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Sand bags under a cdp - didn't work well

Last night I started the process of vibration control with the use of sand bags (3) under my Arcam cdp. What I found was that while everything became more focused/detailed it also became more sharp/harsh/forward/aggressive. I didn't know what to expect but it certaintly wasn't this. Van Morrison's voice on trk #5 on Sailing to Philadelphia was abnormally aggressive and in the end I preferred the sound without the bags. Any thoughts as to why things became too sharp & aggressive????
rgd
subaruguru
1,353 posts
 
I've replaced my wheel-barrow inner tube with a Neuance shelf. Bass is better controlled. Treble is perhaps more detailed and cleaner. I found that sticking a couple of sheets of self-stick asphalt (unpeel it from the trunk of your car!) on the CDP lid is easier, more stable on an air bladder, and takes much less space than mass-loading. Ernie
subaruguru
1,353 posts
 
Rgd...just noticed that you have an Arcam. I demoed an ARCAM 9 last summer and although I was impressed with its tonality and resolution, I repeatedly felt it lacked PRAT compared to my old Rotel, (alone or with the 'Canto DAC1). As I've read some complaints about compromised timing with air bladders (see "shelf" threads) I wonder if the light-but-rigid energy vetting absorbers (like the Neuance) might clean up your sound WITHOUT further compromising its rythmic
abilities. Just a thought....
redkiwi
1,092 posts
 
Compared with what has been suggested here (Subaruguru excepted) you will get a similar magnitude of improvement as moving from stock cords to kilobuck PCs if you buy a welded steel rack, spiked to the floor and spikes supporting a Neuance shelf, and no fancy footers or cones. There may be other shelves such as Torlyte that will also work, but I have tried the bladders, sand, cones etc, and while they all change the sound, none of them come close to removing the effects of vibration. Someone will accuse me of plugging Neuance too much soon and so I will keep quiet, but you guys don't know what you are missing.
jayboard
301 posts
 
Gawd, Kiwi, you are doing some heavy breathing re Neuance ;-) ... but of course with your exhaustive testing you are pretty persuasive. With my little mostly Linn system, I have decided that heavy brass cones are quite useful. But their price gets close to that of a Neuance shelf, and, since I've got an old-style Sound Organization rack that would work very well with Neuance, that's probably the next logical step. If I can replace two elements (a composite board shelf and brass cones) with one (a Neuance shelf), that would suit me very well. I'll put some brass cone comments on another thread.
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