Halcyonics under my tt. Wow

Wow, I saw the price of Stillpoints Ultra Fives. I wonder, a set of 4 would be pretty close to a Minus K platform. Granted you cannot use Minus K easily in a rack except for the top one but for amps or anything that sit on the topshelf, wouldn't Minus K make better sense?

Suteetat, my only experience has been with the Halcyonics active isolation bases. I thought they had to be the maximum benefit isolation devices. I had two of these and used one under the turntable and one under my stereo amp. A StillPoints Component stand under both was their equal. I also got a SP Rack for under other components replacing my many and multiple level Mana stands. It was far superior.

Later I added SP Ultra SSs for under the speakers. They were dramatically better than the Townshend speaker cradles. I got some more for under the amp that was already on the SP Component stand. I was shocked. I tried them on the SP Component stand under the Bergman tt, and again was shocked. I put them under components on the SP Rack and again thought them an improvement. Then I bought the Exemplar XP-2 preamp with SP SSs as feet allowing it to be directly mounted on the rails of the SP Rack. It was strikingly better, causing me to believe the acrylic shelves were harming the SP Rack.

Then came the SPs Ultra Fives. I know that on SP Component stands 4 Ultra Fives if carefully adjusted to have all four equally tight against the amp or turntable is just fantastic. Never have I heard anything even approaching it.

I grant that the Minus K platform are a different technology than the Halcyonics but neither I would believe could have the magic I hear with the SP Ultra Fives. I should say that the Ultra Fives are difficult to use under component that have large built in feet. They are so big that for them to avoid the existing feet you have to go into the center of the component. I use SP Ultra SSs on a replacement of the acrylic shelves on the SP Rack called the Grid. I have not really tried to use the Fives on the Grids.

Thg, thanks for your input. I recently just got a Minus K for my turntable and I was amazed at the improvement. Now that my components are pretty much settled, I am working on shelves and isolation device next and Steelpoints definitely is on the list of things I would like to try. So far, I only experimented with Kinetic Wave footers, Symposium Ultra, rollerblock and that's about it.

Suteetat

What did you think of the Kinetic Wave footers?

Regards,

Metralla, Kinetic Wave footers work really well for me under Playback MPS-5. I prefer it over Rollerblock and Symposium Ultra platform. The background is blacker with Kinetic Wave. There is a bit more detail, a bit more focus with Symposium Ultra platform but I feel that the clarity comes with a slight trade off in hardening of midrange on voice and piano in comparison. I probably would not have notice the slight hardening of the midrange if I did not compare Symposium to Wave Kinetic though.

PS the improvement by adding Wave Kinetic footers is very noticeable but not to the same scale as adding Minus K to my turntable set up but we are not exactly comparing the same thing though. So take this for what it's worth.

Big fan of Stillpoints Ultra 5s...just put 8 under my old Wilson X1s...stunning. Then put 3 on top of Velodyne DD18 which already is on Auralex Isolation platform. Plus one on top of preamp and Stillpoints LPI on transport...all great.

Interesting feedback on Stillpoints v Halcyonics!

Lloydelee21 Look up the thread, "Why will no other turntable beat the EMT 927?" I just wrote about the Halcyonics versus StillPoints. Of course, I never had the SP Ultra when I had my two Halcyonics.

Thanks Tbg! Great read! And congrats!

Lloydelee21, if and when you put SP Ultra Five between the Halcyonics and the turntable, please write about your experiences.

Hi TBG...unfortunately, when i was at my friends place the system with the Zanden and Halcyonics was not working. We listened to his other SOTA system (DCS, Genesis 1.1, all Kondo electronics...remarkable). But we were unable to play with the Halcyonics and Stillpoints.

In my system, i have found [almost] no bad places to uses a Stillpoints. I think someone at WBF has put Stillpoints Ultra 5 under his SME30 and absolutely did not like it...and bear in mind, he uses Ultra 5 under EVERY SINGLE other component in his system. But not under the SME.

Stillpoints posted some questions to help out and see why that was the case. Just an FYI.