Bindbreaker

This review first appeared in March 2020 on HifiKnights.com. By request of the manufacturer and permission of the author, it is hereby syndicated to reach a broader audience. All images contained in this piece are the property of Dawid Grzyb or LessLoss – Ed.

Reviewer: Dawid Grzyb
Sources: LampizatOr Pacific (Living Voice 300B + KR Audio 5U4G Ltd. Ed.)
Transports: fidata HFAS-S10U
USB: iFi audio 0, micro iUSB3.0 and 3x Mercury cables
Integrated amplifiers: Kinki Studio EX-M1, Trilogy 925, Bakoon AMP-13R
Speakers: Boenicke Audio W11 SE+
Interconnects: Audiomica Laboratory Erys Excellence
Speaker cables: Boenicke Audio S3, LessLoss C-MARC
Power components: Gigawatt PC-3 SE EVO+, Gigawatt PF-2 + Gigawatt LC-2 MK2 + Forza AudioWorks Noir Concept/Audiomica Laboratory Ness Excellence/LessLoss C-MARC
Rack: Franc Audio Accesories Wood Block Rack
Music: NativeDSD
Retail price of reviewed components in EU (incl. 22% VAT): $160/ea., 2+/4+ units 5%/10% off respectively

Even though decoupling footers are a niche subject, many hifi portfolios include them. When opportunity arose to try the LessLoss Bindbreaker, I said 'yes'. Many of us wouldn't immediately think of hifi hardware as being on shaky ground. That's understandable. Once put on a shelf, most our stationary casings filled with electronic parts won't budge after all. However turntables, CD players and speakers have moving parts which resonate to influence their surroundings and themselves. Even big transformers can vibrate. When tamed, these vibrations which aren't the music signal but extraneous often mean better performance. Devices designed to tackle these issues are in fact the backbone of many a brand. Vibration control isn't anything new in the audio industry and benefits even extend to hardware which contains no moving parts.

Audio devices with delicate circuitry and/or microphonic valves clearly benefit from products which damp and/or drain their resonant energies. At least that's been my experience with a proper audio rack whose shelves feature ball-bearing interfaces. The more advanced pneumatic platform from our Polish Stacore company had upped efficacy enough to emerge as the best such solution I've yet heard. Both my rack and Stacore's are expensive, heavy and very big but this story doesn't end with racks. Mechanical vibrations can be addressed to quite an extent with far smaller more affordable means. Enter decoupling footers or isolator pucks.

All such small anti-vibration devices are in large part designed to isolate the component they support from the surface it sits on whilst creating an earthing path for their own mechanical noise. Performance and price aside, the diversity of such accessories can be narrowed down to how they work and what they use. Materials and main ingredients can be one or several hard balls locked between two very hard materials or suspension systems with spikes, springs, wood, cork, artificial stone, rubber and other combinations. There are as many ways to design such footers as there are footers. Most hifi firms I'm familiar with bake their own as do LessLoss whose Bindbreaker is unlike any other I've seen. That's hardly surprising given its maker's track record. These Lithuanians aren't copycats but original thinkers. They're well known for pursuing their own solutions and being unusually successful at that.

Nine Bindbreaker feet sent my way could accommodate three audio components. Common sense tells us that three feet per machine are the most stable. Each Bindbreaker measures 93x38mm WxH and consists of steel, plywood and bog oak. The connection between its smaller hexagonal cylinder and matching but wider base is fixed but has some play. The bigger plate doesn't bond with the bog wood bottom but just sits on it. The visual result is rather innocuous and to my eyes aesthetically appealing. On the company's product page, actual construction leaves no room for guessing. No aspect of the design is accidental or capricious.