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Ceramic insulator cone under phono stage shocker!

I have used small ceramic insulator cones underneath my phono stage for quite some time.
Previous phono was a Gold note ph10 and it did not make ANY audible difference I could detect which way up the cones were so I had left them cone upwards.

When I changed my phono to a Manley Chinook I just left the cones same way.
This afternoon I decided to flip them over so cone down just to see.

I honestly could not and cannot believe the difference!
I may have lost a smidge of low bass but everywhere else is improved in spades.
Much more detail, resolution, air, imaging, dynamics.
Just completely shocking how much better a small change has made.

But I am perplexed why such a huge change on the Chinook where I noted nothing on the ph10?

Any theories here?
uberwaltz

Showing 2 responses by lewm

lewm
13,514 posts
 
For what it’s worth, which ain’t much, the best cones I ever used were and still are the Goldmund cones that are stuffed with a damping putty.
lewm
13,514 posts
 
Except cones are not really inherently diode-like.  We only wish they were.  They can approximate the action of a diode, if very carefully placed on a resonant shelf, on areas that act like vibratory nodes.  Otherwise, energy can go both ways through a tiptoe cone. To maximize any diode-like function, you have to listen to confined areas on a shelf, best done using a stethoscope while tapping on the shelf; look for small areas that do not transmit the tapping noise as efficiently as do other areas.  There you can place a cone and hope for a diode-like effect.
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