Vibration Control

[Hifi_swlon]

On the devs + streamer I simply cannot see and hear what these pucks brings to the sound. It's the same for me. And the price on only this upgrade is 4600 euros... Maybe it's me but right now it feels like a gimmick, for brands to sell to earn extra money..

Sorry to say (for anyone who pays such sums of money for these things) but I'm 99.9999% sure that what you say is true TDA.

Most likely the difference you heard was just what you would have got from adding 'standard' spikes, or the change of speaker positions.

There are also some classic dealer type tricks with things like these - which I experienced myself when I did a demo with a Chord rep on some staggeringly expensive USB cable where I said I couldn't hear a difference.  Even though I clearly said I probably wouldn't anyway as it was an unfamiliar (headphone)setup and noisy surrounding, he still did the classics that I've read about (a) tell me what others hear so I know what to 'expect', (b) get someone else to come over and look amazed that I didn't hear to try and influence and then © offer to repeat, after which (d) with an even better (more expensive one) so that I definitely would hear.  It didjt work on me but I'm sure it can.  I'm aware from reading that there are many more things that can be done to influence things. Beware also of the dealer that just gives you more time so you can start adjusting everything else until you can hear the difference, because one day you probably will, but it most likely wont be the pucks doing it IMO.

I have definitely experienced bias, and am happy to admit it.  I also think I've made tweaks where I didn't think it was bias but now am unsure, and I'm sure I've made tweaks where there's been an actual improvement.  In all of these cases, I'll never actually know. I think when I was a bit younger I might have been a bit more defensive about it, but now I don't mind - I'd just like to better understand what tweaks are worthwhile (or real) and what aren't.

I'm sure many of these things are founded in some science somewhere along the way - spikes do serve a purpose - but when they become made of rare or precious metals or anything that sounds expensive, you know things are going awry. On my physics degree there were very advanced laser measuring setups for certain experiments.  Some of them were sitting on very carefully engineered and expensive 'floating platforms' to isolate them from subtle (but detectable) vibrations that could throw the measurement off.  So vibrations exists and can have an affect in some circumstances.  This was in something critical so it was an important step.  For music does it really matter? In any case I never heard diamond pucks mentioned as a solution.   If you were really worried about vibrations, you'd probably be better off commissioning a scientific engineering company to build something for you than pay large sums to companies for things like these - especially ones that only operate in audiophile circles….. At least the scientific engineers would identify whether there were a problem to fix, and then show you it had been addressed after they installed the device. And not by making you listen to it.