Halcyonics under my tt. Wow


I just put my third, too expensive but wonderful, Halcyonic active isolation base under my Shindo Labs tt and am just overwhelmed by what I am hearing. I doubt if I will sleep tonight having 50 LPs that I "must" hear.

The ambient detail and realism is just shocking.

It is one of the great tragedies of audio that this device cannot be made somewhere for under $2000; I think they would sell hundreds. I know I would have one for every componnent. Mine was used.
tbg
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Lewm, I have an experimental psychologist friend who did buy one of their larger units for his lab. You can google halcyoniics.de if Audiogon doesn't allow my thread. http://www.halcyonics.de/en/index.php

I think its not having a resonant frequency is key to why it is so exceptional. There are no other such devices. I have tried multiple other inner tube (home made and other), magnetic (SONY and SAP), and other spring devices, such as Tvad is recommending without the magic of this device.

I don't really know what the price is presently as it may be increasing from the $8000 retail price. Mine was used. When I bought my first Model 1 it was $6000. The US importer was hoping to make it less expensive, such as in the US or eastern Europe, but that has not proven possible. Fmpnd is right that I am bemoaning its cost.

Elberoth2, yes the first place I used it was under a cd player. Presently I use my Model 1 under my dac. I tried using my Exemplar Musicserver on the Model 1 with the dac on top, but the second piece suffers. I think the Halcyonics removes the noise from the unit directly on top of it as well as isolating it. If you can remove the feet of this device, it will sound better placed directly on top the Halcyonics. My Shindo Labs/Garrard 301 had expensive optional feet which I initially used when placing it on a Halcyonics. Fortunately, I experimented and removed them placing the tt directly on the Halcyonics. It was far superior used this way.

What shocked me was the benefits of a solid state amp on the Micro 40. Clement Perry told me to try this.

Fmpnd, I think a reviewer found the Halcyonics interacted with his turntable suspension. My tt has none, so I have no experience of note.
As stated by Stringreen these isolation devises are very system dependent.Therefore before I take the plunge and possibly make another costly mistake I ask:Has anyone had experience with any isolation shelve beneath a Kuzma Stabi Reference Turntable ?
Tbg,where are your other two Halcyonics placed
18 months ago i had the Halcyonics in my system for one evening.....unbelieveable! and that was compared to my Grand Prix Audio Monaco SE with formula shelves which is among the very best passive isolation approaches. i had it under my digital transport. it focused the sound in a perfectly natural way that was a revelation of what is possible.

i then spent quite a bit of time investigating this approach. if you can afford it; you would want every piece of gear you own, including your speakers, on an active isolation platform. these platforms were developed for use with an electron microscope where there is no place to hide from the truth.

the 'Minus K' is a passive device and not nearly in the performance realm of an active device like the Halcyonics.

if you really want to understand this technology, you can read a tutorial for the Herzan 'Table Stable' which is the same technology as the Halcyonics, but a generation better.

tutorial, read the whole damn thing

to optimize active isolation one must eliminate any passive isolation since it defeats the effectiveness of active isolation. the tutorial speaks to putting the lab on a ground level with a concrete floor......since a building (let alone a suspended floor or rack with active isolation) basically has it's own frequency.

active isolation does have a limit of effectivness at higher frequencies.

BTW, the only way the benefit of active isolation is system dependent is with the limitations of one's floor, rack or cable influences. every piece of gear will sound considerably better with active isolation properly applied.
I've talked to the folks at Halcyonics, and they say that the upper limit of operating frequency is ~ 200Hz, which makes sense, because active vibration control relies on a feedback mechanism, where time delay is inevitable between vibration sensing and compensatory actuation.

What this means is that if we attenuate/eliminate vibrations under 200Hz in our audio components, great sonic improvements can be expected.

Regards,
David.