I'm happy someone brought this up. I wanted to but didn't want to preach about my near obsession with fo.Q tape. It's a great product. I have used over 50 packs of TA-102 and TA-32 on my system in all kinds of places. I know it inside out. If anyone has questions I will answer. The only place I would hesitate to use it liberally is on speaker boxes - a little goes a long way (use it liberally on driver frames though). Anywhere else - go for it! It's designed for audio, and It works by piezoelectric conversion of vibrations to electrical current, which is then dissipated into the substrate material as heat. It operates most efficiently at ultra-low amplitudes, unlike for example Sorbothane which is designed to protect objects from damage by vibration. It also absorbs a wide frequency band and does not leave random frequencies ringing, again unlike most damping materials. This is the reason you can use lots of it, because it kills vibrations dead across a wide specrum, and does not allow ringing or muddy frequency bands to remain behind.
One special note - there are differing TA-102 glue qualities that you get randomly. The best quality TA-102 is the darker almost black colour. The glue on this does not generally leave a residue. The lighter mid-gray charcoal TA-102 is a problem if you ever plan to peel it off. The "booger" glue usually comes off and must be removed with solvent (or make a ball of glue and pick it off with the glue-ball). TA-32 (Thin tape) is much better in this regard because it never seems to leave a residue. Remember this point especially if you plan to use it on headphones (safer to use the thin tape TA-32 for headphones).
Meanwhile heare are some spectacular uses for it :
TA-102 (thick tape)
- wall power outlets. Just cover the whole wall outlet except for the plug area of course. Don't underestimate this. Better than Furutech etc.
- tonearm bases
- tonearm headshell (or use TA-32 thin tape)
- turntable chassis (somewhere hidden like underneath preferably)
- amplifier chassis near the power inlet (top use!)
- advanced use - cut small pieces and individually dampen the tops of internal components such as capacitors etc. It is slightly conductive, so be careful.
TA-32 (thin tape)
- wrap it around RCA, or XLR connectors (top use!)
- wrap it around entire cable lengths
- tonearm headshell (or the entire tonearm tube!)
- if you dare, on the cartridge body (top use!)
- headphone headband
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Just go onto eBay, search for fo.Q TA-102 (or TA-32) and choose any site that offers free postage and a price of $35 or less. I have bought from many different suppliers and never been cheated. It can take up to a month to arrive. The limit is usually 1 packet per sale, but it doesn’t matter if the postage is free. I think the Japanese govt pays the postage to encourage export, but only up to a certain small weight. |
Under footers is good. But fo.Q also make products with greater stiffness that are more suited for that purpose. I got great results by wrapping the entire footer with fo.Q (thin TA-32 works best because it doesn’t spring open). Anywhere on the chassis of equipment works, but fo.Q is most effective when used anywhere near power connections. That especially includes wrapping it around the power plug that enters the amplifier, and the power plug that enters the wall socket (thin tape works best because it doesn’t spring open).
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ozzy -
It works best anywhere near power and signal connections. It has good but lesser effect elsewhere on the chassis of any suitable equipment. It would probably work near breakers, but as it's slightly conductive, I would be very careful with this, and wouldn't do it myself. If you have common sense and basic knowledge of the dangers of breaker boxes, you may be able to do it safely. Obviously, nowhere near the live wires.
I have several component chassis almost completely covered in fo.Q inside and out except for vents. But they are things like ADCs, DACs, turntables, solid state phono preamps. Heat has never been a problem for any of those. I would not use it on valve amps because the glue could melt.
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Snake oil. That's just laughable. Anyone calling fo.Q snake oil has never used it. |
Here’s a link to a digital transfer I made with fo.Q tape on every piece of equipment used to make the transfer (cartridge, tonearm, tonearm cable, phono preamp, a/d converter)
http://www.g45central.com/posts/Frays.flac |
ozzy - if you're careful you should get great results.
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Yeah, they're all the same aren't they? Strongly mocking and negative posters bordering on rude and abusive, attempting to guide readers away from something they have never tried and never will. Saw it in many other threads on this forum. It's really depressing when it's used mindlessly against something great. Who are these people?
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If I’m trying to "gain some popularity" on here, why would I recommend something that doesn’t work? That would be very short-lived popularity.
If piezoelectric vibration damping is impossible and therefore snake oil according to you, then you must also believe all of Furutech’s piezoelectric NCF damping products are also snake oil. They operate on exactly the same principles as fo.Q.
So many scientists, patents, research and development, all proved wrong by you merely uttering the magic words "snake oil". Congratulations mate. |
I’m not affiliated in any way with fo.Q or any other audio product, and you can take my word for that, or continue with your totally false conspiracy theory. |
There's no point debating anything with you, jkbtn, because you are ignorant of the subject at hand. All the best. |
paulcreed -
If you bought 2 packs of TA-102 thick tape -
One 100mm x 20mm strip on each power outlet in use.
Completely surround the exterior of each component’s iec power inlet with 20mm tape. Also cut a 20mm x 35mm piece for each side of the iec power plug. Normally I would wrap these with TA-32 thin tape, but either way this gives a major improvement in sound quality.
for big (vertical) caps, just cover the top of the cap with a square piece. Cutting them into circular pieces would be wasteful if you only have 2 packs. I don’t think fo.Q dulls sound on caps (my opinion, my taste).
For transformer, depending on size, maybe a 75mm square piece. More is better.
If you have a turntable, on the tonearm base near the tonearm and connector. Small rectangle on the tonearm headshell.
10mm strip on each side of the RCA connector banks on all amps, preamps, DACs etc.
Anywhere on crossover boards where it’s safe to place conductive tape.
20mm pieces all around the speaker terminals. If you can attach the thick tape to the speaker cable terminals (both ends), that would be great as well.
Any leftover, try anywhere on any chassis where you suspect vibration could occur.
If you do all that, you probably won’t believe your ears. It would be nice to know if you agree, after you have a listen. I hope you like it, I’m certain you will actually!
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I used 12 full packs just to line the entire insides / underneath of my Kuzma Stabi M. Results are mind-boggling.
http://www.g45central.com/posts/Kuzma100.jpg |
Come on...Uberwaltz may be a nice guy, but head of the fo.Q snake? He hasn’t even got his first pack yet!
I’m the head. It’s me, me, me! See my pic below.
Uberwaltz can be a leg, when he gets his tape. Maybe he will work his way up to the head.
http://www.g45central.com/posts/Kuzma101.jpg |
Hi Paul -
I would consider covering any or all parts of the metal ribbing of speaker baskets, to suit your taste. I would personally cover all of the metal basket. I don’t think you could over-do it with fo.Q, unless you happen to like metallic ringing and distortion as part of the sonic blend (some do!). The basket isn’t really technically part of the transducer therefore it shouldn’t be vibrating at all. Maybe start with one 20mm strip on each rib to see if you like it. If you like it, adding more will give you more of what you like.
Because fo.Q deals with low amplitude vibrations very efficiently, it is not subject to the same sonic pitfall as other damping materials (or at least to a much lesser extent). Namely, absorbing certain frequencies but leaving others behind to dominate and muddy the sound.
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Correction - I have compared it with AVM. - fo.Q works much better and produces subjectively similar results, but AVM had the benefit of being non-conductive and therefore excellent for use on circuit boards. fo.Q has the benefit of being removable.
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mrdecibel -
I have not compared fo.Q with any of the materials you mentioned. However in theory, the fo.Q should be more effective than any of them, for the reasons I have already stated earlier in this thread.
Whenever and wherever I use fo.Q, it has always provided a better improvement than I expected. I can't even think of any time I used it, when the result was not good.
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It only took 5 minutes to do the window test. It didn’t work very well, no noticeable improvement, a waste of good fo.Q tape at least in my listening room. After the test, I took the strips off the window and stuck them to the underside of my PrimaLuna amps where I have not used any fo.Q before. A huge improvement immediately on the amps. (I hope the glue doesn’t melt, but even if it does it won’t do any harm under the PrimaLunas).
edit - under the PrimaLunas is really a knock-out! |
I have never tried that. I'll try it now and get back in an hour. |
And on the CD tray (if inside, use TA-32). Not that I have a CD player, but I’ve heard the results.
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