Herbie’s Spike Decoupling Gliders: my…experience

Yeah, I do the same - ears first.  Rhyme or reason and common sense predictability never applies in HiFi. But once something makes a difference, especially something like this, I can’t help but wonder why.  Just curiosity.
 

I just read another post on a different forum that cited precisely the same results using the Herbie’s gliders. The sonic results, not the speaker toppling over result.

Bass had “less impact” with Herbie’s, but soundstage and everything else more clear. They said they tried going back to spikes but couldn’t due to missing the clarity and soundstage of Herbie’s which is a big difference.

That said, this person proceeded to measure their room response and actually found MORE bass with Herbie’s despite what he was hearing. He then found that by removing some bass treatment in his room, the impactful bass returned even when using the Herbie’s.

To me it seems to suggest that we can become accustomed to enjoy a small amount of sonic distortion or resonance, especially when it comes to bass, provided it’s not the dominant quality.

I don’t have any room treatment (yet) but maybe I need to play with my ideal speaker positioning which may have changed with the Herbie’s. At least that is easy enough with the gliders added.

@cd318 , thanks for that, and yes that makes a lot of sense. I think it’s a function of just having become used to the bump in the low frequency bloat (which was mild), and it’s just gone now. The overall tone remains balanced and pleasing (thanks to my Gryphon Diablo 300 and it’s warmish leaning DAC module), and I think I may just need to get used to not having that slight bump in the frequency response which was not natural anyways…. Sounds like that other poster I referenced found a way to reintroduce the bass bloat to his liking after installing Herbie’s, by removing his room treatment.

I might play with sliding my speakers a bit closer to the back wall just to see. My system is in an open room so there are no corners close by adding bass resonance.

@yeti42 , yep I read about your experiences with that in your other post before I made the purchase. Your post stood out as I think it’s the only example I found where there was something negative said about Herbie’s gliders (at least initially).

I can’t fathom how breakin is a factor however. But I know enough not to assume anything in this hobby, and I have enough experience to know that common sense is not applicable to HiFi.

Based on my net positive results overall, I am going to Herbify the rest of my gear. Planning on asking them which of their products would be best for each component.

My Innuos digital boxes (media server/streamer, network isolator, and USB reclocker) all have quite sophisticated plastic feet already, with soft rubber and an internal spring/dampener. And to replace them you have to do so internally inside the chassis, under the circuit boards. So maybe just the Herbie “dots” underneath those.

Also looking to put something under my entire wooden shelf that holds my gear.  Shelf is probably 400 lbs or so with the gear on it though.

@dynamiclinearity , thanks, that makes sense and I’ve just now also read that same working theory on another site.

Gryphon offers spikes for my Diablo 300 integrated as an alternative to the stock plastic feet.  Right on the website it says that the spikes probably won’t help unless you are using them for lighter gear (my amp is 90 pounds).  But, I wonder if it’s worth getting the spikes with the intent to sit them on Herbie’s Decoupling Gliders.  Herbie’s have options that don’t need the spikes, but I wonder if the spikes actually might help when used together.

@sid-hoff-frenchman thanks for sharing, and very interesting since you have first hand experience with the three different solutions.

Herbie’s seems to be one of those rare products that almost everyone who has tried them seems to endorse.  I try to keep my eye out for such products as they are usually quite special.

@sid-hoff-frenchman , or anyone, have you used Herbie’s or other anti-vibration products on your gear besides speakers?

@sid-hoff-frenchman , thanks for sharing your experiences.  For Herbie’s Tenderfeet, I wonder if they would be better or worse than Herbie’s threaded sliders.  Any reason why you picked one over the other?

thanks @sid-hoff-frenchman, got it. I ordered a pile of tenderfeet. For my Gryphon amp, I found there is no ideal location to put the tenderfeet without removing the stock feet. So I ended up ordering a Butcher’s Block Acoustics maple slab (gloss black). The Tenderfeet will go under this slab and my amp will go on top with its stock feet. I read a few reviews saying Butcher’s Block Acoustics sounds fantastic on its own. No idea if it’s more than a painted slab of wood but people say good things. Hopefully it works well together with the Tenderfeet.

I also ordered 4 Giant Fat Dots to go under my wood shelf which must weigh 450 pounds with all the gear.

Just finished Herbifying the rest of my gear. Results are very pleasing. Adds a relaxed, easy, confident naturalness to the sound. I don’t know maybe all of these sort of products do the same thing. I can’t say. Maybe others are even better. All I can say is I am very happy with the Tenderfeet, as so many also seem to be. No snake oil here. Just a regular way too marked up (but still “budget” vs the others!) audiophile product that actually works. Nothing to see here.

I was listening while applying them to each component. The biggest and very sudden jump in performance, unexpectedly, was when I lifted my entire wooden shelf with all my gear and installed 4 Herbie’s Giant Fat Dots underneath, between the shelf and the suspended engineered hardwood floor.

With everything installed, depth, layering, openness with a relaxed feel was noticeable. I can hear specific elements of well known songs that were not presented that way before the Herbie’s.

Music is far more easy to get caught up in all of a sudden. Next up, Audioquest Fog Lifters. They were fairly inexpensive (but still massively overpriced for what they are). Thought about making some but couldn’t be bothered…

Okay naysayer trollies - let’s go, who’s first? Lol….

There’s a bunch of reasons I’ve seen proposed as to why isolating electrical gear helps, but I’ve no idea of these are correct or not.

Enough trustworthy audiophiles have said it helps for me to believe there is something to it. And this extends to cable lifters as well (I’ve not done this….yet). All is know is that the lift in performance was just massive after resting everything on the footers. And, the positive effects were not even consistent from component to component. As I mentioned, the single biggest jump was when I installed Herbie’s Giant Fat Dots under my wooden shelf. I was expecting the smallest boost as these are not directly under the components themselves. But my theory now is that it made the biggest difference because it improved all components at once, whereas all other tests were after isolating each component individually. Common sense based theory.  The fact that I noticed this helped to counter the notion that the improvements I was hearing were related to placebo effect or confirmation bias.     Also, this is of course a subjective statement but I know for sure that they way details are presented are different now (more tangible).  I’d not heard specific elements of well known test tracks presented quite that way before. Overall I find the expansiveness and weight improved, it’s a slightly fuller sound now.  I was actually worried it would become thinner due to improved bass resolution but there seems to be better resolution AND an overall bigness/fullness to the presentation now.