Quadraspire SVT Bronze Upgrade

Hmm. These add ons suggest to me that the design was compromised in the first place. The bronze looks a bit brassy to me, like a barmaid from the Rovers Return. They look like a bit of a bodge job: a brassy bit and a silver bit inserted into something that looked nice and understated before. They may be the bees' knees of course. 

Eye of the beholder and all that, HH

My racks are completely black: shelves and columns, so coupled with the black boxes the only break from the colour scheme if the green-light logos.  At the moment I'm thinking the bronze givers a nice contrast but I see if the feeling remains over the weekend.

Have you ever considered Fraim glass and balls Mike. It made a significant improvement when I had Isoblue.  If those spikes work for you that's great. They don't look bad. Are they expensive and how many do you need?

Steve

Hi Steve.  Yes, I've thought about Fraim.  While it's a fair bit more expensive than the SVT I love the look of it, especially in black and cherry, but my problem is space.  My dealer has confirmed that two Fraim racks side-by-side would be significantly wider than my current racks and necessitate moving my left-hand Electra. So it's not an option with the way I have my listening room arranged at the moment.  And in years gone by I've tried speakers set up firing up and down the room and I'm convinced that the optimal set up is speakers either side of the fire-place firing across the room so I'm stuck with the current configuration.

Re price, I'm not absolutely sure but I think each spike is £100 so £400 for a shelf.  I think a set for the shelf supporting the 282 is a bit of a no-brainer so I need to decide whether another set providing a much more subtle improvement on the SC and visual harmony is worth another £400.

Mike

Mike -

Have you tried ball bearings sitting in the recess of the uprights? i.e. kinda half-way to a Fraim set-up?

The economics of this do raise questions - and perhaps like HH, retro-fitting isn't always the best solution.

Mike,

I meant have you considered glass and balls on your SVT? It would work out cheaper than the spikes and maybe even better. I'm sure your dealer could arrange a demo.

Ah! Now I'm with you, Steve, and no I haven't thought about that.  Hmm.....

Worth trying IMO Mike.

Hi Mike,

Awesome, aren't they. They make a lovely improvement to my NDS and transform the LP12. I keep getting that thing when you cue up a record and have to check the input because the noise floor is so quiet.

I have the same problem as you. The Fraim is too wide for corner of the room where the hi-fi is (plus it's a tad expensive!). Never the less, the Q4 was a little outclassed by the boxes that it now supports. The spikes plus the bamboo have addressed the problem. It's a pity the don't do the bamboo in black.

HH, they look classy, not brassy. If the Quadraspire rack without the spikes is compromised then perhaps the Superuniti is compromised without a separate power amp?

Keith

Yes, Keith. You're right about the falling noise floor. Should have mentioned that.  

Mike

A friend of mine has a Hutter rack. I don't like the look of it.

Eye of the beholder and all that, Mike 

Steve's suggestion of trying glass and balls is a good one. I'm in the process of adding more to my gorgeous Hutter 

I don't get Hutter. Spruce shelves linked by aluminium uprights (available in a brass finish, ironically). There doesn't seem to be much going on to isolate/ground your hi-fi. My dealer told me that Hutter would be step in wrong direction when I asked him about Hutter. Still, it's all about opinions.

Keith

Been awhile since I've looked closely at my setup and difficult for me to get to that room (permanent disability),but I have the double wide rack and also the wall shelf for the tt. Do you know if those brass spikes would work on the tt shelf?

Hi Keith - does he stock Hutter, and if so did you have a listen?

Looking at your photos it looks like the tops are not screwed down enough? I recently borrowed a set but they came with no instructions so I screwed them tightly together. I'm now not sure if this is right after looking at how you have them set. I have to say they did not impress me. I thought they sounded a bit less natural than the standard QS top. Very noticeable on applause and piano. I ended up sending them back a little underwhelmed and slightly disappointed.

For £200 they jolly well should provide an improvement, if only to Quadraspire's cash flow.  

I actually really like the look of the Quadraspire stuff, especially the SVT, which I thought seriously about before buying my current rack. It's the idea of adding bits on that I find a little challenging, and they do look a bit odd - a curved black leg with a flat silver top and then a curved bronze spike.

Other racks seem to be designed as an integrated whole from the start: witness the Fraim, the Fraim Lite and Isoblue, not to mention the other one.

I'm sure Mike has them set properly: it's all part of the decoupled design. If it's screwed up really tightly it won't work as intended. 

HH is right, the SVT has additional isolation which causes the gap.

HH, so by your logiic discretely regulated power supplies and amps should be avoided and even your Superuniti is suspect because it's based on the Uniti and therefore is not designed as an integrated whole ;-)

Keith

Well no, because the DR amps have been reworked, rather than just having something added as a retrofit. Of course it doesn't matter really, it's just that they look a bit odd to me, but if they make £200's worth of difference that's got to be good. You can extract more from what you have rather than having to start again. Ok, I'm a convert!

Well done HH (the DR upgrade is available as a retro fit, by the way :-)

The spikes were developed for the new Reference table (which has them on every shelf) so it was an obvious step to offer them to existing customers.

Mike has them directly onto his uprights, but you can also put them on the existing top shelf and add a new top shelf ( so you get small gap between shelves like the base level on the Fraim). I am experimenting with this configuration which is supposed to sound slightly better.

Honestly, they look smart and put my humble table into a different league, especially in combination with bamboo shelves. You may know that Quadraspire are now manufacturing an LP12 plinth from a single piece of bamboo, which is getting rave reviews from the press and users. Roy Gregory has reviewed both bamboo products on the Audio Beat website which is over the top, even by his lofty standards!

I'm sure the Hutter is good too

Keith

So I’ve done a bit more listening now eg Mark Black, Supertramp, Tori Amos, We Are The Fallen.  

Day one impressions of extra detail retrieval are still there.  Complex music music more easily resolving the multiple layers.  The other thing I’m noticing are that plucked strings whether acoustic guitar, electric guitar and even double-bass seem a bit clearer and more noticeable. The left to right soundstage seems more stable, vocalists’ positions being solid.  The depth of the front to back soundstage seems to have extended too. Then there’s the impact on bass.  This is a little difficult to describe.  It’s not so much an increase in quantity or more oomph.  Rather it feels as if its widened out, almost as if my listening room has become bigger somehow. I initially perceived this to be the bass being a bit slower, which I wasn’t sure about, but it’s more than that.  Upping the volume is too easily done, too.  

Mike 

Quite so, Chris.  With Hutter, it's not so much the shelves as the aluminium columns that I'm not keen on.  I do though think it is nicely compact, which must be a key factor in some set-ups.  

Mike

I do indeed, HH. My dealer is meticulous in such matters.