Category: Accessories
On a thread entitled, Accustic Arts, which was asking for information regarding the performance of the Drive 1-MK2 and Dac 1-MK4, which I own and have written reviews here on the GON on both pieces, a fellow GON member named Hotbird posted information regarding the superlative effects of the Boston Audio Disk Stabilizer when used with AA combo. Well, he inspired me to audition this tweak out my own system, hence this review.
I was sharing with another GON member, Pubul57, that I have never posted a thumbs down or negative reveiw probably for two main reasons:
1) I'm not as motivated to write a reveiw if I'm not excited to share information on a great piece of gear. However, honest and constructive information stated in a respectful way, can be just as useful as a postive review. Besides, we all know that we have to use are own ears and take into account personnal taste and system synergy.
2)If you interact with a designer who's a great guy, a pleasure to do business with and he's excited to know if you like his new "baby" it's not very pleasant to share that your experience does not live up to his expectation. Auston, the owner/designer of Boston Audio Design was one of the nicest guys I have ever chatted with over the phone and gives you a 30 day audition period. Kudos to him personnally and professionally.
As a side note to this review, on another occasion there was a thread on tube preamps and I shared in a very respectful way that I found a Shindo Labs preamp just to be OK after audition one in my system and I got a very disingenuous E-mail from the importer, who also was concerned I somehow would ruin either the sells or reputation of Shindo Labs by sharing my opinion on that GON thread. Please, I think GON members can think for themselves and make up their own minds.
So, finally here's the skinny on the Disk Stabilizer. Snowbird stated the following regarding his experience with this device, compared with mine:
1) More silence, hence more details. I found no improvement in microdetails.
2) More slam and extension. I found no difference.
3) Bigger soundstage and more airy. I found that with the Disk Stabilizer I lost space at the back of my soundstage and had no improvement regarding "air" or other spatial factors.
Well, then what did I hear, a slight hint or touch of overall warmth in the overall sonic picture, that some might find quite pleasing, but my experience is that this "warmth" is somewhat euphonic and not as natural sounding to me. But, I want to be clear, this was a very "subtle" effect and not dramatic or startling in any way.
Like everything else in are wonderful hobby, you just have to try it yourself to really know what happens with any piece of gear or tweak in your system. I don't doubt that Hotbird loves the Disk Stabilizer in his system, but it had no great postive results in mine, so it's not a keeper for me. But, if you have top loading transport/cdp you might want to run the experiment yourself, there's no risk with the 30 day audition period and Auston is a gentleman to deal with.
Associated gear Click to view my Virtual System
