Iso Acoustics GAIA III Isolation Feet for Ovator 400s?

Hook posted:

Has anyone tried these?  If yes, what did you think?

There are not outrageously expensive, so I was thinking about getting a set for my 400s.

Speaking of 400s, can someone please tell me the spike thread size? I looked at the manual, and did a forum search, but no luck. The GAIAs include M8, M6 and ¼-20 threads.

ATB.

Hook

it is efficient on little standmounth speakers but not for heavy floorstanders. I recommend you a lot better some cerapucks or cerabases from finite elemente, or stillpoints. I replaces the spikes and is fitted with ceramic balls in heavy steel cups. Bw loudspeakers use the cerabases in their nautilus line.

Stillpoints FTW but at a price.

Hi Hook,  I would question the effectiveness of compliant feet under Ovators,  they already have a purpose designed decoupling spring between plinth & enclosure & I'm concerned that another layer of decoupling could be detrimental.   Sorry I know its not an answer;  but for me this is a try before buy,  but in the meantime do nothing unless a forumite has a definitive answer.

Is this just curiosity or do you have an issue with sound transmission through the floor?

As Yeti suspected, this is mostly a curiosity.  My floor is suspended, but very solid (three layers of wood - glued and screwed).  At the modest listening levels I am used to, there is only minimal vibration being transmitted.

Finite Elemente and Stillpoints both cost more than I would like to spend, so affordability is the primary reason why I considered the GAIAs.  Had also read about an A/B demo they did last year at RMAF (using Focal speakers) which had some very positive reviews.

Mike makes a great point. Given the 400s are already decoupled, is there really anything more to gain with new footers?  I think I will follow his advice. Unless I find a way to try before buying, or hear a more compelling argument for purchase, I will stand pat for now.

Thanks to all for the replies!

Hook

They do look rather nice and shiny.   Having a compliant bottom that sticks to the floor might make those tiny incremental movements to get that sweet spot difficult.

This comes too late for me, I've taken a punt  on a set of small herbie's.p gliders. Their intended use is not the NBLs in my home system but the Theil cs1.6s in our flat in France which have the potential to elicit complaints from the flat below. I won't be visiting Montpellier until September at the earliest if I have any say in it and if they work as I hope I'll never know, any improvement in sound will be incidental but once complaints start they tend never to stop and that can ruin a systems performance like nothing else.

Mike-B + 1

Naim's mechanical engineers will have thought the Ovator feet through. This based on good chat with one of them at a product launch a couple of years ago.

Hook posted:

Has anyone tried these?  If yes, what did you think?

There are not outrageously expensive, so I was thinking about getting a set for my 400s.

Speaking of 400s, can someone please tell me the spike thread size? I looked at the manual, and did a forum search, but no luck. The GAIAs include M8, M6 and ¼-20 threads.

ATB.

Hook

The thread size of my S-400 is M8. I have tried replacing the S-400 spikes with Audioplan's antispikes and putting Naim's chips and Audioplan's TransferDiscs between the S-400 spikes and my wooden floor. The TransferDiscs under the original S-400 spikes worked best for me. Best, nbpf 

Finite elements ceraball universals are cheaper than those of the original posted versions.

can take the weight of a semi large speaker no problem, and can easily be moved around when under.

no compliance, but offer a rigid energy transfer. Goes with speakers that might thrum along with the music, and also good with speakers that have a rigid theoretical and mechanical energy transfer but with acoustically room differentiation problems.  probably not so good with speakers like the Ovators, but then who knows. These things are rule breakers..

TOBYJUG posted:

Finite elements ceraball universals are cheaper than those of the original posted versions.

can take the weight of a semi large speaker no problem, and can easily be moved around when under.

no compliance, but offer a rigid energy transfer. Goes with speakers that might thrum along with the music, and also good with speakers that have a rigid theoretical and mechanical energy transfer but with acoustically room differentiation problems.  probably not so good with speakers like the Ovators, but then who knows. These things are rule breakers..

i think you are right: it is cheaper than cerapucks or cerabases, and very effective for the price.

My speakers have 30 kg weight also, like the ovators: i have had ceraballs then cerapucks and now cerabases, a step in sound quality in each time. My floor is not good, so it is very effective.

I don't know for the ovators but i would try , and if not satisfied, i would return the ceraballs.

I tried Gaia II's under my speakers and the result is quite spectacular! Globs of details that were simply not there before.

But since the S-400's already have a built-in isolation system, you should really try them first...

Hook posted:

Has anyone tried these?  If yes, what did you think?

There are not outrageously expensive, so I was thinking about getting a set for my 400s.

Speaking of 400s, can someone please tell me the spike thread size? I looked at the manual, and did a forum search, but no luck. The GAIAs include M8, M6 and ¼-20 threads.

ATB.

Hook

i have made a mistake with other product which has a quite same name. I think it will be surely a good decoupling for your ovators.   Finite elemente cerabases, cerapucks are not produced anymore. Perhaps you can find good prices used too.  From what i found on the iso acoustics gaia, i think that cerapucks are better.  But it has to be proved or read on forums...

New cerapucks, set of 8, were 800 euros ( 700 GBP).  iso acoustic gaia are 350 GBP new.

Keler Pierre posted:

Hook posted:

Has anyone tried these?  If yes, what did you think?

There are not outrageously expensive, so I was thinking about getting a set for my 400s.

Speaking of 400s, can someone please tell me the spike thread size? I looked at the manual, and did a forum search, but no luck. The GAIAs include M8, M6 and ¼-20 threads.

ATB.

Hook

it is efficient on little standmounth speakers but not for heavy floorstanders. I recommend you a lot better some cerapucks or cerabases from finite elemente, or stillpoints. I replaces the spikes and is fitted with ceramic balls in heavy steel cups. Bw loudspeakers use the cerabases in their nautilus line.

efficient also on big loudspeakers...i was thinking of an other product which have a quite same name....not this one.

A friend purchased the Iso Acoustics GAIA Isolation Feet for a pair of Kudos X2 and it improved things quite a bit. His speakers were on bouncy wooden floors with no solid sub-floor. Bass became less muddy, more focused. A overall general improvement in his particular case. Also a little more affordable than the Trak Audio feet, which he was also considering.

Some three years back I bought Townsend Speaker Isolation bars for my Ovator 600's. They made a substantial improvement to the performance of the speakers, eliminating the bass issues I had previously experienced.