Well before my DAVE arrived, I asked Rob the following question earlier this year:
"Rob, does the DAVE benefit from mechanical isolation (Stillpoints, etc)?"
"Yes all products do."
And so, after months of putting it off because of more pressing priorities, I finally found the time to compare various methods of mechanical isolation with my DAVE. For those interested, here is what I have tried over the past couple of weeks:
During my initial evaluation of the DAVE back in November of 2015, I noticed that I couldn't detect much difference in SQ when I had the DAVE by itself planted on top of my TotalDac and when I had the DAVE suspended on top of a couple of HRS Nimbus footers. With my TotalDac, the Nimbus footers were quite effective. This suggested to me that the DAVE was already well isolated within its beefy aluminum block and might not benefit that much from further mechanical isolation. Here is a photo of that DAVE suspended on a pair of HRS Nimbus footers as I was comparing it against my TotalDac d1-monoblocs:
When my DAVE finally showed up, I was so pleased with how it sounded sitting directly on my cherry wood desk that I looked for a stand more for aesthetic reasons with isolation being a secondary concern. To my eyes, nothing is as attractive as Chord's own stand. While I have no idea how well it performs as a mechanical isolator, John Franks has certainly created a work of art with this stand but because of its larger footprint, I couldn't make it work for me. Here is the nicest looking portrayal of this stand with the DAVE I have seen which I borrowed from Frank Iacono's wonderful review on Headphone Guru:
As many of you know, I went with the Acoustic Revive TB-38H. It is very compact and appears tailor-made for the DAVE:
In this scenario, the DAVE sits on a Hickory plinth which then is floated on a bed of quartz crystals which absorb and eliminate vibrational energy by changing it to thermal energy. The concept bordered on snake oil to me but I did notice an immediate but subtle difference compared against the HRS Nimbus footers. With the TB-38H, the DAVE sounded a touch warmer with greater treble detail which were to my liking. The downside was that the sound seemed less focused, especially in the lower registers (bass was less defined) which was not a great trade-off. I had some low profile Black Ravioli footers that I was using for my CAD CAT music server that I placed initially between the DAVE and the hickory plinth and while this improved the focus, it diminished the slight warmth and enhanced treble detail that the TB-38H nicely brought out. I then tried the Black Raviolis underneath the TB-38H where they were directly positioned between my desk and the TB-38H. This led to my best scenario. The desired warmth and detail were there but also the focus and improved bass definition.
While I have been pleased with this setup over the months, the thought that there was something better continued to linger in my mind. At CES in January, I bumped into Mike Latvis, HRS' chief engineer, and told him how I found it odd that his highly acclaimed Nimbus footers worked so well with my TotalDac but not with the DAVE. When he realized that the DAVE was encased in a dense block of aluminum, he told me he had a new footer, the Vortex, that would be coming out soon and was specifically designed for such billets of metal and strongly encouraged that I try these Vortex footers. This is what these footers look like and they run $300 a piece. For the DAVE, I would need at least 3:
Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate these footers to borrow for evaluation and so I went with what I could find. There are literally dozens of options out there as you might imagine but rather than randomly picking out a few, I enlisted the counsel of several more knowledgeable than me about such matters.
Mechanical isolation boils down to the 3 "D"s -- dampening, drainage and dissipation. Many believe that mechanical isolation is more important with speaker setups than with headphone setups but my experience has shown me this isn't true. While it's intuitive to all that the vibrational energy created by a booming subwoofer would have deleterious effects on our sensitive components, what is less intuitive is that every electrical component we own creates its own resonances and sometimes it is the resonance created by a certain component that is that component's own worst enemy resulting in compromised noise floor, focus and dynamics. AC, by its definition as an alternating current creates a vibrational energy at 50-60 Hz (right in the middle of the critical bass range) that can impact SQ and so one of the most important places to apply vibrational control would be with our mains cables, line conditioners, distribution blocks and especially our power supplies that house power transformers. Of course, it doesn't take much imagination to understand how sensitive electronics like music servers, DACs and preamps can be impacted. Power supply components, as they charge and discharge, capacitors, resistors, ICs and output devices in the signal path all vibrate as they pass the audio signal and while these individual vibrations may be small, they can be additive and since they are occurring at the signal, these vibrations are poised to do the greatest damage. In these situations, dampening really isn't enough. Drainage of that vibrational energy from the component via some conduit and then dissipation of that energy in some harmless fashion (either as heat or work) is really what is more important.
But how should we approach vibrational control and can you overdo it? A good analogy would be a car's suspension. Many cars today have suspensions with different settings. My Audi, for example, has a "comfort", "standard," and "sport" mode where the "comfort" mode provides a softer suspension but it's at the compromise of control. Stiff or soft? It depends on the driver or in this case, the listener, but vibrational control is certainly one way to tune your sound. Where a wood plinth can sound warm and forgiving, granite, while less forgiving can result in tighter bass and better detail.
As for things like metal cones, hard hats, disks or spikes, these function as conduits that are designed to "drain" energy from a component and channel them to some mechanism that will then "dissipate" this energy.
As to footers, there seem to be two classifications when it comes to dissipation: the soft rubberish-based footers like the Black Raviolis and the HRS Nimbus that absorb vibrational energy and convert this energy to heat and the ball bearing-based footers like the Stillpoints that dissipate vibrational energy through rotating balls. Some believe the rubberish-based footers are better at dissipating vertical vibrational energy whereas the ball bearing-based footers are better at dissipating horizontal vibrational energy. Which is best? Each has its proponents but I don't think you can ever know for sure until you try. Finally, there are specialized racks that have some ability to mitigate broadband vibrations but I believe the consensus is that the ideal scenario employs a combination of efforts.
Now, without further ado, this is what I found:
Kellet Enterprises (KE) LP-13 Shake Absorber Vibration Isolation Pads ($0.45 per square inch)
@TheAttorney introduced these to me and I found their relatively low price ($0.45 per square inch) attractive and so I purchased a few custom sizes. In my photo at the top, a large KE pad is sitting underneath my TB-38H. A smaller KE pad is pictured 3rd from the left. They are comprised of an inert piece of ABS plastic sandwiched by two pieces of firm neoprene. The pieces of neoprene convert vibrational energy to heat that is then transferred to the piece of plastic in the middle. The concept is sound and their low price is attractive but as these devices were designed for heavy commercial equipment such as washing machines and large air conditioning systems, they have high durometer ratings (50-70) meaning their dampening abilities aren't maximized unless your component is very heavy. While they are effective in dampening, draining and dissipating vibrational energy from the DAVE and are definitely better than nothing, they are not as effective as the Black Raviolis which appear to have a more ideal durometer rating for components such as the DAVE. Where I found these very effective was under my speakers. In fact, these inexpensive foundations were more effective than even the Stillpoints Ultra 5s in dissipating energy from my speaker's cabinets resulting in a nice uptick in perceived resolution and clarity.
Agora Acoustics Magic Hexa Anti Vibration Feet ($49 for 4)
I won't spend too much time talking about these because they weren't very effective. They cost $49 for four footers.
VooDoo IsoPods ($100 each)
Upon first glance, these appear to be the rubberish-type of footers I described above but they are actually ball-bearing devices. They work well and are attractive (they come as either black or white footers) but because they work no better than the Black Raviolis and cost about $100 a piece, the Black Raviolis are a better value.
Stillpoints Ultra SS ($250 each)
The person that recommended these to me was confident these would represent the best bang for the buck with the DAVE. In his words, "They should blow away all your rubber footers and perform almost as well as the Stillpoint Ultra 5s for a lot less money than the Ultra 5s." As such, I had high expectations. I started with 3 footers but 4 were more effective. These are built to a very high standard and are comprised of heavy pieces of high-grade stainless steel. They are height adjustable and add an elegant touch to the DAVE as they complement the stainless steel rivets and chrome controls on the top of the DAVE. Based on aesthetic alone, I would have been happy to move to these footers. Interestingly, these footers sounded only slightly better than the Black Raviolis. They resulted in a definite uptick in clarity and detail with better-defined bass compared to no isolation and while they are better than the Black Raviolis (which I could barely discern under blind testing), I found the difference to be too small to pay nearly $900 more. I found a similar level of improvement against the Black Raviolis under my High Fidelity Cables MC-6 Hemisphere line conditioner. Where the Ultra SSs proved their worth were under my Oppo SACD transport. Under the Oppo, both Stillpoints reigned supreme.
Stillpoints Ultra 5 ($699 each)
At nearly $700 a piece, I never believed these would be a great value but I was open to the possibility that they could be so devastatingly good that I couldn't refuse them. Just to push the envelope, while two Ultra 5s can easily support the DAVE, I also compared what three Ultra 5s would accomplish. If I thought the Ultra SSs were heavy, these felt 10x heavier. Just so you know, these footers have no maximum weight capacity and were designed to also work under pianos. How did they do under the DAVE? Two Ultra 5s were just as good as three and two Ultra 5s were no better than a quad of Ultra SSs. While attractive, I would suggest you pass on these for the DAVE if value is a priority. Like the Ultra SS, they sound great under my Oppo but where they eclipsed everything else by a considerable margin was under a First Watt J2 amplifier (Pass Labs) that I am currently testing.
Black Ravioli Single Pad ($34 each)
While not easily seen, pictured above are 4 Black Raviolis between the DAVE and the large KE pad underneath. They are low profile being only slightly taller than the footers that come with the DAVE. As they are "pre-loaded," they are capable of dampening or dissipating vibration from even light components. While they couldn't compete with the Stillpoints underneath components that contain mechanically moving parts (like a CD transport) or a heavy amplifier, underneath the DAVE, they were almost as effective and provided the best bang for the buck.
In the end, I have decided to stay with my combination of an Acoustic Revive TB-38H and quad of Black Raviolis. As they say, you have to bring something special to be able to unseat an incumbent and none of these other footers were special enough. While I could have paired the Acoustic Revive with a quad of Ultra SSs underneath for a slightly improved presentation, this results in a very unappealing aesthetic. For my tastes, the combination of the TB-38H and Black Raviolis provide the right balance of warmth, resolution, clarity, and value while also providing an appealing aesthetic. As they say, YMMV.