Tomg95123-
Do you have your Apprentice platforms on the floor or do you have them under components on a separate rack?
I just took a leap of faith today myself, purchased three SP-SA 03's that I'll experiment with components on my Adona rack and monoblocks. |
After much consultation and consideration, I took a leap of faith and bought Apprentice platforms from Robert at Starsound. Short story - money well spent. Had decent-to-serious equipment at the time, enough that my friends thought I was crazy to spend that kind of $$ on my system (I'm sure you understand). Clarity, attack, transparency, focus and especially the imaging improved to the point it was spooky for a while. Bonus: I live in CA earthquake country and these platforms add an element of stability that the Mapleshade products cannot. All my old Mapleshade hardware has been, uh, repurposed. |
Chayro... do they come in colors other than black? :) |
Dgarretson,
Maybe not...if you look at Chayro's system photos, his two floorstanding racks don't appear to be too far removed from the one in the link he provided. The wall mounted turntable support seems more substantial. |
Cheap shot. Bottom fishing. |
THIS is all you'll ever need. |
Star Sound is definitely onto something Tom. For me it's been like when I added my Balanced Power Technologies Conditioner. Gave the music more coherence.
I'm sure other technologies have merit but grounding, to me, makes sense. |
I made that same suggestion 15 years ago to 2 reviewers.
I suggested using platforms..2 at a time either for source and preamp, speaker pairs or mono amps. Easy and fast..they don't want to short change their pocket books by publishing the outcome..and declaring the winner. The perpetual cop out is that it would be system dependent. For me personally in 20 years of applications its never failed to please.
Try isolating real instruments on stage..sounds like so what....try direct coupling real instruments on stage sounds spectacular. Direct couple bass amps on stage ..more clarity, speed and greatly reduced wolf tones..The whole band sounds better because the leader of the band {the Bass player} --- the time keeper can be more easily heard and followed. The same is true when you direct couple an acoustic bass, same benefit as when you direct couple a $500,000 Grancino or a $2 million Montagnana cello to the stage. A cellist can net 1 to 2 db in output when these methods are applied, same or even more for a bass clarinet.
By direct coupling a musical instrument you set it free to exhale its own nature and by doing so create new and more complex vibrational patterns. These vibrational alignments are a part of the breakin period that we all attest to in audio. Within these instruments it is like flesh and blood and then even more flesh. The instrument can breath and relax and excite all in time. The instruments are also easier to play because there is greatly reduced resistance ....String response is faster in your hand or with the bow. Audibly from the audience you can see the sound of the instruments expand in size and tone almost from the moment they touch the stage. The remarkable thing is after 4 minutes of playing these same instruments grow again in power and visual size.
We all talk about breakin, well when you can see and hear it right in front of you live..that is the clincher.
You may ask why.. my answer is energy seeking and finding mechanical ground.
There is more energy in these performance halls than any home audio or home theater system that I have ever experienced in my 45 years in audio. Why destroy energy we try so hard to create or even maintain when it can be efficiently captured,utilized and redirected. Tom. Star Sound Technologies.
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Some enterprising reviewer should write up a survey of say the ten top contenders for the title of best isolation stand. Nobody ever does a survey of stands, which is a real shame, not in twenty years. Even a survey of five stands would be nice. Say, Vibraplane, Symposium, Stillpoints, the mag lev device and Minus K for starters. |
I have a Stillpoints ESS rack. It's nothing short of amazing.
Easily the biggest upgrade in my system in terms of musical enjoyment. |
I have stands for amp,2 Audience 6TSSDs all on Symposium Ulta Stealth stands also amp,preamp,turntable and cd player all on Symposium. Ultra Stealth and Svelte +. |
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Must be a very small system to fit one a Symposium stand. |
Using Symposium under my entire system. |
Your like an old 45 rpm record deeply scratched and just repeating the same phrase as you have 20 plus times here on Audiogon. So how when and where have you compared so many racks and platforms to come to your repetitive and ongoing conclusion? |
Is that what you use Ebm? |
Symposium Isis is the best. |
They are amazing. Do it! I never heard the Grand Prix Monaco, so I can't compare. |
