Soft or hard feet

Posted by: Matthew T on 21 March 2001

I noticed whilst tinkering with my hifi that my Naim CD player has hard feet whilst my Naim amps have soft feet. Assuming that this is intentional (would be pretty surprised if it wasn't) does this give some clue as to the kind of mounting these components work best with? - i.e. CD needs to be rigidly supported to minimise vibrations, both external and internal, whilst amps should be allowed to move freely under their own vibration (albeit, dampened) whilst being isolated from surrounding vibrations.

Any clues....

Matthew

Posted on: 21 March 2001 by Steve Toy
I experimented with sorbathane feet (soft) under my CD5. PR&t suffered, dynamics were muted and the soundstage shrank. Hey I should have left them there as I could at least hear a difference! wink
Posted on: 22 March 2001 by Matthew T
Thanks James.

I will keep that in mind when sorting out the support for my CDX.

Steven, did you try the Sorbothane feet under your Amps (naim?)?

Matthew

Posted on: 22 March 2001 by Steve Toy
No, I gave them to a friend with a Kenwood system, to separate his CD player from his amp. They seem to make a difference with mainstream gear. My old Rotel RCD 991 loved them!
Posted on: 23 March 2001 by Matthew T
Have any of you tried a granite or marble shelf, stone doesn't 'sing' like glass or wood?

Matthew

Posted on: 25 March 2001 by Peter Stockwell
Matthew,

I've discoverd with my system that massy supports tend to improve 'round earth' qualities, like bass weight, background silence, image size etc, at the expense of overall coherance of the sound. I mean that the Bass seems to take on a life of its own amd become detached from the rest of the musical message causing a 'slowing down' of the musical flow.

Peter

Posted on: 26 March 2001 by andrew mcmullins
I changed the wooden board that sat under my Transport (a Roksan DP-1) from the wooden board it came with to slate.

The improvement was wonderful in that the bass improved (yes even on my IBLs) but the music felt more focused. I'm not sure if people have tried different types of stone or stone verses glass etc. but if anyone has any observations I would be interested.