Poor man's Mana Soundbases?

Emil, it seems to have quite a lot of similarities with Mana! I should think they probably don't invest as much in special welding techniques (to avoid stress on the frame) and testing different materials -- for the price probably alright.

Thomas

quote:

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Originally posted by Emil:
But take a look at this Target stand.

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It's made of rectangular section steel tube, and if you look closely at the way it's put together, it is very unlikely that this will sound anything like Mana SoundBases, but may sound quite like a piece of marble. The blurb describes the shelf as "resting on cone points", which implies that the shelf will be entirely too soft and flexible (as it can't cope with splikes). Getting it properly level is likely to be a nightmare, and it will probably not stay the same shape for long. Don't make the mistake of thinking that speakers don't benefit from being level!

Mana SoundBases are made of right-angle section steel, with a fairly fine thread on both the upward and downward facing spikes, making adjustment relatively easy once you know what you're aiming at. Their board is a very hard, very stiff, fine-grained composite with known properties.

Marble is... well, it makes a flat surface which may may not be level, depending on what's under it. It is massive, and will therefore not tend to respond when your speakers try to get it going, with the result that your speaker cabinets will end up being subject to more vibration, rather than less. This may, of course, be preferable, until enough energy is fed into the marble for it to respond. At that point, being very massive, they will be hard to stop, and once again your speakers will be working with a handicap. If marble really does sound better than no marble, great! But then maybe the floor requires some attention.

Best;

Mark

I used to have a Target stand before the present Mana amp stand I now have.

Bearing in mind that the Mana stand cost me six times more than the Target stand, and that I had a home dem, do you think that is enough of an indication of the sound difference between them?

You might want to look at Blackfoot type speaker stands if you can find them. Two bar-like iron castings sit crosswise under the speaker with large downward facing *gold plated* spikes. If you drill them yourself at the spacing of your speaker's original spikes you can use standard screws to hold the Blackfeet in place by the speaker's spike screw holes.

It always seemed one of the easiest possible DIY projects. A couple of flat steel bars & some file sharpened screws for spikes. If you sharpen them in an electric drill they'll be prettier and quicker to make. Wrap the screws tightly with tape to protect the threads. Use a couple of nuts to adjust and lock each spike for height. One above and one below the bar.

If you want threads for your spikes in the bars and don't have thread cutting equipment. (one tap in the right size and a handle to drive it) Then a small local general engineer/smith could do it in minutes if you show him what size you need and where to drill the holes. Total materials cost less than a quid and the price of a pint to the thread cutter. Just don't tell him what it's for! Or he'll get greedy and multiply the cost by several thousand percent and start his own hifi support company where the bullshit factor vastly exceeds material costs.

The advantage of a Blackfoot type support is a much larger footprint. Particularly if you bung the Blackfoot'd speakers on 18" square paving slabs. Who needs marble, Target or Mana?

Nime

Everyone has the right to be wrong.

So you get what you pay for I figured I wasnt going to get anyone to say "sure, they're just as good" or "you'll get 90% of what MANA can give you."
So gentlemen, I was going to use the money to hicap my CD5 (source first, ya know) but would the money be better spent for MANA soundbases for my Mystiques?

CD5/Flatcap2/Nait 5

Thanks for your time

HiCap the CD5 first, and wait a bit while you get used to the result of that. Then try some SoundBases on demo. I've never heard your speakers, but I would expect the result to be of the same magnitude as adding the HiCap to the CD5, but in different areas. We also have CD5/HiCap and SoundBases, so I know what this sequence feels like -- you're in for a lot of fun!

Best;

Mark