Stillpoints Ultra 5

Geez, take a Valium, Robert. NASA grade simply means the ceramic material is much harder even than ordinary ceramic material. The hardness of the DH Cones is actually almost as hard as diamond on the Moh scale of hardness. And I'm sure I don't have to tell you diamond is the hardest. NASA Grade ceramic is much harder than hardened steel. And ridiculously harder than brass. AND DH Cones are demonstrably better than other cones, in *listening* tests. Any yahoo in town can easily hear the differences among them. As I’ve stated before, the performance of cones is, in fact, almost entirely a function of hardness, all things being equal. Ringing any bells?

To summarize, NASA grade ceramics 🚀 can easily out perform ALL other cones regardless of price, whether they be carbon fiber, steel, hardened steel, aluminum, hardwood, brass or what have you. It’s the hardness, silly! The second most important characteristic, sonically, of cones is the shape. Exactly what shape that is I’ll leave to the student.

Sometimes I feel like Francis Ford Coppola, sometimes I don’t. If your goal is reducing mechanical feedback you better feel like decoupling since coupling insures mechanical feedback. You can also employ damping or some sort of energy dissipation along with the decoupling. On the other hand if you’ve already isolated the electronics, go ahead, couple at will. If you decide to go the cones route be sure to choose those NASA grade ceramics since they couple the best. You know, due to their superior hardness, much harder than steel or brass or aluminum or whatever.

Wolfie might have a point (cough, cough) here since the Vibrapods act like springs. Like air springs. You know, to decouple the speakers and prevent mechanical feedback. Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it.

Some sunny day when children are playing and laughing and there’s no strife or steadily increasing crime rate somebody with excellent hearing and a really really great system will do a comprehensive review of all the various coupling and decoupling widgets and thingamabobs out there, from, oh, I don’t know, Audio Points and bungee cords and hockey pucks to Minus K and magnetic levitation and, gulp, beyond.