A Tweak Too Far ( one to avoid )

Posted by: Tarquin Maynard - Portly on 30 March 2003

Muchachos

Having recently added the Ku Stone supports ( actually they are the polymer stands, but commonly known as Ku Stone ) I have been thinking about my Kabers. They where on the spikes going through to carpet, as per usual.

I decided that it would likely improve the sound if I could get them onto some kind of stone slab effort, raising them out of the carpet pile, etc.

Found a set from Focus that fitted perfectly under the stands, toned in with the decor and where dead cheap. Managed to sneak them in while The Nagger was out, installed them, levelled off and played some vinyl.

Immediately noticed that the treble was mushy, midrange blurred and I almost questioned my Akiva. ( almost...). Well these things need a while to settle in, I told myself; give it a day or two to bed in again and wait for grin factor to reappear.

Took a week for it to come back; grin factor returned the instant I took the bloody slabs away and stuck them in the garden.

All Is Well; Normal Service Has been Resumed.

Even better, brownie points as The Nagger thinks I have been buying paving stones for the garden.

Mike, ever the wiser.....
Posted on: 30 March 2003 by Toksik
Mike,thanks for the useful info regarding paving slabs under your Kabers!.
mine are thru' the carpet too and have toyed with this (upgrade).my floor is suspended and i feel the lower frequencies being transmitted via the basement when the Nagger is out!.
these speakers really move some air!.
dennis Cool
Posted on: 30 March 2003 by Steve Toy
I have a pair of slate slabs kindly given to me by Stallion. I haven't tried them yet cos I have a suspended wooden floor with a thick carpet above.

I just imagine my speaks upon Mana Sound Bases writhing around and creating lots of mush on the slabs, carpet, and floorboards beneath.

The slabs probably work well on concrete floors, so I'll keep the them for when I get my own place with a nice solid concrete floor in my listening room.



Regards,

Steve.
Posted on: 30 March 2003 by Rico
Steve

have the underside of the slate slabs drilled to accept threaded inserts, epoxy them in, add spikes, level up and away you go. X-head screws under the spikes should help. One of the big failures of adding slabs under equipment is that there's usually a compliant covering underneath, or a less-than-ideal floor interface.

If you wind up with a concrete floor the slabs will be entirely unecesssary.

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio
Posted on: 31 March 2003 by Tarquin Maynard - Portly
Muchachos

Point I should have mentioned - under the carpet is a concrete floor.

Mike
Posted on: 31 March 2003 by bjorne
Rob. I use these myself with my floorstanders on wooden floor and for me they work very well.

www.sonicdesign.co.uk.
Posted on: 01 April 2003 by syd
I've just recently reversed a tweak of a few weeks ago involving RA power cables. I fitted them to my Hi and 250 and waited for a few weeks but no improvement, instead the PRaT was all over the place and the stereo soundstage did strange things. Reverted back last night to standard Naim cables and all is bliss once more. The RA cables work fine on my non naim CDP and other sources but for definate not in Naim Amps. I wouldn't have beleived how much damage they did to the system. Can any body explain how the stereo soundstage moves about from hour to hour with non Naim cables on?

Yours in Music

Syd
Posted on: 01 April 2003 by Mr_Sukebe
I have concrete slabs under my own Kabers, and believe that they do a great job of improving bass control on the speakers. I also have a concrete floor.
I assume it's a question of room interaction and what you prefer. I found that prior to the slabs that the bass had a large "hump" in it, somewhat uncomfortably so at times.
Could be that your room doesn't give such a pronounced "hump" and that you prefer the effects of it.

I'd certainly contend that the slabs give a more consistent frequency response.
Posted on: 02 April 2003 by Tarquin Maynard - Portly
Labrax

The Ku Stones are a really nice improvement on the Kabers - and bloody hard to find - give them a chance and see what you think.

Concerning the concrete slabs, wait a while before you get them to measure the improvement from the Ku Stones, but for £20 its not a bad experiment; if it goes wrong not the end of the world.

Mr Sukube seems to like them, though, so who knows?

Regards

Mike
Posted on: 06 April 2003 by Wiltshireman
Try cross headed screws screwed directly into the floorboards and then place your spikes into the screw tops, it's just a thought it might help. I have a concrete floor covered with laminate flooring and that really did my sound no good at all but four screws through the laminate into the concrete did wonders.
Posted on: 06 April 2003 by oldie
cross headed screwsand spikes are one of the oldest and cheapest "tweeks" that you can do, they have been around fo decades always advised by the "old" Naim Dealers long before the new slate, plastic, artificial stone metal etc. interface modules were imposed upon us I sometimes wonder if some of my fellow Naimers are more interstested in tweeks than music I follow this forum with interest, but I must say that I'm very disapointed that there are more
comments on tweeking than the ability of Naim equipment to allow you to enjoy the music after all that is why most of us end up buying from the Naim stable forget the stands, blue tac, sticky fixers and concrete slabs. If those things are so important to you forget music and get a job in the constrution industry it's far cheaper

enjoy the music
Oldie
Posted on: 06 April 2003 by Tarquin Maynard - Portly
quote:
Originally posted by oldie:
enjoy the music
Oldie


Oldie

I usually do - and sometimes enjoy it even more following some judicious tweaks.

Regards

Mike