January 24th. Xmas in January? "In about 2 weeks I'm releasing another version of the current Carbide Base footer called Carbide Base Sapphire.
Superimposed standalone races are Diamond on left, Sapphire on right.
"Like the Carbide Base Diamond which looks identical from the outside, this has the additional ball bearing vibration isolator in the top centre. Sapphire's insert has the Diamond's zirconia bearings and their raceways are of similar curvature. The Sapphire races aren't ceramic however but high-carbon steel heat-treated for extra hardness. After eight stages of polishing, they coat in diamond-like carbon aka DLC combined with a special alloy. This PVD coating is not as slippery or hard as diamond but roughly the hardness of sapphire. It can apply thicker and is better suited to adhere to steel than the PVD diamond attaches to ceramic. The final step is cryogenic tempering. Here we use our cryogenic freezer to cold-soak the races followed by a modest heat treatment to relieve internal stresses and improve toughness and hardness. The other difference is that Sapphire lacks the Diamond's TwinDamp™ parts. If you recall, TwinDamp is our temperature-treated manganese-copper twin crystal based high-damping alloy. While Carbide Base Diamond remains our very best vibration isolator, Sapphire comes respectably close at a lower price."
Prototype Micro versus standard Base/Sapphire/Diamond.
"Why I mention the Sapphire races is that they relate to the new Carbide Base Nano at left with a single ball bearing between two races. In use this obviously requires a minimum of three footers unlike the possible just two Carbide Base as you discovered. Nano's advantage is that it can be made very small so ~45mm Ø and 27mm tall. Smaller means less raw materials and machine time. Combined with fewer races as one of the costliest components nets lower production cost.
"In my earlier email I mentioned that Nano works best in specific situations. Based on measurements it suits best where there's already good isolation and/or damping in place such as on a good rack or isolation platform. Otherwise Carbide Base or Micro provide better vertical isolation and overall better damping due to their low shape-factor viscoelastics. In cases where already some isolation is present, Nano can offer an incremental but meaningful isolation improvement of low-amplitude LF vibrations when compared to other designs.
"Nano will come in standard and Diamond versions. The standard Nano uses Sapphire races (far right), Nano Diamond the exact same races as Carbide Base Diamond (center). It also incorporates a thick TwinDamp top pad. This becomes a highly damped interface for contacting the underside of equipment. For Nano to be most effective, I recommend mounting it such that it directly contacts a chassis. Nano is height adjustable to facilitate bypassing your gear's stock footers. And, all its parts are stainless. There's no aluminium to anodize which is a typical source of long delays. It shouldn't be long until I have samples to you. Meanwhile Dawid Grzyb agreed to review Micro so I might want to syndicate his findings as a follow-up like last time." I believe in 2nd and 3rd opinions for more makes merrier so committed upfront to include our Warsaw correspondent's comments. On Jeffrey's naming convention, after diamond natural sapphire and its synthetic corundum equivalent are considered to be the hardest materials. It's why sapphire lenses show up as virtually scratch-proof glass in wrist watches whilst corundum bearings protect friction-heavy elements inside mechanical watches. It's what the number of jewels in an automatic time piece refers to: very hard ruby aka sapphire bearings and sleeves to protect constantly fast-moving parts from wear.
Nano Diamond at left as distinguished by its black top. "Manganese copper is light grey but turns black after our heat treatments. Nano standard uses a stainless steel nipple."
"Darling, I shrunk your Carbides"
"How could you? Bigger is better."
"You really want to spend more? Sorry, the hifi till is too exhausted at the moment. You still owe me a diamond ring."
"Er… true. Give me those details then, honey."
Base Micro $199/ea, Micro Sapphire $275/ea, Micro Diamond $475/ea. Nano Diamond $599 (set of 3) or $749 (set of 4). Nano $199 (set of 3) or $249 (set of 4).
"For the price of one Base Diamond, you could get three triple Nano sets and isolate three components at once. Surely that's better than a single enormous footer you can't do anything with? Each Nano is good for 55kg/121lbs so a quad will support up to 220kg. That's serious."
"When you put it that way. Very sneaky of you!"
"It's why you call me the beautiful brains of this outfit."
"I did say that once, didn't I? Not just a pretty face but endowed with very long memory."
"Stop while you're ahead!"
It's how you could be ahead in the anti-vibration game not dog house when funds are limited whilst gear in need is multitudinous?
