SRA
and Stillpoints?
April
19, 2016
Marc,
I
have something important and pressing to ask you about, and I believe your responses will
be very interesting and helpful to readers. I have recently purchased some Stillpoints
Ultra SS feet to try out, and I have reread carefully Roy
Gregory's very extensive review on the topic. My dilemma includes potentially using
these Stillpoints with my Silent Running Audio (SRA) Scuttle 2 rack, along with my
Quadraspire bamboo rack.
So
here is the situation. Roy advises floating the entire system with Stillpoints, starting
with the speakers and working backwards but still using the Stillpoints on everything.
Both racks house part of my analog chain. Roy liked the Stillpoints with the Quadraspire
rack, but he does not address an SRA rack. And any review of the SRA -- and a response I
got from Tim at SRA years ago -- states that equipment should keep their original rubber
feet. I have read reviews where the reviewer ignored the advice and used several different
types of points and cones, and these reviewers seemed to agree with SRA that the sound is
always better with the original feet.
Tim
once explained to me something to the effect that if one does not know what he is doing,
then the points may not be large enough to dissipate the energy correctly and the energy
will just reverse its flow back into the unit. But can that be any worse than rubber feet
that trap the energy in the box in the first place? This makes no sense to me. If this
Scuttle is such a superior energy-dissipation system, then wouldn't we want feet that
allow the energy to flow into the rack instead of being trapped in the box? And haven't I
seen pictures of SRA amp stands on top of SRA racks? So wouldn't Stillpoints underneath
the equipment serve as another stand, a series of floating mini stands, in a sense?
I
do get the fact that the top-of-the-line SRA racks are equipment-specific, using the
weight and weight distribution of equipment to design a specific rack. But the Scuttle is
not equipment-specific. So I do not see how rubber feet can be anywhere as good as
Stillpoints.
Jeff
Levine
In
a certain sense, an SRA rack, either a Craz or Scuttle, is like a single large Stillpoints
footer for all of your components (minus speakers, of course). It is a carefully designed
means of dissipating energy, draining it into its shelves, the rack's frame and eventually
into the floor underneath. This is why SRA counsels against using separate footers,
especially those like the Stillpoints: not only are they redundant but potentially
regressive (which I've experienced) when used with an SRA rack. So the answer to your
question is to use the Stillpoints with your Quadraspire rack but not the SRA.
There
is actually one footer that does work well with SRA racks: Ayre's myrtle-wood blocks,
which transfer energy from each component into the rack -- which is the goal -- better
than simple rubber feet. You can also place the blocks at strategic points underneath the
chassis to aid the process. However, the Ayre blocks are not universally better, because
some equipment makers (Esoteric comes to mind) engineer energy dissipation into their
chassis, and the footers included with the products are part of this. -Marc Mickelson
Timbre
and CEC
April
14, 2016
Marc,
I
agree wholeheartedly regarding the Timbre TT-1 DAC. I have heard and/or owned
one along with the CEC TL1 transport. In fact, I have gone back to using my Timbre and
CEC, a remarkably musical combination. Pry it from my cold, dead hands, they will.
Tim
Adams
The
TT-1 and TL1 haven't been in production for over twenty years, and yet they still make
beautiful music here and now. I'd say that makes them audio classics. If you haven't used
a Genesis Digital Lens in between them, find one. You'll be surprised at how much it
improves their sound. - Marc Mickelson
A
Eureka moment
April
11, 2016
Marc,
We
were reading your article "Esoteric Audio Rises Again in Phoenix" and just
wanted to let you know that we are still here in tiny Eureka, California!
"Never
mind big cities; name a medium-sized or even small city -- Shreveport, Louisiana;
Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin; Eureka, California; Portland, Maine -- and there was a local
dealer there. This shop was often the center of a vibrant audio community."
In
fact, there are two hi-fi shops in my little town of about 30,000; ours is Northcoast
Audio. Our competitor is just one block down the street. Here in the isolated backwoods of
northern Northern California we are a proud throwback to the old-school hi-fi
shop.
Being
on a main highway in a touristy area, we get lots of out-of-town travelers who come
through our shop. We can't count how many times we hear, “Wow. There’s nothing
like this anymore where I live in [insert big city here],” always followed by
"I've read about these [insert speaker name here] and always wanted to hear them in
person." The Magnepan sign outside is what often draws them in.
Now,
we aren’t anywhere as high end as Esoteric Audio, a bit more down to earth, but we
still manage to sell brands like Magnepan, Rogue Audio, Parasound, Rega, NAD, etc. in our
tiny arts community. Home-theater gear still keeps the lights on, but it allows us to have
some great mid-priced two-channel gear too. And it's a genuine blast opening up the eyes
and ears of the Bluetooth-speakered/crappy-earbud younger generation to what good sound
can be.
Anyway,
we just felt compelled to comment on your article. Hi-fi still lives and breathes in
little Eureka, California -- and you've got fans here too.
Chris
& Melinda Larsen
I
live in a town of roughly 30,000 people and we have no hi-fi shops. Needless to say, I'm
jealous of Eureka. - Marc Mickelson
Using
one power conditioner with another?
April
5, 2016
Marc,
I
use the six-outlet Audience aR6 power conditioner, but because I use dual subs, only one
sub is plugged into the aR6. The second sub is plugged into a second/spare line
conditioner (from Rotel).
Can
I plug my Rotel line conditioner into the aR6, one line conditioner into the main one, in
other words? I can’t imagine it would be negative in any way. Sonically, I’m
hoping it may benefit in that it's indirectly connected to the aR6. Have you known people
to plug one line conditioner into another? is there any downside to it? I can’t
imagine there would be, but an engineer I’m definitely not.
Sheldon
Simon
There
are instances where plugging one power product into another makes sense: for instance, if
one regulates voltage, keeping it continuously at or near 120VAC, and the other is a
strict AC filter or a power strip with no filtering whatsoever. But, depending on the
technology used in both of your line conditioners, you actually may degrade the sound of
your system by plugging one into the other. If both filter AC, you may end up with too
much of what is normally a good thing. You will also effectively be adding outlets to the
unit into which you plug the other unit, and this may cause you to overload its ability to
deliver current especially.
But
I would give it a try; experimentation will tell you the sonic truth here. If it degrades
the sound, it wasn't meant to be. -Marc Mickelson
Reader
list
April
1, 2016
Marc,
Please
add me to the reader list.
Pedja
Pavlovic
Done!
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