Again, for ultimate effectiveness the original ViscoRing's dimensions were arrived at by careful calculations and testing to necessitate the footer's overall size. Common sense dictates that to isolate very low powerful frequencies of subwoofers, full-range speakers and equipment racks connected to our transducers via the floor, the original Base Diamond remains the gold standard. Whilst the smaller size of Micro and Nano could be practically, cosmetically and financially preferable, expecting the same isolation bandwidth would be in error. In fact, Nano omits vertical damping altogether. It asks where Jeffrey's R&D identified applications that won't benefit from vertical isolation or in fact perform better without. Having bet his farm on combining viscoelastics with ball bearings when launching Carbide Audio, we'd not expect that our man found many holes in his concept since.
Base with Diamond insert installed.
Of course cost savings and smarter looks always talk even where some performance dissipates. Not everyone must live at the bleeding edge. Finally, electronics most responsive to mechanical isolation are turntables, CD transports and tube gear. Speakers and subs are the greatest generators of physical vibrations, cartridges and lasers of vinyl and digital spinners most susceptible to them. With amplifiers it's the filaments of direct-heated power triodes. How much transistors benefit from resonance isolation and whether it's a DAC, preamp or power amp that gains most if at all – that's all up to personal experiments.
After getting big speakers and subs 'off the floor', I would next try a set beneath the uprights of an affordable bamboo equipment rack as shown. Check whether that still registers by isolating all gear on the rack from floorborne vibrations at once. If answered in the enthusiastic affirmative, my last step would trial where floating kit on individual shelves still clocks additional benefits. The rationale should be obvious.
Big things overlay tiny things. It's only after we fix gross disturbances that polishing up little jitters registers. Start out mollycoddling a micro winkle still dominated by a whopper and it may make zero difference. That's not because there's no performance drop left to squeeze out. It's because we went about it backward. There's a proper sequence to draining the swamp of our hifi's mechanical resonances. Expecting maximal or any improvement when we defy said sequence is irrational.
Finally there's cost/gain proportionality. Wherever tiny gains get disproportionally dear, we could stop caring. When precisely that guillotine beheads Mr. Upgrade Jones will differ from wallet to wallet and the aural assessment of its owner. By basic cost/size-cutting virtue, Nano could seem ideal for shelf placement and generally delayed head loss? That covered backstory and basics. Now Jeffrey can fill in the specifics of his new Base Micro and Nano.
Before he does, a basic reminder. We can't know what box talk in loudspeakers is until we contrast open-baffle dipoles. Box talk is far too baked into sealed/ported speakers to identify other than by subtraction. I made such a direct comparison with Qualio's IQ and Quantum to zero in on the very same midrange driver being sealed or open-backed. The time smear and detail blur of mechanical resonances too embed so deeply that save for certain obvious extremes, we don't identify them. What can we know about light if we're blind? It's why dissing broadband properly engineered resonance attenuation as imaginary or at best marginally relevant is groundless without actual subtraction. Only with direct before/after contrast can we assess effectiveness and worth. It's sad that this should warrant mention but fora noise by an uneducated yet highly opinionated majority drowns out a few hardy voices of personal experience which opt to post rather than shun the static altogether. Stated as simply as I can put it, engineered resonance control matters more than most audiophiles give it credit for. Why it's no popular address is easy to see. Amplifiers and loudspeakers are far sexier purchases. By killing all sound when disconnected or powered off, they're obviously essential so rationally justified. Resonance control meanwhile can be removed whilst the music plays on. That can make racks and isolators seem fancy window dressing for obsessives with more coin than cerebrum. Now the only solution is experiencing the difference to have that 'aha' moment on what this stuff does. It's another passage of audiophile initiation. For complete racks, some top names are Artesanía, Grand Prix Audio, Hifistay and HRS. For top decouplers, I've had excellent results with the Boenicke SwingBase, Carbide Bases, Hifistay multi-stage ball bearings, sound|kaos Vibra 68 footers and Wellfloat suspensions.
A big component like LampizatOr's top DHT DAC makes the existing Base Diamond perfectly sized for the job.
