Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

So sorry I haven’t posted any videos yesterday or today; I have like 20 in my head. I was supposed to have a full house today with Sam from Memory Player and Al from SGM visiting, along with my good friend CTSooner. Sam and Al both fell ill and poor CTSooner lost his ride with Sam. So it will have to wait for another week or two. Sigh.

I took advantage of the time to educate myself on HQPlayer, computer cases, how to fine tune a computer server (with the help from a too short phone call with Wisnon), Roon implementation, etc.

And then dove head first into my collection of footers I’ve been amassing to audition.

So let’s take a diversion shall we???
What footers do I have to play with you ask?

2 sets of 4 : StillPoints Ultra 5
2 sets of 4 : Ariamateria large
1 set of 4 : Ariamateria medium
1 set of 4 : Ariamateria small
1 set of 4 : IsoAcoustic Gaia 3
2 sets of 4 : Hardpoint Trinia

Want to hear the Shun Mook footers.

The StillPoints are mine. The rest are loaners.

The Trinia are damn cool looking. And they make the gear sort of float and glide around a central axis. Functionally, picture a Symposium ball in a track on a platform and then another one on top in a track 90 degrees off axis. They are made of aluminum. I tried the two sets from front end to amps. My system didn’t like the Trinia. I found I lost my deep bottom end and it softened and mushed up what was left. It smeared my image specificity and pushed everything towards treble while giving the sound a glassy sensation, making it overly analytical and clinical. Seriously. I was quite surprised. The Trinia were strongly suggested by Mike Lavorgna, who really enjoys them. He had literally the polar opposite experience with his Trinia in his system. He described their sound as ,” the Trinia improved image focus and reduced smear and blur......and tightened the bass and improved micro-dynamics. wherever I put them.” Mike’s a solid listener with a solid system. Go figure. Just proves that these things really are system and equipment dependent!!! PM me for more details if interested.

I had the large Ariamateria placed under the amps after the Trinia came out. I wanted to use the Ultra 5’s up front so I put the large Ariamateria under the amps. Deeper bass and sweater midrange. The soundstage deepened and the image came back into focus. I then placed the Ariamateria under the server (I keep 3 Ultra5’s under the DAC, and left the preamp un footed). Same affect as on the amps. Deeper bass, although a tad looser and a nice mellow midrange. Quick swap again and the Gaia replaced the medium Ariamateria. Tighter, cleaner, deeper. Fascinating! Ok, now for the Ultra 5’s under the server. Wow, deep crisp bass but a tad bright up top, overly clinical. I decided to keep the Gaia in for now.

HRS says that you should use soft, rubberized style footers under folded metal cased equipment and solid or bearing base footers under milled case equipment. They sell their own versions of each (yes, I will be checking them out). But my session today supported this theory. The computer server is a folded metal case and it sounded best to me with the rubberized metal cased IsoAcoustic Gaia 3.

When I have more help I will try the same product under the DAC, amps and preamp. I couldn’t do more then I did. I struggled changing from the Trinia to the Ariamateria with the amps and that was enough for me to do alone.

I also want other ears to compare the Gaia and Ariamateria. The differences where subtle. Both are VERY affordable and neat products. I do think the Ultra 5’s under the milled casing of the DAC and Burmester feat may be the best (and most expensive) choice. But we shall see.....

I Googled the Cantata to learn about it. The Ethernet is used as a method to extend the range of USB (using pont neuf), so this not really Ethernet DLNA or other protocols. Even when a router is used, the Ethernet is used simply as an extension for USB asynchronous protocol to gain greater distance.

I'll check on that with Steve, but I don't use the pont neuf and used DLNA with it. Will report on that later.
Thanks for the response.

The important thing is that two decent audiophile players support DLNA, namely Jriver and Audirvana+

Doesn't foobar also support DLNA? That was the one that I used while I was experimenting with the ethernet input, apart from Jriver.

Great observations Matt.  Thanks for doing that.  I hope that we can also get the HRS footers to see if the extra price also means better sound.  Sometimes, as well know, it actually does, but not always.  What often looks like the same materials or the same implementation isn't.  

As we have said, the Stillpoints and HRS hard footers are usually better than the others out there to many folks who have actually done head to head comps.  All too often we read posters or dealers telling us that they have a giant killer etc.. and they really may not since they only know what they sell and they use the words the company wants them to use.  

That's teh cool thing about what you are doing.  You really don't have a dog in the fight unless it's something you have already owned.  You may want to like your's better, but I also know that you are one of the few who can separate ownership and thinking your's is better.  Wiht footers or platforms, you also have to take into consideration the stands you use them on etc...  As you have already posted, there is no be all end all here and folks need to get these devices in their own systems to see which they like best.