Sonus faber Olympica ll

[Hifi_swlon]

Thank you all for your birthday wishes and kind comments on my room/setup. 
The Olympicas are starting to open out and really sing, althoughI think there's still some way to go before they are fully broken in. I've ordered some Herbie's cone/spike decoupling gliders to isolate the speakers from the suspended wooden floor. With my old speakers which were spiked directly to the floorboards through the carpet, I could feel the floor vibrating when playing bass heavy tracks at high volume I felt that I needed to fix that, and hopefully the Herbie's should eliminate it. I'll post my impressions when I get them set up.

I would 100% recommend you get a pair of isoscoustics Gaia feet on demo.

[Axel]

Thank you all for your birthday wishes and kind comments on my room/setup. 
The Olympicas are starting to open out and really sing, althoughI think there's still some way to go before they are fully broken in. I've ordered some Herbie's cone/spike decoupling gliders to isolate the speakers from the suspended wooden floor. With my old speakers which were spiked directly to the floorboards through the carpet, I could feel the floor vibrating when playing bass heavy tracks at high volume I felt that I needed to fix that, and hopefully the Herbie's should eliminate it. I'll post my impressions when I get them set up.

I would 100% recommend you get a pair of isoscoustics Gaia feet on demo.

I thought the same. The problem is that the spikes on the back of the SFs are much shorter than the front ones, leaning the speakers back for time alignment. If I used Gaias, the speakers would be level and it would look pretty horrible too IMHO.

[Bartype]

Thank you all for your birthday wishes and kind comments on my room/setup. 
The Olympicas are starting to open out and really sing, althoughI think there's still some way to go before they are fully broken in. I've ordered some Herbie's cone/spike decoupling gliders to isolate the speakers from the suspended wooden floor. With my old speakers which were spiked directly to the floorboards through the carpet, I could feel the floor vibrating when playing bass heavy tracks at high volume I felt that I needed to fix that, and hopefully the Herbie's should eliminate it. I'll post my impressions when I get them set up.

I would 100% recommend you get a pair of isoscoustics Gaia feet on demo.

I thought the same. The problem is that the spikes on the back of the SFs are much shorter than the front ones, leaning the speakers back for time alignment. If I used Gaias, the speakers would be level and it would look pretty horrible too IMHO.

I have used two slates of polished granite between the SO's and the wooden floor. The granite, one of the hardest affordable sorts of stone, decouple the SO's enough from the wooden floor. at least, enough in my case, and it looks good!

[KraaijCheck]

Here SAM is ON at 10%.

[iamwappie]

The sound for me if definitely more open with SAM off

[Axel]

I would 100% recommend you get a pair of isoscoustics Gaia feet on demo.

I thought the same. The problem is that the spikes on the back of the SFs are much shorter than the front ones, leaning the speakers back for time alignment. If I used Gaias, the speakers would be level and it would look pretty horrible too IMHO.

I have used two slates of polished granite between the SO's and the wooden floor. The granite, one of the hardest affordable sorts of stone, decouple the SO's enough from the wooden floor. at least, enough in my case, and it looks good!

Sounds good! Any chance of a picture or two?

[Axel]

Thanks, KraaijCheck and iamwappie. I'll wait until the speakers are fully run in and then do some experimentation with SAM. With my last speakers, I preferred the sound with SAM off.

[Bartype]

I thought the same. The problem is that the spikes on the back of the SFs are much shorter than the front ones, leaning the speakers back for time alignment. If I used Gaias, the speakers would be level and it would look pretty horrible too IMHO.

I have used two slates of polished granite between the SO's and the wooden floor. The granite, one of the hardest affordable sorts of stone, decouple the SO's enough from the wooden floor. at least, enough in my case, and it looks good!

Sounds good! Any chance of a picture or two?

Sure, here is one:


https://i.imgur.com/vz61fjf.jpg

[Hifi_swlon]

Thank you all for your birthday wishes and kind comments on my room/setup. 
The Olympicas are starting to open out and really sing, althoughI think there's still some way to go before they are fully broken in. I've ordered some Herbie's cone/spike decoupling gliders to isolate the speakers from the suspended wooden floor. With my old speakers which were spiked directly to the floorboards through the carpet, I could feel the floor vibrating when playing bass heavy tracks at high volume I felt that I needed to fix that, and hopefully the Herbie's should eliminate it. I'll post my impressions when I get them set up.

I would 100% recommend you get a pair of isoscoustics Gaia feet on demo.

I thought the same. The problem is that the spikes on the back of the SFs are much shorter than the front ones, leaning the speakers back for time alignment. If I used Gaias, the speakers would be level and it would look pretty horrible too IMHO.

Levelling-wise, I guess it depends how much difference - the Gaia's have a reasonable amount of thread and can be adjusted so you could have the front ones taller. Whether to the same extent or not you'd have to try.

FWIW I'd previously tried some reasonably big granite slabs, and found they did little to improve the situation. Personally I thought they were a different kind of ugly to the Gaia's (the demo pair of which I'm learning to like), since they drew attention to the base of the speakers where previously they just sat on the floor. I also found them a bit of a pig as when you wanted to move speakers for placement experimentation, it was much harder with granite slabs to move around too - unless you're happy to have them not placed neatly and evenly under the speakers. Beyond that they did very little to the sound - much less than just chaining from spikes to rubber feet, and way less than what the Gaia's bring. In my setup anyway. Thats just reminded me I must sell those slabs!

But if you don't like the look of the Gaia's its a non starter. (But Id still try them just so you know where you want to get to with another solution! )

[Axel]

I would 100% recommend you get a pair of isoscoustics Gaia feet on demo.

I thought the same. The problem is that the spikes on the back of the SFs are much shorter than the front ones, leaning the speakers back for time alignment. If I used Gaias, the speakers would be level and it would look pretty horrible too IMHO.

Levelling-wise, I guess it depends how much difference - the Gaia's have a reasonable amount of thread and can be adjusted so you could have the front ones taller.  Whether to the same extent or not you'd have to try.

FWIW I'd previously tried some reasonably big granite slabs, and found they did little to improve the situation.  Personally I thought they were a different kind of ugly to the Gaia's (the demo pair of which I'm learning to like), since they drew attention to the base of the speakers where previously they just sat on the floor.  I also found them a bit of a pig as when you wanted to move speakers for placement experimentation, it was much harder with granite slabs to move around too - unless you're happy to have them not placed neatly and evenly under the speakers. Beyond that they did very little to the sound - much less than just chaining from spikes to rubber feet, and way less than what the Gaia's bring.  In my setup anyway.  Thats just reminded me I must sell those slabs!

But if you don't like the look of the Gaia's its a non starter. (But Id still try them just so you know where you want to get to with another solution! )

It's not that I don't like the look of the Gaias, quite the opposite, it's just that I don't think I'd like the look of the Olympicas sitting up straight. I considered buying a large set for the front brackets, and a small set for the back. The only problem as I see it is that, if I jacked the fronts up, the bottoms of the Gaias would be parallel with the bracket, but not with the floor, unless the thread to Gaia interface was some sort of ball joint. Do you get my drift, Steve?