Bad plan. Nixed. Results negated having to place a CD transport atop a 2×15" subwoofer working up to 100Hz just to mollycoddle costly footers into doing something. Nobody in their right mind would replicate such a setup in the first place. Though 100% unexpected, Jeff's truly next-level footer execution telegraphed loudly already under a DAC. Here system foundationals include Furutech, LessLoss and Akiko power delivery plus passive noise filters, Hifistay resonance attenuation, strategic stereo 2.1 division of labor via smart analog active xover and careful time-aligned placement of the transducers. In fact far steeper funds allocate to those fundamentals than 'actual' hifi kit. Dropped into such pre-existing grace, the seemingly excessive application of four costly footers really mattered. I already heard it on simple material as greater insight, separation and contrast. Those aspects still compounded when compositional complexity increased. In the most basic terms, the system seemed louder. If you know how notching up your SPL from just below to just above the threshold of 'fully there' behaves, you can relate. While measurable loudness increases just a tad, overall thereness gains far more. With the hulking footers in play, I had a similar 'louder' effect without playing SPL tricks. I was frankly at hello over how easily this difference tracked. The system already sounded excellent before. After was simply more excellent but otherwise no different. Tonality or textures didn't change. What did was suchness. Here I mean extra intensity or presence. Same sound. Higher potency. I think that best captures it.

Swapping ViscoRings to change the weight rating involves only loosening three bolts which even undone remain captive so don't fall out. At far right see the central jam bolt and its grommet tip removed.

Given that tell-all showing, my bad plan for downstairs evoporated. Instead I spent about ten minutes swapping green to blue ViscoRings to prep my footer quad for two more proper experiments involving subwoofers. First the upper sub. When I got my original Carbide quad past its review, it sat beneath the big downstairs sub. The smaller 2×9½" force-cancelling Dynaudio sat on Divine Acoustics Kepler footers. When the sound|kaos sub upgraded to a Sven Boenicke SwingBase, my Carbide set moved beneath the upstairs Keplers. That particular bed was already made with freshly starched linens.

Now the Diamonds showed how remnants of presumed LF room interactions had really been structural by nature when these 'room reactions' suddenly up and left. The easiest way to envision this is to see bass beats like mortar hits, their room/structural responses as splattering impact debris. That debris can form a lingering cloud when hits come in repetitive salvos. What ever more effective structural isolation does is minimize even eliminate debris formation. We're left with super-punctual impacts without subsequent splatter. There's no cloudiness overlaying the midrange. Even subtle cloudiness makes mentally walking into the soundstage more vague. When all is clear, our attention is free to rush forward into the far stage layers without obstruction or effort. Keener depth perception was one of my upshots. Another was greater textural differentiation between sundry bass makers. Removing leftover fuzz drove extra light into the bassment. That gave various LF generators greater distinctiveness. To anyone objecting that €2'400 of isolators beneath a €1'390 sub is grossly imbalanced expenditure, I'd counter "categorically not". Dissenters are merely ignorant of the severity of difference between boomy/bloomy and taut/damped bass that lives between a sub's stock footers and properly engineered decouplers; particularly on an upper storey's suspended floor. Now the twitchy roller-ball inserts and other design refinements of the Diamonds showed up the originals. They demonstrated what the latter still left under the table. At twice their price, the Diamonds really are Jeff's next level. They're clearly super effective at preventing low frequencies from mechanically leaching into a floor. To be crystal, I'd much rather have the below combo than a €5'000 sub on stock feet. In fact I'd decline the latter. I know exactly what it'll do. No thank you. Been there, chucked the cigar. It's back at building a strong foundation. With it in place, budget kit outperforms the bling stuff any day of the week. It's not really a cheaper way of building a hifi. It's about allocating our funds where they reap the biggest rewards.

Originals in standby, Diamond versions in action.

Time to inject some Diamond sparkle into the big system. Here Sven Boenicke's wire suspensions had eventually upstaged the original Carbide footers. I was rather certain that the Diamonds would now level that playing field.