[Hamsta]

Quote:

Originally posted by jude My Audioquest Sorbothane feet just arrived (my wife called to tell me). So I'll give those a try when I get home. Ever since seeing Sorbothane on the TV show That's Incredible, I've been amazed by the stuff (our young members are wondering what show I'm talking about). I am actually hoping for (and expecting) some improvements with these things.

And now continuing the discussion WAAAAY off-topic....

THAT'S INCREDIBLE! Ah, the memories come flooding back. Friday evenings in front of the box watching "Those Incredible Kids" and "Do You Believe In Ghosts?". Correct me if I'm wrong but weren't the presenters John Davidson (came out to NZ and did some ads for Toyota - guess what the catch-phrase was), Cathy-Lee Crosby (Farrah Fawcett-Majors a la Charlies' Angels lookalike), and Dick Turkington (?? - you know, the balding guy).

WHOOOOAAAAA!!!! Head-rush!

 

[Holy Zoo]

Quote:

Originally posted by Hamsta THAT'S INCREDIBLE! [...] Dick Turkington

Close! That would be Fran Tarkington

 

[jude]

Dick Turkington....LOL!

I loved that show when I was a kid.

Well, the Sorbothane feet arrived. They are pretty darned wild. Again, if you've ever played with big chunks of Sorbothane (which is what these are), you'd know what I mean.

They are so yielding and mushy that one has to keep in mind the weight distribution of the target component, lest said component sit crooked. Luckily, I was able to get my SCD-C333ES to sit level on them (with a little adjustment using cut-up mousepad squares as shims) -- yes, I actually checked it all out with a level.

The directions suggest you try not to place them under the component's existing feet. Rather, you're supposed to couple them directly to the flat parts of the bottom of the target component. If anyone here has a SCD-C333ES, have a look underneath it, and you'll see how challenging this can be -- the 333 is anything but flat across the bottom, and each one of the Sorbothane feet is a largish 2.25" in diameter. The front-left pad had to be put round-side-up so that it wasn't sticking past the left edge and potentially blocking one of the 333's side vents.

So far so good. Will try to report back soon with notes on any audible performance enhancements.

 

[Hamsta]

Hmmmm........ "Dick" Turkington

- must've been a Freudian slip. But "Fran"??! - Oh puh-lease, Mr Sheffield! And I'm SURE he was bald....... or maybe my subconscious just mistook that really bad haircut for a toupe.

Jude - they recommend placing the cones/feet/whatever directly under the body of the component rather than under the feet because the feet are generally the second-to-last thing the manufacturers bother spending any money on (i.e. low quality). And what's the last thing?..... The headphone output, of course.

Cheers
Hamsta

 

[morphsci]

If the feet on your Sony are removable you can take them off and you may have additional options for foot placement.

 

[acidtripwow]

Hey Jude, did you see the July/August issue of Listener magazine? They have an article on tweaking. I just picked up the issue today but have not read it, yet.

 

[jude]

Quote:

Originally posted by acidtripwow Hey Jude, did you see the July/August issue of Listener magazine? They have an article on tweaking. I just picked up the issue today but have not read it, yet.

acid,

I haven't seen that issue. If you read anything interesting, please pass it along!

-- Jude --

 

[jude]

Quote:

Originally posted by morphsci If the feet on your Sony are removable you can take them off and you may have additional options for foot placement.

morphsci,

Duh. I almost slapped myself for not even thinking about that until I read your post. Funny thing is that I had moved the pads underneath the stock feet, and so my 333 was looking like it was on stilts -- a bit ridiculous looking actually. Thanks to your suggestion, I removed the stock feet (one screw held each in), and put the big Sorbothane feet in their place. Now the unit is exhibiting great stability with the feet all the way out at the corners, and it's not elevated like a coastal house anymore! Thanks again, morphsci.

 

[acidtripwow]

Jude, after reading the article I found they really liked the Symposium Rollerblocks $299 (with tungsten carbide balls $25 each). The link is symposiumusa.com.

Also, on one review by Art Dudley he recommended the Shun Mook Mpingo Disc $50. The link is shunmook.com. He tried it on his Sony SCD-777ES SACD player and really liked it. Below is what he had to say.

As regular readers know, I own and enjoy a Sony SACD player - an SCD-777ES to be percise. Unadorned, it sounds beautiful. But when I place a Mpingo Disc atop the 777's sliding disc door, the sound opens up noticeably, and I can make out musical and sonic details more easily. Seriously.

Just some tweaks you may want to check out.
Acid

 

[grrr223]

Wow, I wish I could start a business selling esoteric items that no one really needs yet at the same time no one can really prove that they don't work.

Sorry about that, I haven't bothered tweaking much of my equipment yet because I live in a frat at school and it's just not worth the effort, I'm sure that many of these things work, like the isolation products that jude and others are talking about, but that mingo disc website is quite amusing you have to admit.

 

[jude]

Quote from their site:

Quote:

The Mpingo Disc is invented by the Shun Mook team. It is made from a combination of Gaboon and Mpingo Ebony, treated with a proprietary process that gives the disc a unique property to regulate the resonance of any sonic component and its transmission. Yet this is a very simple item to use. Just place one to three disc on top of your preamp, CD transport, DA converter, turntable etc, and listen for the wonderful change in your Hi fi system. When this disc is excited by any external acoustic energy, it will resonate throughout the entire audible spectrum, thus overriding unwanted harmonic distortions and at the same enriching the musical reproduction.

Okay, even I'm not buying that (don't look so surprised, acid!

)

This does remind me of a funny little joke I told Neruda the other day. He asked me on ICQ what the heck it was I was buying (referring to the Sorbothane pads), and why they were a bit expensive (for half spheres of squishy stuff). So, just to get a rise out of him, I told them that Sorbothane was an amazing material made out of the cartilage of one of the rarest birds in the world. His response was (I'm sure with eyes rolled and disgusted look on his face), "oh that's nice."

I almost fell on the floor, and then told him I was joking. He then responded, "thank god! that sounded bad!"

Anyway, I guess ya had to be there. We had a good laugh about it afterwards (at least I did).

IMPORTANT NOTE: Sorbothane is NOT made of bird cartilage of any sort -- it was just a joke.

 

[grrr223]

Jude, that's the exact paragraph that I read on their site that prompted my previous post, and then I couldn't allow myself to read anymore than that one page on their site, I was afraid it would kill too many brain cells, and with the weekend coming up and my parents going away, I need all the braincells I can to be killed off other ways (mostly legal).

I think this paragraph is funnier though:

Quote:

B1. Spatial Control Kit: The Spatial Control Kit consists of nine Mpingo Discs, six of which are mounted (three each) on two L-shaped holders. First the two holders were placed on the floor next to the speakers. Then one disc each on top of each speaker and the remaining disc in the center on the rear wall. By fine adjustments of these components you can fine tune the width, depth and centering of the sound stage. The disc on top of each speaker can also tweak the tonal balance of the music.

 

[acidtripwow]

Yeah, I kept rolling my eyes when I was reading some of that ****.

But hey, who knows, maybe it works! Just like I can't understand why some people don't have any Grado headphones. It all just amazes me.

 

[grrr223]

ha ha, I hear you, well, the reason that I don't have any grados is because of my wallet my friend

, someday...hopefully soon. I'm thinking about just getting a job in a high-end audio shop when I get back to school, there's one about 15 minutes walk from my house (and 2 minute's walk from my girlfriend's dorm). So hopefully that will help out

 

[markl]

I wonder how long it will be before NBC does a "Fleecing of America" or John Stossel (sp?) of ABC does an in-depth expose of audiophiles and the snake oil they buy. I bet we will look very foolish trying to explain $250 hockey pucks to John Stossel.

markl
owner of 4 vibrapods