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Isoacoustics Gaia Isolation pods
#21
Interesting article. Shame it focussed more on the difference between statically positioned speakers and ones that can be easily moved to the optimum listening position. I would have liked more indepth between spikes and isolation.  

Those Herbies are very good value if they achieve the same goal as the gaias are claimed. Thing is it's hard to see how they isolate.

Personally I don't really want my speakers to move - not easily anyway. A toddler, combined with nowhere for them to realistically go means they're better staying put - regardless of benefits of mobility. Actually I'm surprised the Gaia holds the speakers so still. They can wobble when prodded, but having seen the townshend platforms demo, I was figuring 'full isolation' required the speaker to be 'free floating' whereas they do seem somewhat coupled. Must do some reading on the theory (from a scientific perspective).

>>> 1st Place Award: Devialet, last decades most disappointing technology purchase.  <<<

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#22
Steve - thanks for sharing and agree, I would have loved to hear more his thoughts on spikes (even on Herbie's) and isolation. I currently have spikes and the Herbie's on my speakers. I have been interested in the Gaia for over a month now, but my speakers would require 6 per speaker. So have been patiently waiting till I heard more from others. I know Harry at VPI absolutely loves the Gaias with his KEF Blades and recommends them unequivocally.
Roon ROCK on Intel NUC6i5SYH/Ethernet | VPI Avenger | Devialet 440 Pro CI | Vivid Audio Giya G3 | Auralic Aires Mini | Synology 1812+ NAS
SXSW, US
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#23
6 per speaker!? The spikes must be an absolute pig to get levelled?

Actually, just seen your speaker sig, am jealous!

Giya g3 on gaia 3? You sort of have to really just for the naming!

>>> 1st Place Award: Devialet, last decades most disappointing technology purchase.  <<<

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#24
Well fortunately my floor is pretty level, so not too bad. Yeah the names are basically the same are they not? On top of that I have a Roland GAIA SH-01 synthesizer......

I have to measure the back to feet on my speakers to make sure the Gaia II will fit side by side....
Roon ROCK on Intel NUC6i5SYH/Ethernet | VPI Avenger | Devialet 440 Pro CI | Vivid Audio Giya G3 | Auralic Aires Mini | Synology 1812+ NAS
SXSW, US
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#25
Hello,
other feet the test promises good. The price is not bad either! Shy

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#26
My Gaia II feet arrived this week and I have spent a happy morning fitting the things and trying them out.  I even got all scientific and objective, trying a quick REW sweep before and then after fitting the feet.  OK, spoiler alert, I'm not going to post the REW curves, I have done that before to highlight specific issues and then the thread then descends into a debate about peak to null levels, room treatment and room correction.  What a can say is that the curves do show a difference with and without the feet.  The curves pretty much follow each other, only in the inaudible sub 20Hz range they do diverge significantly.  I did two sweeps with the feet using slightly different volume levels, and two without.  At the worst bass reinforcement peak, you can see a slight reduction in the peak with both of the 'with the feet' runs, some of the nulls are fractionally reduced as well.  I have to be honest, I wasn't really expecting the feet to do anything much, my reasoning being that I have speakers with opposing drivers, so the cabinet is virtually vibration free and the speakers are supported on carpet, thick underlay, and then solid concrete.  So with non-vibrating speaker cabinets and a solid floor, what problem exactly are these things supposed to fix?

Well the graphs did indeed indicate a small effect.  With some listening the results were far more apparent.  To try to upset everything I tried a run through of my tracks with problematic bass, I played these tracks two weeks ago as reported in the 'Is AIR getting better in the Pro era' thread, this proved useful because I had taken notes which I still have.  Many of the tracks I had denoted as 'ok' thanks to improvements elsewhere, so I stuck mainly to the tracks where I had noted issues, rumble, flabby or whatever.  Arguably the worst of the lot is Tricky's 'Hell is round the corner', mainly due to turntable grunge in the making of the track.  (not really audiophile stuff is this?? Huh )  OK, the turntable grunge is still there, but the track was definably the most listenable I have ever heard it with the Blades.  Unexpectedly, listing to this track I noticed just how sharp the sound staging was, I am loath to type 'the speakers disappeared', but they did and I can't say this is something I have ever noticed before with this track.  My jaw literally dropped to the ground.  (well, not literally because the ground was a few feet away, but I love that phrase) Shy Based on all this, it is fair to say that much to my surprise, the feet do seem to be doing something.

I then proceeded to listen through an old demo playlist that I have.  Everything sounded good, a touch cleaner with better soundstage?  Perhaps, but it is easy to kid yourself with this stuff, I think this is the kind of tweak you need to invoke, then leave and see have things turn out over very much time and listening.  One short term observation is back to the realm of bass, when listening to a couple of tracks I did find myself thinking I wanted a touch more bass.  To be honest, I am not sure if this was just the result of being mentally aware that I had changed something that might influence bass, that kind of audiophile paranoia that creeps in when you are listening too hard.  So for a bit of fun, I then cranked SAM up to 100%, I normally run 20% to 40%, never above 40% because with some material more SAM was clearly detrimental to bass quality.  Interestingly, 100% SAM resulted in a touch more bass, much as you would expect, but everything sounded just fine, another indication that somehow these feet are doing something.

So initial impressions are positive, but as mentioned earlier I think it will take some time to fully understand exactly what these little feet might be doing.

In practical terms, I am quite happy with the appearance of the feet, the dark chrome finish is a great match for a Devialet Expert (for those that care about aesthetics) but I think Hifi_swlon made a good point about levelling in his earlier post.  You are supposed to orientate the feet with the IsoAccoustics logo facing forward or backwards.  (not sideways)  So adjustment is in full half turns only.  Each KEF Blade actually has a little multi-directional spirit level in the back of the bass, this of course encourages you to level them precisely, but in trying to do this with exact half turns you could very easily find yourself loading them unevenly.  For the record, so far I have installed each of the feet identically and have not bothered levelling the speakers precisely, my logic being that with squashy carpet and underlay I would be better off letting them settle for a week or two, then doing it.  I think when I do make the final adjustments, this will take some time and care to get just right and I suspect I will end up with some feet facing logo to the front, and some logo to the back, not that you really notice the logo when installed.  In terms of health and safety issues, with this set of feet I did not notice any sharp threads and I managed to install them injury free, unlike Hifi_swlon, I hope his finger is healing scar free. Shy
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
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#27
Thank you for sharing this information, it was an enjoyable read.
Roon ROCK on Intel NUC6i5SYH/Ethernet | VPI Avenger | Devialet 440 Pro CI | Vivid Audio Giya G3 | Auralic Aires Mini | Synology 1812+ NAS
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#28
Am still really enjoying the gaia's on the facts.
One similarity to Confused is the sense of less bass. Hard to describe as it's not really less per se as I can hear much deeper bass that presumably just jot sucked into the floorboards previously. But I sense the need to have more bass higher up the register. I can also run SAM at 100% whereas it was always between 40-60 previously. My rookie guess - if they do what they say they do - is the isolation has removed a layer of boosted bass that shouldn't be there, and is just part of the floor/speaker interaction.

So I really like these things! They give by far the most obvious change to the sound than any other tweak or source change I tried recently (DSP aside), so clearly in my setup the floor-speaker interaction was an issue and I was clearly missing out - which had become more apparent as I went further on my journey.

I still have a bit of an issue with the look of the facts sitting up but I honestly think I could live with that. I'm gutted I've had no window to do measurements or new convolution which I think the setup deserves but I doubt it's going to happen the next week or so time as it is.

So I'll probably return them so I'm not hogging demo stock, and see how I feel for a week or so without them. I've got a sneaky suspicion I'm going to have to find £400 and live with speakers sitting a bit more obviously on feet.

Actually, I'm going to try really hard to sneak in one set of measurements before they go back. If I could just get a window with some time and with a quiet house to myself to do it. It would be a real shame to let them go with not a single measurement.

(Edit: listening late has reminded me I forgot to mention the bass presence on low-level listening is much more satisfying. Bass would only be deep when played quite loud up til now, and so late evening sessions (with a badly sleeping toddler asleep) tended to be a bit dull - I always felt I'd love to crank the volume up. That's changed with the gaia's and bassis satisfying and deep and tuneful without being loud.)

>>> 1st Place Award: Devialet, last decades most disappointing technology purchase.  <<<

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#29
OK, I did give my reasons earlier for not posting REW curves in this thread but seeing that Hifi_swlon is tempted himself to take some measurement, I though I would post a teaser to temp him in.  Science is good!

   

The above are an extract from the REW checks I performed yesterday.  The purple and lighter green lines are with the speakers direct to the ground, no feet.  The darker green and blue lines are with the IsoAccoustic feet.  The curves are taken at -20dB and -24dB, hence one pair of curves above the other pair.  in dB terms the differences in the peaks and nulls is small, but it does at least indicate the feet are having an effect.  When listening, the effect appears to be far more significant than the curves suggest.

I have had my system running most of the morning playing all kinds of stuff.  I have left SAM at 100% and with some tracks it does sound like there is too much bass, so despite the impression myself and Hifi_swlon had of less bass, I am finding that it is just that, an impression.  The funny thing is that the 'too much' bass I am getting now with SAM 100% is good bass!  Some great almost sub bass moments too this morning, welcome back 100% SAM.  So a bit childish, but I am enjoying what I am hearing. 

Other than all this bass talk, I have been really enjoying listening to all sorts of stuff this morning, everything sounds good in many ways.  So for me the feet are keepers!  Or are they?  To be honest, I was not expecting them to do much for SQ, I am surprised.  So I have found myself wondering if I should go for the Gaia I's?  That said, the II's look just right and they are clearly working.  Maybe the Gaia I's would be a step too far and not sound as good.  If I am honest, the thought of trying a I vs II back to back test does not appeal at all, it is not easy fitting these things to the Blades, much hassle, and imagine subjectively discerning the difference between two feet of exactly the same design, just slightly different size, I just can't face it!. 

So at this point in time I am thinking simply that I am absolutely delighted in how well these feet work and they are staying where they are!
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
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#30
Hi Confused,

Could you please explain a bit more in depth about what it is we're looking at above? Are those different frequencies? Is one inverted? I have no idea what I'm looking at other than some nice coloured lines.

Thanks in advance.
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