Quadraspire SVT Bronze Upgrade

Posted by: MDS on 27 June 2015

This afternoon my dealer brought over two sets of Quadraspire SVT bronze spikes to try on my Sunoko-Vent racks. These are intended to support the top shelf in a rack, further isolating the equipment sat on on it. The Quadraspire website suggests this is aimed at upgrading the performance of source components but in my system the top shelves of the ‘brain’ and ‘brawn’ racks are a 282 and its Supercap, respectively. But we thought it worth an experiment to see if supporting either of these components would reap a performance benefit when sat on a shelf supported by the bronze spikes.

First impressions of the spikes are they looks classy and well made. They come with a pair of white gloves with which they are meant to be handled, which provoked me into a little tease of my dealer (he doesn’t really look like a concierge).

Anyway I’ve a attached a few pics so folk can see what they look like in place (the spikes not the white gloves).

First up we tried putting the bronze spikes on the shelf supporting the Supercap. I wasn’t expecting to hear a difference but using Seal’s Killer as a test we both could hear subtle improvements with more detail and notes decay seemed to to be better resolved. So a subtle improvement but encouraged my dealer then put the second set of spikes on the shelf under the 282 and we played Killer again. Well about 10 secs into the song it was obvious we were listening to an improvement. Resolution was clearly improved and bass was deeper. Indeed you could feel it, as well as hear it. This was not subtle. Next up some Hugh Laurie. Again extra resolution and control was clear. We both agreed this was an excellent performance.

In discussion, we agreed the improvement in performance was similar to when we had tried Powerlines in my system a while back. My dealer felt it was like moving from Fraim-lite to full fat Fraim.

So I’ve got these bronze spikes on loan over the weekend to try a wider range on music but initial impressions are very favourable.

Mike

Posted on: 13 November 2015 by howiek

Hello

Can someone explain what is meant by "engineered on the underside". My SVT is about 3 years old and my MDF shelves have slats underneath but that is all. Thanks.

Posted on: 13 November 2015 by MDS

Originally Posted by howiek:

Hello

Can someone explain what is meant by "engineered on the underside". My SVT is about 3 years old and my MDF shelves have slats underneath but that is all. Thanks.

As well as the slats, the underside of the early shelves was machined with a pattern that dissipated resonances I think. The later shelves just have slats. I was told a different MDF mix was used on those which rendered the underside machining unnecessary. My rack has a mix of both types of shelf but you can't tell by looking at it as it's only on the underside that the difference can be seen.

Mike

Posted on: 13 November 2015 by howiek

Thanks Mike, Yes, my shelves have the pattern that you mention.

Posted on: 30 November 2015 by blownaway

Originally Posted by MDS:

Yes, HH. They definitely look better in the close-coupled configuration. In black I thought the bamboo looked very similar to the standard SVT, save for being slightly thinner. Actually while there's no engineering on the underside, the latest SVT doesn't have that either. I noticed that when ordering additional shelves when I split out the racks. My older ones have the engineering underneath but the recent ones just have the slats.

Mike

Hi Mike, where you able to get the SVT in the Black Bamboo finish? Can you post a close up picture of the grain of the stained black bamboo? thks

Posted on: 01 December 2015 by hungryhalibut

My plain bamboo shelves are completely smooth, so while you can see the different pieces of bamboo you cannot feel them. I imagine that the black version will also be completely smooth. I thought about the black, but went for plain as I like the contrast with the boxes: black boxes on black shelves with black legs are a bit too, well.... black to me. And they show the dust a lot more too....

Posted on: 01 December 2015 by AndyP19

Just set up my Quadraspires - Plain Bamboo with Bronze upgrades (exact same configuration as Keith (pic on Page 1) with the two units). Definite improvment in sound quality over a coffee table (inadequately supporting ND5 XS with PS, NAC 252, Supercap, NAP 300DR, PS).

Beautiful engineering and finish. I like the nice touch of providing a pair of white gloves to handle the bronze spikes! It's great to see a small company producing a quality product.

Posted on: 01 December 2015 by KRM

And as an added bonus, the bamboo seems to repel dust

Keith

Posted on: 10 December 2015 by blownaway

I was hoping with black bamboo you can still see some of the wood grain and it is a lighter black finish. Looks from Mikes black bamboo looks very similar to std black finish SVT.

Posted on: 10 December 2015 by MDS

blownaway posted:
I was hoping with black bamboo you can still see some of the wood grain and it is a lighter black finish. Looks from Mikes black bamboo looks very similar to std black finish SVT.

Yes, the black bamboo still has a visible grain and to my eyes the black is identical to the normal black SVT.

Mike

Posted on: 10 December 2015 by blownaway

MDS posted:
blownaway posted:
I was hoping with black bamboo you can still see some of the wood grain and it is a lighter black finish. Looks from Mikes black bamboo looks very similar to std black finish SVT.

Yes, the black bamboo still has a visible grain and to my eyes the black is identical to the normal black SVT.
Mike

Ok Mike, thanks for the clarification. Still sound like it would be a little more interesting looking than the normal black but hard to tell the difference from far away.

I would love to see a picture of the Black Bamboo. I've been waiting for a picture for weeks from my dealer without any luck. Can you help me out?

For whatever reason I'm attracted to the black bamboo & silver combo with Naim boxes and my speakers but I would like to see a picture of the finish before I put in a custom order.

With Krell...

Posted on: 10 December 2015 by MDS

blownaway posted:
MDS posted:
blownaway posted:
I was hoping with black bamboo you can still see some of the wood grain and it is a lighter black finish. Looks from Mikes black bamboo looks very similar to std black finish SVT.

Yes, the black bamboo still has a visible grain and to my eyes the black is identical to the normal black SVT.
Mike
Ok Mike, thanks for the clarification. Still sound like it would be a little more interesting looking than the normal black but hard to tell the difference from far away.
I would love to see a picture of the Black Bamboo. I've been waiting for a picture for weeks from my dealer without any luck. Can you help me out?
For whatever reason I'm attracted to the black bamboo & silver combo with Naim boxes and my speakers but I would like to see a picture of the finish before I put in a custom order.
With Krell...

Ok. I'll have a go but suspect I'll need natural light in the room to get a decent close up of the grain which probably means trying to take a pic tomorrow.

Mike

Posted on: 10 December 2015 by blownaway

Sounds great, I agree natural light is best.

Posted on: 11 December 2015 by blownaway

Thanks Mike.

Posted on: 11 December 2015 by MDS

For Blownaway:

Didn't manage to catch much natural light this afternoon so this photo is mainly flash-supported.

The grain is quite subtle, and much less pronounced than the standard SVT.

Hope this helps, at least a bit.

Mike

Posted on: 11 December 2015 by hungryhalibut

Assuming the black is just a stained version of the natural one, it's not really grain as such, because the bamboo shelf is bits of bamboo all stuck together. So it's never going to look like black ash veneer, which may be a good or a bad thing, depending on one's point of view.

Posted on: 11 December 2015 by blownaway

MDS posted:
For Blownaway:
Didn't manage to catch much natural light this afternoon so this photo is mainly flash-supported.
The grain is quite subtle, and much less pronounced than the standard SVT.
Hope this helps, at least a bit.

Mike

Hi Mike, thanks for the picture. Looks like the bamboo slats are subtle which is fine with me.

Posted on: 11 December 2015 by blownaway

Hungryhalibut posted:
Assuming the black is just a stained version of the natural one, it's not really grain as such, because the bamboo shelf is bits of bamboo all stuck together. So it's never going to look like black ash veneer, which may be a good or a bad thing, depending on one's point of view.

I'm indifferent, but like that it has a different appearance than black ash.

Posted on: 11 December 2015 by hungryhalibut

Natural's much nicer in my view, and you can see how it's made.