Sand bags under a cdp - didn't work well


Last night I started the process of vibration control with the use of sand bags (3) under my Arcam cdp. What I found was that while everything became more focused/detailed it also became more sharp/harsh/forward/aggressive. I didn't know what to expect but it certaintly wasn't this. Van Morrison's voice on trk #5 on Sailing to Philadelphia was abnormally aggressive and in the end I preferred the sound without the bags. Any thoughts as to why things became too sharp & aggressive????
rgd

Showing 3 responses by fpeel

Am considering giving the inner tube tweak a try, but have a question. I have a transport and a tube DAC rather than an integrated CDP. Would you put inner tubes under both the transport and DAC? Mine are currently on BDR cones if that matters. Thanks!
With so many positive reports I had to give the tube a try. Picked up a couple of 6"x4" wheel barrow tubes. Almost perfect size for my CAL Alpha and Delta. After one evening of trying various combinations:

The Alpha tube DAC sounds better on the BDR points than a tube. There was a very minor loss in resolution with it sitting on the tube. That there was little change is no surprise as that was the case with the BDRs. They improved the sound slightly, adding just a bit of resolution and slightly darker background. Also tried a tube/hardwood/BDR/Alpha sandwich. No discernable difference from the DAC on the points alone.

The Delta transport was another story. On the tube alone the sound was noticeably fuller and more musical, though a bit soft at the extremes. Putting it on a sandwich of tube/hardwood/BDR/Delta seems to give the best of all worlds. Want to load the chassis, but lacked space due to closeness of self above. Suspect this would further improve things as that was the case with the BDRs alone.

Will certainly want to listen to this longer, as well as let everything settle in as I had to disconnect and move a couple of components to make room for the tubes. Also want to try sand bagging the transport, too.

Price of this tweak was less than $25 including the hardwood board (actually a cutting board) and wheel barrow tube.
Yet another follow up in this saga. Now have the Delta on the tube alone with a bag of lead shot on the top. It really needs the the chassis loaded because the case rings like a bell. The space constraints didn't allow this with the multi-layer set up described above. The shot bag has a side benefit in that it also allows for convenient leveling of the transport.

The extra cones are now under the preamp. While we were listening one day I slid the cones into position. Everything was left on during the precess and the change was immediately noticeable to both sets of ears in attendance. The annoying sibilance previously attributed to digital glare, room acoustics (slap echo) and other whine du jours was suddenly almost (but not quite) completely gone, replaced by a greater sense of AIR. Much better resolving and most lucious!
Let me add that by far this site has helped in my audio journey more than every other source of information combined. Thanks again to you all for all the myriad suggestions and brain storming.