I was wondering where I heard the method of CLMD before, now I remember. Acoustic fields use this exact method for their noise technology. The same concept can probably be applied to the gingko archs as well.
Here’s a video in case you might be interested, although it’s more of an overview.
I’d appreciate your thoughts @andris on a specific input tube isolator question:
On the Schiit Vahalla 2 the input tubes (6922/6N1P or equivalent), they barely stick up from the cooling vents. Specifically, it’s really only the tops and the silver coated area of the tube that’s accessible for an isolator.
I could put the input tubes on tube risers, I’ve been a little reluctant in that once the risers are in the sockets I’ll probably never be able to get them out.
Is it OK to put isolators near the top of the tube? Bad idea? Any thoughts?
A separate question, are any tube risers better than others? Thanks! 
I’m definitely not an expert in this area. Herbie’s recommends putting the isolators more toward the middle of tubes, but I can’t think of a reason trying them toward the top of the tube would be harmful.
As for tube risers, I really can’t say whether or not it’s worthwhile. You can try it and decide what you think. On the one hand, you may (or may not) get some benefit from the isolators, but another connection (the riser) is another opportunity for signal loss or distortion, and I don’t know if there is a good way to know what will happen without just trying.
Actually, the risers cling to the tubes, not the socket. The risers come out every time you pull out the tubes without fail. Getting the risers separated from the tubes may be another matter - I haven’t tried.
Actually, I highly recommend risers with Valhalla. It makes the amp chassis run considerably cooler and looks kinda cool, too.
I’m sure it does. Can you recommend any, or which site?
Tubemonger sells good quality socket savers.
Has anyone tried Synergistic Research’s Mig 3.0 or Mig SX?
They claim to be able to tune the sound just by the position. Looks pretty interesting and most reviews I found are positive.
This is true of most footers/isol products anyway. These kinds of claims are plausible, but as usual, the biggest problem with Synergistic is:
Sorry so late to the game. If it weren’t for a pm from PaisleyUnderground, I would have completely missed this thread.
Great observations andris. Tube dampers YES, I use them. No, not snake oil. However, they can be a detriment with some of my tubes and a godsend to others. Microphonic tubes can be calmed down by a damper. And some tubes I don’t want damped. For example, with my RSA Emmeline II The Raptor, RCA 12BH7A as an input tube is already excessively warm and syrupy so any dampening to any of the tubes do not work in any configuration. However, on that same amp I insert an input tube that presents energetic clearer highs, and it balances out the use of dampers to dampen microphonics, reverberation, and microreveberations as needed and dampers removed at times such sonic characteristics are desired.
Another isolation product I use are these Tekmats bellow my tube amplifiers. They are actually mats used when dissembling firearms. They come in all sorts of sizes from small for pistols and long for rifles. The one in the picture is long 15in. x 44 in. and has diagram for AR-15 parts and I have a smaller one that has Glock 19 diagram on it. Thicker is better. They sell for around $20ish but I got mine on sale for $8 used section of Amazon. These Tekmats work perfectly for minimizing microphonics that would travel through the amplifier and into the headphone signal from any bangs or movement from my desk. I was worried at first that they might melt, but so far no problems with that. I absolutely love Tekmats and can’t ever see me not using them.
I also have some speaker and turntable dampening features that I have used in the past, but that I may share at another time.
Well I pulled out this platform I made for the Envy. I think it actually works really well for the DNA. May make a wider and thinner one eventually but for now I think it’s helping a bit. Definitely less ringing when plugging and unplugging headphones. Damper pads add just enough wiggle.
I’m on a budget. Here is my isolation go-to:
How long is the burn in period for your isolation?
Wanted to gripe about this review somewhere.
So, here’s my gripe. I’m interested in the product being reviewed. The price ($2190 USD before options, of which there aren’t many and they aren’t pricey) and efficiency (98 dB / 2.83 V / 1 m) make it a real candidate for me. I’m also interested in several of the associated products used in the review. So far, so good. But it all comes crashing down for me at one critical point.
The reviewer is of the opinion that “[s]peakers and amps should always be considered as ‘matched pairs’…” OK, I’ll keep that in mind, and I agree to some extent. In this review, the reviewer couldn’t get the bass-midrange transition right (for him) with either the standard or supplied spike footers. So, the solution comes in the use of 8 footers at a total cost of $1592 (current actual price today $239 each for $1912). Ugh.
So, even though the review was years in the making (and, yes, I sympathize with the bouts of Covid that played a role in that), and the reviewer tried a good number of amps, both tube and SS, from around $700 to around $3k, he never bothered to try some other footers. ??
What I’m left with is a review of $4100 speakers, not $2200 speakers, so I’m finally to the point. I think reviewers owe it to their readers to find price-commensurable pairings. The speakers might sound great with the AudioNote Ongaku, but if you’ve got over $100k for that amp you probably have more than $2.2k for speakers. There should be a similar sort of price “accountability” for accessories, even necessary accessories. Put another way, is a prospective purchaser of, say, Dynaudio Confidence 50s ($33,500) budgeting for another $29k+ in footers? Doesn’t seem likely, but that’s the same cost ratio as in the review.
OK, so now that I’ve vented, let me bring it back to the thread topic. What is a reasonable ratio of the cost of isolation products to the cost of the products sitting on them? I’ll offer 30% as a starting point for discussion. I’d consider it reasonable if the $2200 Tekton speakers were placed on footers costing up to about $650 in total. Maybe that percentage should drop as the price goes up, but you gotta start somewhere. Thoughts?
Thanks for letting me vent. 
I looked at Tekton a few years back when searching for high efficiency products (but I now lean toward open baffle designs). After struggling for a sense of transparency when listening to multi-driver speakers (ranging up to $200K+ Wilson speakers), I’d be more concerned about imbalances in Tekton’s complex tweeter array.
What is your standard for “pride of ownership” and willingness to show cheap stuff to visitors? The old student method of stacked cinder blocks with inner tubes works…certainly to the point of diminishing returns. Spike feet are not always the answer – look at the speaker-to-stand interface. Some love heavy (metal) industrial stands (e.g., $200 class). Some swear by Blu-Tack between the stand and speaker.
I’m uncertain about speaker footers. I can’t experiment with spikes at home, as I have a) wooden floors, and b) wife.
In the office, the stands that come with the EgglestonWorks are just fine. They do have small spikes, but I think more to the point, have a central column filled with sand. They weigh quite a bit, more than the speakers. So 50+ pound stands for 27 pound speakers.
As @generic says, spike feet are not always the answer. And there is not exactly an interlock between stand and speaker, but there is a specific detent matching for them so they go on one way and are very solidly mated.
The answer might unfortunately be “it depends”. If the speakers are particularly sensitive to vibration, as he seems to be suggesting, you might need to spend more on isolation feet and/or room treatment. On the other hand, they are re-usable for other speakers, so you could view it as a lifetime investment.
I do agree with you that he should have had more options, and should have tried something cheaper, although he did recommend the cheap Nobsound spring feet as alternatives.
It’s not clear to me what kind of floor he has. The convention seems to be to couple your speakers (e.g. using spikes) to the floor if it’s concrete and decouple if it’s wood. Since he was decoupling with EVPs, then I’m guessing it’s wood. So your solution may be different from his if you have a different floor.
This is what I use and it decouples the speakers from the floor very well.
I have no resonance problems even at the lowest frequencies.
AND it makes the wife happy because they don’t leave any residue.
That tweeter-array-as-midrange fairly screams “COMB FILTERTING” to me, but Eric has sold enough and I’ve seen enough positive reviews to convince me that’s not the case. Still, I’d have to listen with grills on if I ever owned them; the visual impact would be too much for me to ignore and enjoy music, I’m sure.
I keep my better stuff upstairs, and the staircase is hidden behind a door that looks like (and is, I guess) built-in bookshelves. The speakers people see are OG Klipsch Heresy and the anti-vibration pads upon which they sit are $27 per 100. They do OK, especially at under $1 per speaker. 
And the spares go under washing machines, etc.
No cinder blocks / plywood / inner tubes. Wouldn’t do that to my wife. But cheap stuff that nobody really sees anyway, sure.
