Mana - with or without 3M feet??????????
Posted by: John on 17 October 2000
If you have read some of my previous postings you are aware that I
have a Mana two tier stand. When I purchased the stand the supplier
was out of the 3M pads that are suppose to go under the feet of the
CD player. My system is a CDX/XPS, 82Super, 135's, SBLs.
I just recently received the 3M pads for the player. I was expecting the
sound to improve from what I was hearing. The 3M pads totally changed
the character of the CDX from what I became normalized to without the
3M pads.
Without the 3M pads the sound has an extended high end with
a tight, tuneful and a harmonic tone to each instrument. I believed
this to be the Mana sound. With the pads the sound of each
instrument sound fuller but the harmonic tone and extended
high end is missing giving it a more compressed sound. The
pads however give the base more of a bouncing rythmic
presence.
I know people such as Vuk have been making rave reviews
about Mana but I would like to know who is using
the 3M pads under their player. I suspect the pads are truer to the
character of the CDX and without them there is some distortion
being created in the signal exagerating the high end. Otherwise
the pads are creating some distortion making the base maybe
more boomier and compressing the high end.
Posted on: 17 October 2000 by Former member
John (is there more to the name?),
I'm using the 3M feet, but for a while I did not and, compared to the Mana effect, the difference is hardly a big deal IMO. Nonetheless, your desciption parallels what I think I heard.
Vuk.
Posted on: 17 October 2000 by Former member
I've tried the feet under my CDS, but I prefer the sound without them. The feet seem to bring a warm, rounded sound to the CDS which makes it sound "analog".
Some of the Manaphiles swear by them, but I prefer the 3M pads under my LP12.
hockman
Posted on: 17 October 2000 by Laxton
Hello,
How does the 3M pad look like? Can it be bought off the shelf?
Regards
Laxton
Posted on: 18 October 2000 by Rico
quote:
Some of the Manaphiles swear by them, but I prefer the 3M pads under my LP12.
Hockman - Is that directly onto the plinth in place of the Linn rubber feet, or additional to the Linn rubber feet?
Rico - musichead
Posted on: 18 October 2000 by Martin Payne
Has anyone tried the 3M feet with the CDS-II?
I've read comments that the CDS-II does not respond as dramatically to Mana as the CDX, because of the better suspension, presumably.
I'd be interested for any comments on how the 3M feet affect this.
cheers, Martin
Posted on: 18 October 2000 by Keith Mattox
quote:
Hockman - Is that directly onto the plinth in place of the Linn rubber feet, or additional to the Linn rubber feet?
The word I received on the Exposure/Royd/Dynavector site was to remove the entire LP12 bottom (which includes the feet) and glue the little feet directly on the plinth.
Cheers
Keith. (not Hockman)
ex-audiophile
Posted on: 18 October 2000 by Former member
Rico:
I replied yesterday, but my post mysteriously disappeared!
The feet go onto the corners of the plinth, without the original Linn feet. I also remove the baseboard.
Hockman (yes, Hock) 
Posted on: 19 October 2000 by Willem van Gemert
Yesterday I was expecting a friend to come to my place to listen to the CDS he hadn't heard yet. I moved the CDS from the Mini Table and put it on a MDF shelf in my Apollo stand, so that he could hear the CDS with and without Mana. Finally we postponed the appointment till next week. I didn't plan to move the CDS back onto the Mini Table, until I tried a CD I bought yesterday which I remembered from my student days: Mother's Milk by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I put on track two
Higher Ground and I was surprised how bad it sounded. Something was clearly wrong with the recording I thought. Then I decided to put the CDS back on the Mini Table. Jezus, what a difference! There's nothing wrong with the recording. The bass sounded great, the guitar was screaming and the whole musical picture came together. I couldn't believe the difference! Still, I felt it sounded a bit too "sharp", so I added the Mana feet. In my system the CDS sounds clearly better with the feet. They take out a bit of the edge and make the bass sound a bit rounder.
I'll definitively repeat the experiment next week when my friend will come by.
Ciao!
Willem
P.S. Tried to post this yesterday, but as usual the forum was temporarily not available. This story start's getting very irritating 
Posted on: 19 October 2000 by Rico
Thanks Hock, I also replied to your reply yesterday but it got lost... I'll store that item away for future use. When next I run my LP12 it will be atop a Mana shelf.
I beleive the baseplate has a similar effect to the lid (when you're playing it, if you left it down)... acts as a sort of energy store.
best
Rico - musichead
Posted on: 19 October 2000 by Willem van Gemert
Rico,
At the beginning of this thread it says you have posted 240 messages. You post again, but you still have posted 240 messages. Same applies to Hock with 15 posted messages.
Not important, but I just noticed it.
Ciao!
Willem
Posted on: 19 October 2000 by Rico
Willem
thanks - very interesting! Perhaps some of us here have maxed out the Infopoop message counter! Sadly this would not attract further FEP's; rather VEP's (Verbiage Expenditure Points). 
Rico - musichead
Posted on: 19 October 2000 by Martin Payne
Rico,
the software gives you band up-to-date personal details (including number of posts) at the point where you download the page. Download it again after more posts have been made and you will see different figures again.
If you went back and looked at the thread containing your first posting it would currently show you as 'Posts:243'.
Similarly, when a number of members were persuaded to update their profiles with full names this was immediately shown on all of their posts back to day one.
cheers, Martin
[This message was edited by Martin Payne on THURSDAY 19 October 2000 at 22:05.]
Posted on: 19 October 2000 by Greg Beatty
...Vuk and I could "trade names" and *I* would get credit for all of his posts!!! WOO HOO!!!
Or I could change my name to one of those random letter/number combinations and cover my tracks when people read old threads... :::tee hee:::
- GregB
Freedom is not in finding the Holy Grail but in stopping the search for it
Posted on: 20 October 2000 by Rico
quote:
the software gives you band up-to-date personal details (including number of posts) at the point where you download the page. Download it again after more posts have been made and you will see different figures again.
What can I say? D'Oh!
Rico - musichead
Posted on: 21 October 2000 by Laxton
Can anyone give a rough description of the mana 3M rubber feets? Currently i have a cdx placed directly on top of 3 nordosts pulsar points and i am contemplating on getting a glass shelf to put between the two. Since the Nordosts PP works similarly to the manas, i was thinking maybe some 3M feet would be good.
Regards
Laxton
Posted on: 22 October 2000 by Former member
Would you mind telling me where you can purchase those feet? Does 3M have a website? Thanks
Ugo,
It don't mean a thing (if it ain't got that swing) - Duke Ellington
Posted on: 22 October 2000 by Former member
If you own a Mana and you ask John Watson NICELY, he will send you those feet, free. Heck, he may even throw in a T shirt to wear to any Naim demo.
Hock
Posted on: 23 October 2000 by Former member
What if you don't have any Mana gears??? Is it such a big secret these rubber feet? I suspect my dealer to have given me some of these BUT I'd like to check for myself before asking him.
Ugo,
It don't mean a thing (if it ain't got that swing) - Duke Ellington
Posted on: 23 October 2000 by Former member
quote:
What if you don't have any Mana gears???
Then there is no need for the feet.
Vuk.
Posted on: 23 October 2000 by Former member
Ugo:
I don't know where else you can get the 3M feet that Mana uses. They are simple rubber pads with stick-ons, probably not worth anyone's time to sell them retail.
I have no idea whether they work well on non-Mana stands. They seem to couple the equipment to the stands better than the regular LP12/CDS feet.
Again I make no recommendations -- try them out -- but I prefer my CDS without, my LP12 with.
Hock
Posted on: 24 October 2000 by Former member
Why? Because Mana and the rubber feet equal mental fraud?
Ugo,
It don't mean a thing (if it ain't got that swing) - Duke Ellington
Posted on: 24 October 2000 by Rico
Ugo
the 3M feet for use with Mana kit where equipment such as the CDX is used is to provide an emergy transfer 'impedence' match. It is not that they are 'superfeet'. Just a solution for (in this example) the mismatch between glass and aluminium feet.
So Vuk is right - if you don't have mana racks, you don't need these feet.
No smoke and mirrors at all, eh! Just common sense and a logical approach.
Rico - musichead
Posted on: 24 October 2000 by Joe Petrik
I think these are
it.
The trick is ordering less than 30,000 of them.
Joe
Posted on: 24 October 2000 by Top Cat
Interesting to note the wide choice of different feet - I wonder if anyone has experimented with them, or is there a good reason for picking the ones that Mana have. FWIW, I have replaced the rubber feet on my LP12 with a set of the 3M feet and it does work, albeit in a different way than I expected.
It would be interesting to hear the 3M sewing machine feet ;-)
TC '..'
Posted on: 24 October 2000 by Arthur Bye
quote:
I think these are it.
Joe:
I think you've found them. I wonder if the red or pink ones sound any different. I'll leave that as a project for Vuk. Maybe we'll all end up with pink rubber ball nuts.
Seriously though, I spoke with Steve at Flat Earth Audio a while back and he says the feet are less than 10 cents each. I imagine if you send him (or Mana) a self addressed envelope with a buck in it you'll get enough 3m feet for a decade or so.
Arthur Bye
