Years ago I heard one of the small damping plates on top of the speaker. The A/B difference was dramatic. So much of the high frequencies that I thought were part of the music were really high frequency resident noise. I've just ordered the two biggest damping plants to put on the top of my Ariel 20 t speakers. I'm really excited to receive them in the next couple days. I will try to remember too keep you all posted. The appointment good news is, if I don't like them, I can sell them easily for almost as much as I paid for them.
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I use both the damping plates and the pucks and the light turntable weight. The better the resolution of your equipment the more difference you will discover. I'm pretty sceptical about these sorts of things but the differences are clear: blacker background, more detail especially bass detail. Too much can be a good thing, I tried an HRS isolation table under my turntable (suspended) and it killed the dynamics. Very good value system improvement though, especially the turntable weight. |
I have 2 of the 9 1/2" x 4 1/2" plates; one atop my Marantz RS15SA SACD player, and one on my CJ MF2250 power amp. You can notice a difference in imaging and the plates tighten up the bass considerably. In terms of A/B comparisions; it requires a very good ear and very little delay between samples. Use for test material bass laden tracks with already good imaging and localization. You can feel the difference the HRS plates make as well by resting a light finger atop a component while the music is playing, do it first with then without the plate and you'll notice a significant difference. It logically follows that this reduced external vibration would translate into better sound. Solid State components with heavy chassis and no moving internal parts show little improvement, but any CD player or transport will benefit from a HRS plate placed above the disc mechanism. The smallest plate is adequate for this application. I've seen components completely covered by these plates as they are sized to accommodate this (usually 3 of the biggest 14" plates will cover an entire component). I haven't tried this myself, but I would rather do that then spend money on bases, feet, and discs because the improvement is a known entity, and I feel that the other options are more subjective with varying results. |
SYMPOIUM Fat Patz work very very well they dont overdamp witch is great. Work great on transformers of tube amps and solid state. |
Every time HRS damping plates were listed on Audiogon, I missed the opportunity to buy them. In the interim, I purchased damping disks from Herbie's and they do work as advertised. I would however like to try the HRS damping plates to see if there's a difference so if anyone's selling, let me know. |
I just tried these and they improved things a lot when I play loud music with low bass. I tried "lowly material" but it just moved the problem around.
My electronics are between the speakers (bad idea, but I have no alternative). As a result, the top panels of all my components vibrated quite a bit when I played it loud, especially when the song had low bass. The Lyngdorf 2200 is known to respond well to SOTA vibration control. Stillpoints helped it a lot so I figured these damping plates might be a win. They were.
Adding one HRS damping plate reduced the vibration quite a bit. One more helped but its not as dramatic as the first one. Lowly material doesn't reduce the vibration nearly as much as these plates. Sound quality improvement correlated with the reduction in vibration observed.
IMHO some of these newer vibration control products (Stillpoints, Cerapucks, HRS stuff) have some physics backing them up. Look at how Stillpoints work - its a long way from a tiptoe. These plates have some interesting combination of high compliance and the right amount of mass to damp out the vibration. I suppose if you could find material with the right compliance you could duplicate what they are doing. But life is short and they aren't that expensive......... |
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Ghost, if the plates make a difference. . . try also some lowly material. . . Lead shot I already spoke about. . . but a 50Lbs bag of rice , pinto beans, or sand. . . may do the dampening trick as much on top of a component. |
Ghost,
You don't stand a ghost of a chance to hear any difference no matter how long you A/B. |
I have received my dampening plate yesterday and was able to do a little testing last night. Straight off the cuff, I was not able to hear a significant difference. It certainly requires more A B testing. |
I have two of them. After I tried the small one on my Benchmark DAC1 USB, I got a medium one to try on my Luxman P-1 headphone amp and PS Audio P500 Power Plant, which I have found to consistently benefit from weights on its top. Somewhat surprisingly, I like the 2nd damping plate better on the P500 than the P-1. I'd describe the sound with the plates as quieter and blacker, without causing the sound to, as the material would suggest, plastic-ish, like the Vibrapods/Vibracone combo. I'll probably get a few more and eventually cover everything with them. One observation: I have been listening to much more violin recordings than I used to, probably because they are no longer irritating. The biggest difference seems to be less treble brightness and overall ... calmness. |
I have not tried damping plates, but I have a hunch that Glory is absolutely correct. I suspect that A bag full of led shot on top of a component may be as effective as any expensive solution. You can also try the effect of maple butcherblock on top of your equipment. . . e.g.:
http://www.cutleryandmore.com/prodlist.asp?BrandID=21&LineID=72
A DIY solution is to drive to your local kitchen counter fabricator. . . choose a small piece of discarded granite or limestone from the dump in the back of the store, and pay a few dollars to have it cut and trimmed to desired size. Then by a thin sorbitane pad to place on top of your equipment before you load it with the granit.
Let us know your results. |
The HRS Damping Plates are not as effective as the HRS M3 with Spacers and Couplers. I have two Plates on my CDP and I can not tell a difference in sound with them on or off. If there is a difference it is very small compared to their platforms.
The HRS M3 will be a sonic shock to anyone's system in a most positive way in that once installed one would never want to remove it.
Make me on offer on my 2 med. sized plates off line. |
i use 4 of the large plates on my preamp and emm cdsa-se...they do a very good job in my setting where my equiptment sits in an entertainment center...they are rare on aa..i am looking for 4 more ,actually.. |
