Vibra 30

Reviewer: Srajan Ebaen
Financial interests: click here
Main system: Sources: Retina 5K 27" iMac (i5, 256GB SSD, 40GB RAM, Sonoma 14), 4TB external SSD with Thunderbolt 3, Audirvana Studio, Qobuz Sublime, Singxer SU-6 USB bridge, LHY Audio SW-8 & SW-6 switch, Laiv Audio Harmony; Active filter: Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box 2; Power amplifiers: Kinki Studio EX-B7 monos & Gold Note monos on subwoofer; Headamp: Enleum AMP-23R; Phones: Raal 1995 Immanis, HifiMan Susvara; Loudspeakers: Qualio IQ [on loan] Cables: Kinki Studio Earth, Furutech; Power delivery: Vibex Granada/Alhambra on all source components, Vibex One 11R on amps, Furutech DPS-4.1 between wall and conditioners; Equipment rack: Artesanía Audio Exoteryc double-wide 3-tier with optional glass shelves, Exoteryc amp stands; Sundry accessories: Acoustic System resonators, LessLoss Firewall for loudspeakers, Furutech NCF Signal Boosters; Room: 6 x 8m with open door behind listening seat; Room treatment: 2 x PSI Audio AVAA C214 active bass traps
2nd system: Source: FiiO R7 into Soundaware D300Ref SD transport to Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe; Preamp/filter: Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box 2; Amplifier: Kinki Studio EX-M7; Headamp: Cen.Grand Silver Fox; Loudspeakers: MonAcoustic SuperMon Mini + Dynaudio S18 sub; Power delivery: Furutech GTO 2D NCF, Akiko Audio Corelli; Equipment rack: Hifistay Mythology Transform X-Frame [on extended loan]; Sundry accessories: Audioquest Fog Lifters; Furutech NFC Clear Lines; Room: ~3.5 x 8m
Desktop system: Source: HP Z230 work station Win10/64; USB bridge: Singxer SU-2; DAC: Sonnet Pasithea; Headamp: Kinki Studio THR-1; Speaker amp: Crayon CFA-1.2; Speakers: Acelec Model One Headphones: Final D-8000 & Sonorous X, Audeze LCD-XC, Raal-Requisite SR1a on Schiit Jotunheim R
Upstairs headfi system: FiiO R7, COS Engineering D1, Cen.Grand Silver Fox; Headphones: Raal 1995 Magna, Meze 109 Pro, Fiio FT3
2-channel video system: Source: Oppo BDP-105; All-in-One: Gold Note IS-1000 Deluxe; Loudspeakers: Zu Soul VI; Subwoofer: Zu Submission; Power delivery: Furutech eTP-8, Room: ~6x4m
Review component retail: CHF140/1, CHF1'260/8

Vibra 68 at left for size reference: 60mm Ø, 42mm height, 60kg load capacity.

And the game's afoot. If you were a cocaine-addled but famous hifi gumshoe, would you take the strange case of a 1mm steel cable claiming to support up to 25kg from a footer of 29mm Ø and just 40mm stature—48mm at maximum height adjustment—that came in anodized silver or bronze? I knew you would. That's why we're gathering at the local after all, having us a pint of black stuff whilst telling tall tales; or in this case, a rather stubby one. If you thought all of this upside down, you're not wrong. This device can be used that way, too.

Hauzit worx gen? You ask so in a slur after your fourth pint. I hear ya. Wire suspension for vibration isolation is still an obscure art after all. Only Boenicke, Wellfloat and Audite have cracked it yet; plus Martin Gateley of sound|kaos. The basic concept is the macramé-hung potted weed of the hippy era. This got serious with the ceiling-suspended loudspeaker when groovy hippies discovered superior sound. Certain extremists progressed to suspending their cables with fishing line. With better halves everywhere soon outlawing their solutions, a visually far more benign take is the wire-suspended footer. The component or speaker to be isolated sits on a load-bearing surface disconnected from the floor or shelf by hanging above it from wires that conceal within the footer itself. In today's case, it's actually the single very short wire with soldered brass stops¹ shown above right. The upshot is that our component or speaker doesn't make contact with its shelf or the floor other than through a steel cable which here means "an intricate array of 19 slender steel-wire strands. As vibrations travel through these tensioned strands from either direction, natural friction between them elegantly dissipates them by converting to heat. The performance between Vibra 68 and 30 is the same. The only difference is the load bearing and price. However, the top cap of Vibra 30 has a tapered side designed to take plate arms/adapters."
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¹ The breaking strain on that 1mm Ø wire is 70kg. The soldering of the brass ferrules reduces the load capacity to 25kg.

Bronze-anodized version beneath the matching sound|kaos Vox 3 monitor stand; and in silver beneath a Swiss Merason DAC.

The hifi jihad against residual micro vibrations from transformers, disc spinners analogue and digital, loudspeakers, subwoofers and fussy servers presently takes place on mostly three fronts. There are constrained-layer solutions, ball-bearing solutions, viscoelastic solutions and hybrids which combine two or all of them. In my experience, the possibly most effective is today's encounter of the fourth kind. I already have two quartets of the bigger original Vibra 68 under my sound|kaos Gravitas 15 and Dynaudio S18 subs. Those replaced earlier isolators from Boenicke, Carbide, Divine Acoustics and Hifistay. If you thought that a buzzing transformer made a mechanical ruckus, ask yourself what twin 15-inch AudioTechnology woofers good to 22Hz will do at 90dB in a cardioid loading. That's the test bed I reference when saying 'most effective'. In fact, my upstairs 2×9½" sealed sub adds a suspended wood floor to the equation. That makes it even more prone to the excitation of structural resonances which always occur behind the beat so late. The result is poor bass stoppage so confusion in the time domain; and a lumpy amplitude response. The antidote is to get our mechanical energy generators off the floor. Don't let them talk through it into our rack, electronics, furnishings, walls and neighbouring rooms. Otherwise we let our transducers and most sensitive electronics drive under the influence. And it's always our sound quality which pays that ticket on clarity, temporal stability, focus and contrast ratio. Noise in all its forms—electrical, acoustical, structural—is not signal. By definition, that makes it a form of sing-along distortion which overlays or envelops the signal. Wherever we can attenuate even eliminate any of the three forms of noise, we hear more signal in trade. It's that elemental.

Threaded M6 hole on base, M4 on the top. Top cork protector optional but included.

Once I learnt that Martin's original Vibra 68 had shrunk whilst gaining 8mm of height adjustment for crooked floors and other 4th-pint results, I naturally was in. We lose 35kg of load capacity per footer but save 110 Swiss franks. Yet a quad of Vibra 30 still floats/hangs 100kg or 220½lbs. Options. Having them is sweet. Reporting on them is part of my job. So here we are with a sweet game of footsies afoot. If you need more visual evidence to wrap your head around its whole notion, watch the video embedded in this feature.

Watson, where's my pipe? Let's crack this case. It seems like one of our more unusual ones.