McLaren, the isoblue annihilates the standard Quadraspire rack. The Hutter has similar performance but it places slightly different emphasis on the frequency response of the kit. The Hutter can either sound a touch bright or a touch dead depending on what's on it. It tends to deaden Naim systems a little, but it can accentuate a little brightness in the Chords for example. The isoblue is quite different in that it's much more about a cohesive 'together' presentation than the more airy Hutter presentation. Subjectively, it may seem that the isoblue doesn't have the frequency extremes that the Hutter pulls out of the kit, but it seems to have a more tuneful bass. Certainly it doesn't sound as dead as the QS rack.

I hope this helps!

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

Frank,
many thanks for you very interesting description! I must confess it's very difficoult for me to take a decision without listening by myself, anyway I'd surely like to upgrade from standard QS (also my old Audiotech racks, which are beaten overall by QS, have nevertheless clearly the edge on some aspects, particularly resolution, quickness and neutrality). I like its cohesiveness and its good tune but its shortcomings are quite obviuos indeed.
Your opinion is very helpful indeed, I really rate cohesion, tune and rhythm. Fear Hutter could be a bit too cold/detached and lacking "togetherness" for my tastes (guess I could easily be wrong, this is just an impression from reading some comments on the net).
Thanks again.

Ciao
Paolo

Alex,
thanks for your reply.

I've been told the QS ref. lacks exactly what I like in the standard, i.e. cohesion. Again, it's just what I've heard from more than one flath earther, but it's enought to make me be quite doubtful about it (needless to say Italian QS distributor
doesn't distribute the reference....sic!)

Ciao
Paolo