Less bloom and loudness? It's primarily big vibrations from lower freqs which cause most structural ringing. Reducing that ringing also cuts amplitude. Think of it like room gain. It's strongest in the corners because reflections from the front wall, side wall and floor each add their output. Reflections travel longer paths than direct sound to always be late. If we reduce lateness—be it by cutting reflections or structural resonances—our music is literally more on time. We might give up a bit of free amplitude gain but gain free clarity, superior stoppages and more authentic tone textures.

If we diss this trade—better timing and exactitude for less loudness—a far more surgical way to add linear bass amplitude is via a precision digital EQ like Audirvana just embedded without a plugin. Simply build in a shallow linear rise hinging at 100Hz or 200Hz.

What I noticed first when my Aptica speakers changed shoes from Hifistay to Stack was this very reduction in LF loudness and the simultaneous rise of crisper stoppages so reduced overhang and with it, less bloat particularly in the upper bass. In smaller rooms this so often is the love-handle trouble spot. Rather than a room mode however, Auva identified my extra fat as a floor resonance by proof of subtraction.

This drove home the clearly lesser effectiveness of my shimmying ball-bearing footers. My techno-peasant brain never believed that the displacement forces of a 5¼" Accuton mid/woofer stroking on 85dB peaks versus the physical mass of its enclosure would cause any actual motion of ceramic balls in precision races. Just so I was aware that Magico and Wilson impugn that very concept for speaker isolation precisely because of its give. Had I barked up the wrong tree in this upstairs system? No wonder I was hoarse!

Kidding aside, that the footer swap registered and in this manner was suggestive. Auva did a better job than the Koreans of isolating as in, not letting through. Moving the speakers into position, I also felt the extra mass of the new aluminium appendages. That just must lower the speakers' centre of gravity to add stability? Whatever the reasons, my before/after delta was real. To reiterate, I wasn't on a massive concrete slab like our first Swiss residence in a remodelled animal stable presented me with. I now am on a suspended first-storey wood floor in a fine but non-luxurious Irish build. A less talkative foundation should show less difference. If that potentially eliminates a few prospective buyers in stone-tiled McMansions, it leaves scores of flat dwellers in inner-city high rises and condos who must deal with my scenario or worse. The louder and lower we play, the busier our floor dump of mechanical vibrations becomes; and the more of it can structurally migrate beyond our crib. If you're a hifi whisperer, expect less isolation differences.

The home of tone? It's in Petaluma at my old employer Mesa/Boogie. Musicians—in Mesa's case, guitarists—are flaming tone freaks. They sweat tone woods, string and tube types, harmonic distortion profiles in their amplifiers or foot pedals and more to lock in their individual tone. What is tone? The fullness of a fundamental with all its harmonics intact; and how overtone weighting can be deliberately modulated. As harmonics ascend octaves beyond their fundamental, they get ever more homeopathic in strength. Beyond even recorded ambiance recovery, a lower system noise floor looks deeper into playback's faintest overtone layers. The result is a broader range of tone modulations; and more timbre differentiations. Swapping the recently reviewed quite effective and supremely cost-effective 3D-printed Virtual Hifi Vibron isolators for Auva 70 under my Qualio IQ in the main system, I had Randy Smith déjà vu. He was my boss at Mesa who is now retired and has sold his company to Gibson. The primary footer difference I keyed into was tone at the hands of three master guitarists collaborating on already two albums under The Transatlantic Guitar Trio umbrella. They specialize in old-timey swing delivered with astonishing virtuosity and musicianship.

When we know our systems as intimately as our car where the tiniest new noise or behaviour alarms, noticing difference isn't hard. Someone else may not pick it up until pointed at. Familiarity breeds contempt goes the proverb but in this case creates heightened awareness. Mine heard juicier tone from still more illuminated overtone action. Like dynamics, timing, phrasing and intonation, it's a dimension of musical expression. Non-musicians tend to be less tuned into it than what to them are more obvious aspects. This directly informs the value different listeners will place on fully elaborated overtone resolution. An absolute prerequisite are superior tweeters and minimal treble phase shift supported by wide-bandwidth amplifiers. Another absolute prerequisite is a low system noise floor so the subtlest harmonics can rise above it. In any event, moving deeper into that aspect of playback is what the Auva added above and beyond the prior Vibron. It's the opposite of tube tone that injects high 2nd-order THD. That's faux tone; perhaps pleasant but a playback artefact that alters and dumbs down recorded tone which with electric guitars very often includes tubes. Their distortion is simply what the musicians intended; not what our own system adds and shifts.