Being digital with noisy direct-heated power triodes and two different power supplies adjacent suggested that my LampizatOr would score an A+ on Bindbreaker compliance. And the top LampizatOr deck clearly benefited more than the amps. However, it already sat on three heavy feet from our local Stacore company each coupled with one rounded spike to its supportive platter. The standard DAC footers showed the Stacore footers to be a bit faster but also slimmer than those by LessLoss. Those played it mellower, more relaxed and less grainy yet equally open. The more switches I made, the more I viewed both aftermarket footers as equally potent albeit differently voiced. Both bested my rack shelf by itself.
The final auditions looked at the LessLoss Echo's End Original DAC which purposely has no stock feet. Three Bindbreakers on this machine not only had more potency than the Pacific DAC, they also showed how much performance the Lithuanian DAC held back without them. The improvement today's footers introduced still wasn't night and day but biggest yet. As I wrote in my Echo's End review, this machine's core voice includes a pristine backdrop, moisture, overall elegance and top-notch expressiveness which well-trained ears often associate with R-2R. Mellowness and earthiness are also part of its sophisticated profile. Three Bindbreakers underneath their stablemate DAC resulted in now familiar acceleration and greater openness. Thinner more strongly pressed pencil tips applied to all virtual outlines which raised overall clarity. Bass became tighter and snappier with its density intact. The background grew a bit darker to reveal even tinier bits between images. The general Bindbreaker route pulled in the opposite direction to that of the DAC's own voicing to create interlocking synergy that was beyond the other machines I'd tried.
At this point I knew which product benefited most. The LessLoss Echo's End emerged as the DAC of choice. But I had six more pucks for two more components: Kinki Studio's integrated and fidata's transport. Each occupied my rack's upper level. The result was better with the Bindbreakers than without, came at no sonic penalty and scored high enough to justify the expense relative to my rack's own cost. In this context the LessLoss footers introduced a subtle yet audible improvement for mere pennies on my domestic euro but there was one more thing left to possibly push their effectiveness a bit higher: hardware stacking.
I was told that superior contact pressure from additional mass could elevate their efficacy. From lightweight hardware with Bindbreakers beneath plus extra weight on top I built a stack of three wooden decouplers, Echo's End DAC, more Bindbreakers on its hood then an EX-M1 integrated on top. This didn't shift the general sonic direction but the Bindbreaker influence increased somewhat as LessLoss had predicted it would.
One shelf occupied by two stacked products resulted in a still fairly reasonable visual but I wondered whether a tower of all key components plus nine Bindbreakers would still go further, looks be damned. To my surprise I detected yet another small performance leap in the now familiar direction. However, two empty shelves and just one busy with three items looked silly. Though aesthetics and common sense would prevent me from going this route, the takeaway was clear: extra weight on top of digital devices with today's pucks underneath accomplished more.
