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Actual experience teaches something else. Isolation products should have the least possible effect on fundamental sonic aspects. They shouldn't alter tonal balance or turn things upside down. In practice each new element does modify the final sound at the ear but the best do so with rather than against the component. Only once we've arrived here can we add that products designed properly for vibration attenuation and isolation still do it by different means to address different aspects of the sound.
Take this Gravity platform. As the name suggests it makes free use of gravity to convert vibrations into heat and thus attenuate them. That's why the inner frame moves freely inside the outer box and displaces its suspension once mass loaded by the component. This design acts upon a predetermined frequency range in terms of its various segments, damping rate and the curve shape of pulse attenuation. This creates a set of characteristics which translate into an effect on the performance of the component placed atop.
The Ayon Audio Spirit III tube amplifier got a kind of kick. The Polish platform perfectly cleaned everything up to improve definition and selectivity. To a large extent it also improved resolution though not in a similar manner across the whole spectrum. Selectivity and definition however were better from bass to treble. While the removed demerits hadn't been that audible previously—a common feature of audio and how we learn—the sound with Gravity beneath the amplifier was much clearer. This was best heard in the upper frequencies but the other edge of the band was also strongly influenced. With Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories in which energetic low sounds build up the entire presentation, Mr. Piotr’s platform slightly shortened the lowest bass decay whilst improving its definition. It may be that improving definition eliminated dirt which caused the impression of fuller bass. In this regard the Gravity was very similar in effect to the Acoustic Revive RST-38H platform. Using the latter in a system with similar problems, there will always seem to be less bass and more treble. Once we recalibrate, the platform will show such a wealth of information that we won’t believe we’ve ever listened without it. Despite the huge price offset, something very similar occurred with the Polish platform.
The Gravity leads us down the same road. The sound of components placed on it becomes clearer and more accurate. There seems to be more treble and less bass – not by much but still. In audio such changes are not always desirable because they can lead to a leaner drier sound. This is where today's platform showed its merit. The fact that there was more treble and less bass was only an impression created by contrast to the amplifier placed directly on the rack shelf.
