_______________________________________________________________________________ Lars Fredell's 1996 Fi Magazine Review of The LaserBase from his monthly column: "TWEAKS & ACCESSORIES" _______________________________________________________________________________ Sunday Mornings are for T's and A's! _______________________________________________________________________________ This was the subconscious regimen my father followed. A true Swede, he spent every Sunday morning doing the things he loved most. And that thing was tweaking & accessorizing. The Sunday paper temporarily forgotten, he was fixated on his T's & A's and seemed to get great pleasure out of every minute effort involved. God save those who dared disturb him! Funny how life turns out. I used to think that his behavior on Sunday mornings was aberrant-a tinge of quiet madness in the life of your typical "middle Svensson" (that's what they call average Swedes). Now, 40 years later, I wonder why my family avoids me on Sunday mornings. _______________________________________________________________________________ Of course, my Dad's tweaks and accessories were different than mine are. He was an art collector, and his tweaks consisted of changing the location of his artworks to maximize the effect that light had on them, to produce just the right drama that he saw in a creation. I spend my Sunday mornings listening to wires and turning small ebony pucks. _______________________________________________________________________________ My Dad's T's and A's were aimed at getting as close to the artist's view as he could, so that he might share it. Mine are the same. The cultural exercise may be different, but our goal is identical. _______________________________________________________________________________ This column is going to be my ongoing contribution to Fi. "Lars' Tweaks and Accessories: or T's & A's as any libidinous Swede would instantly put it. It is meant to deal with the heart of our hobby At least, that's the way I see it. Tweaking is IT! To me, it involves squeezing the most out of the equipment, whatever it is, by whatever means available. That's my idea of fun. _______________________________________________________________________________ Credentials? Don't have any. None, that is, other than 35 years of relentless tweaking of all aspects of the audio chain. No Electrical Engineering degree or other type of science background here. Of course, this may be an advantage for a tweaker. I tend not to dismiss tweaks because they seem improbable or cannot be proven in double-blind testing. So, don't look for technical proof in this column. I'll be dealing with changes that register against a long background of careful listening to minute variations in sound. I'd like to think that I'm prepared to try anything to get closer to audio perfection; but I realize that if I ever did get there, my fun would be over. Well, not really. The music would be there in all its glory. The questing part might be over, but the grail would be in hand. Good sound reproduction has many enemies. Distortions of various types, poorly made equipment, poorly matched equipment, poor setup of the equipment, poor listening environment, and so on. However,as far as I'm concerned, the number one enemy of good sound is resonance. Structural or airborne, internal or external, resonances are all bad, Bad, BAD! _______________________________________________________________________________ In many cases you can buy your way out of distortion problems-at least the worst of them by upgrading your equipment. Usually, you cannot buy your way out of resonance problems. Normally, these have to be tweaked out. For instance, older readers will remember the days when you had to tiptoe around the listening room to prevent a cartridge from mistracking. Analog front-ends have always been notoriously sensitive to all kinds of vibration. They are very delicate information retrieval systems, without the safeguards" of digital playback, such as oversampling and data interpolation. If you lose it to ungrounded resonance in analog playback, you can't retrieve it later on. _______________________________________________________________________________ And yet, in spite of the fact that they don't usually grossly mistrack because of footfalls and have safeguards to retrieve information, there is a good deal of evidence, both theoretical and experiential, to suggest that digital front ends are just about as sensitive to resonance as analog ones are. One obvious proof is the fact that CD drives change their sound dramatically when you modify the support they sit on. Techies like to talk about the crucial importance of CD jitter; but it is apparent that even jitter can be affected by the equipment support and its ability to protect the drive from external mechanical vibrations or to drain internal resonance or both. _______________________________________________________________________________ I've spent an enormous amount of time trying to come to grips with the effects of mechanical resonance on digital front ends. Everything, from your basic Mission Isoplat or Monster Tranquillity Base to cones, pucks and half-spheres of different materials, has rested under my digital front end. All made some difference, unfortunately not always for the better. _______________________________________________________________________________ For a long time, the best solution I found was the vibration eliminating platforms from Microscan, provided they were used with the special stinted cones supplied on request. You'd have to move the cones around until you found the position where they would drain the maximum amount of resonance out of whatever was placed on them-a very trying procedure. But, the rewards could be great! _______________________________________________________________________________ Then Robert Genna showed up on the scene. A few years ago, this somewhat eccentric and quirky inventor (patents include vibration damped drumsticks and wooden bass drumheads, etc.) developed a special stand which he called the LaserBase. The initial effort was rather crude in its design and did not meet with much success when it was marketed by a well known distributor of audio accessories. _______________________________________________________________________________ However, Genna had a good idea, and he continued to refine its design. A mutual friend eventually suggested that I ought to give it a listen. Like the proverbial boyscout, I'm always ready to help out any tweak. What I wasn't ready for was what I got in return! _______________________________________________________________________________ The new LaserBase is a beautiful, yet elegantly functional design in the school of the Italian Artemide Tizio lamps. Immaculately constructed with specially damped metal tubing, this equipment stand can be tailored for any size and weight of component that you might require. _______________________________________________________________________________ The LaserBase is made of two nested, rectangular, damped, tubular steel frames, with the feet of each frame pointing in opposite directions. One frame is elastically suspended from the other by means of expensive polyurethane elastomeric O-rings. This arrangement allows the supported CD-player (or any other component) to be mechanically decoupled from the surrounding support. The O-rings can easily be adjusted so that equipment, even with very uneven weight distribution, can be properly leveled. _______________________________________________________________________________ Place the LaserBase on its leg ends in the location where you want it-it doesn't have to be a perfectly flat surface-and then put the component on top of the four legs that are sticking up in the air. The elastomeric O-rings will flex in proportion to the weight of the component (that's why it's important to specify the weight of your CD player when you order the LaserBase) and form a decoupled suspension system as they stretch out. Once situated on the LaserBase, the only connection that the component has with the surrounding world is via the O-rings. The more the O-rings stretch, the less mechanical energy can be fedback through them. For all practical purposes your component is resting on air. (The resonance point for the LaserBase is said to be 2Hz!) Even inexpensive CD-players sound much improved as soon as they are placed on the LaserBase. Better units, like my Theta Digital drive, are even more sensitive to its beneficial effects, and the improvement in the sound is even more profound, particularly in the areas of dimensionality and dynamics, which I think must result directly from a substantial reduction in the noise floor. The new dynamic shadings produced by my system are simply astonishing. You may have to move the LaserBase around on the four supporting legs to find the ideal position. But it sure ain't hard to hear the difference when you hit the right spot. _______________________________________________________________________________ Be sure to order the LaserBase in a size somewhat smaller than the bottom surface of the component that will rest on it, so that you can move the component around on the stand. An inch of leeway on each side is usually sufficient. Also, make sure that you don't order legs that are too high as this tends to make heavier equipment, such as power amplifiers, wobble precariously if you happen to bump into them, which could be dangerous for little kids or animals. _______________________________________________________________________________ Your system can only benefit from reducing resonance or vibrations, so do whatever you can to eliminate the nasty things. The LaserBase offers one of the best solutions that I have seen to this difficult problem, and it is easy to recommend. Call Robert Genna at 1-800-326-8777 to discuss your needs. Though he is not an audiophile, he does think like one. Which is to say that he thinks he has most of the answers-so be patient with him. His product is very good, indeed. The price of a standard LarerBase is $349.95, but prices can vary depending on size and add-ons. So much for this month's accessory. See you next month with a brand new T or A.. _______________________________________________________________________________ Fi Magazine / JAN/FEB 1996 / Volume1 Issue1 / Pages 86 & 87 _______________________________________________________________________________ LaserBase Nominated as An Accessory Of The Year Lars Fredell's 1997 Fi Magazine Review of The LaserBase in his monthly column: "TWEAKS & ACCESSORIES" _______________________________________________________________________________ T's & A's 1996: The Best.... and the rest! _______________________________________________________________________________ To me, 1996 wasn't a particularly great year as far as tweaks and accessories are concerned. For every good one I came across, there were too many poor or just plain dumb ones. Examples! How about the guys who recommended that I clean my CDs with buttermilk (to sweeten the sound!) or a Johnson's Babywipe (to improve the highs!). Yes, I am Swedish and innocently gullible, but, no 1 didn't and don't use my DAC upside-down either, as someone suggested! _______________________________________________________________________________ Although the year as whole was disappointing to me on this particular front, I did find some exceptional accessories which really work well in my system. That doesn't necessarily mean that they'll be the cat's meow for you, so don't go craiy over what follows here."Try before you buy" is a good maxim. These are just my own observations about a few noteworthy products which have substantially improved music reproduction chez Fredell. _______________________________________________________________________________ My award for Accessory of the Year is split between two terrific products: Robert Genna's LaserBase and Jack Bybee's black box, the T.A.D. Line Purifier (both have been extensively discussed in previous columns in Vol. 1, issues 1 and 8, respectively). Since I wrote about the LaserBase, there has been a significant addition/improvement to this product in terms of protection against lateral movement--something very few, if any, component stands can do. The LaserBase stand, with its elastomeric o-ring suspension, is now supported by special feet with twopart stems which include miniature cups of Ruby or Tungsten Carbide at the ends. Between the two cups, a tiny ball of the same material is allowed to move freely, giving almost total isolation from vibrations in the horizontal plane, i.e. the world can move back and forth but your component won't. Similar claims are often made for various air-suspended platforms currently in vogue, but I must have missed something there. Since when is air a good vibration-inhibitor or eliminator? Every time I sit in front of my speakers, I marvel at all the frequencies vibrating from the cones to my ears... air is a great transmitter of vibrations! It seems to me that if an air suspension stand works in a system it might be because the stand that it replaced was really poor; but this doesn't necessarily make air suspension a good idea. The LaserBase with its "Twinkle-Toes" (!) does the job, both vertically and laterally. _______________________________________________________________________________ Jack Bybee has expanded his linepurification efforts to incorporate the signal path as well. I know that this sounds like heresy--putting a filter in the signal path--but it works! It is a small box with one pair of binding posts at one end, and a two foot pure copper tether with spades, on the other. Place the box between the speaker cable of your choice and the speaker. I sure can't hear any deterioration in the signal when Bybee's passive device is hooked up. But what I do hear is less background noise, better dynamics, more dimensionality, greater transparency... and so on. At approximately $300 per pair, buyers are given a reasonably-priced opportunity to try this remarkable technology. _______________________________________________________________________________ Victor Tiscareno and Byron Collett of AudioPrism introduced their CD Blacklight at the 1996 CES in Las Vegas. This phosphorescent CD damper must be "charged" by holding it to a light source for about thirty seconds, to give it the necessary glow, before it is placed on top of a CD. It comes in two versions, one for toploaders and one for players with a drawer. (Be sure to use the right one in a drawerloaded player or you might run the risk of having it get stuck in the innards of the player, as happened with my Theta.) Properly used, the CD Blacklight will enhance the sound by improving dynamic shadings, making them more vivid and vibrant without adding any edginess or hardness, which, in turn, makes for a more convincing presentation. The difference in sound quality brought about by the CD Blacklight can be quire astounding in a high-resolution system, certainly well worth the $40 tag. _______________________________________________________________________________ The year's surprise came in the form of a cable, a digital link to be precise. For a long time I have been using the proprietary LaserLinque in my Theta digital front end, thinking that it was the end-of-the-road for this type of hook-up. Oh sure, I've tried any number of alternative coaxial cables (there are no BNC or AES/EBU capabilities on my Thetas), but they've always suffered in direct comparison with the LaserLinque. Big surprise then when this guy, Mike Roberts, hands me a sample of his Cascade Digital Link and I put it in my system. I used to think that the expensive Goldmund Lineal was it as far as these coax links are concerned, but I am compelled to note that the Cascade opened up the presentation even further, adding more detail, and seemingly improving transparency a couple of notches over what the LaserLinque can muster. The Cascade, connectors and all, measures exactly 75 ohms and can only be had in approximately one meter length. At around $170 it offers good value...and better sound. _______________________________________________________________________________ In my opinion, the above products were standouts, producing significant improvements without busting Lars' tiny savings account--a necessity in these murderous college-expense days. However, they were not the only accessories that found a permanent home in my system during 1996. The following products were also noteworthy additions,improving my sound and thus offering a reasonable return on investment. _______________________________________________________________________________ Highwire Audio's Power Wrap and Shun Mook's Cable Jacket do much the same thing: reduce system noise levels while improving imaging specificity and bass response. But there the similarities end. The Power Wrap is meant to be used on power cords where it is placed around the electrical center of the cord (close to the physical center of most cords). It is said to significantly reduce the amount of RFI entering the system. The Cable lacker, on the other hand, should be used on signal cables, i.e. interconnects and speaker cables. It, too, should be wrapped around the physical center of the cable for maximum benefit. Fine tuning of both of these products means tugging them very gradually along the wire they are wrapped around until subjective bass response is optimized. Impossible? No, but the process certainly requires dedication and patience. _______________________________________________________________________________ The much-debated Shakti Stones are not real stones at all, but are made of a composite cement material. The inventor, nice guy Ben Piazza, argues that the Shakti is neither an accessory nor a mechanical tuning device, like the famous VPI bricks, but rather an enhancement product. I'm not sure that I get the distinction here. Shakti, which means "energy" as in "creative intelligence, power and beauty" in an East indian language, is an "electromagnetic stabilizer," and it is placed on top of, or under, a component or a speaker where it is said to reduce EMI (electromagnetic interference). I don't know what the specifics are, but the thing really works quite well. There is an obvious reduction of the noise floor which rather significantly improves the sense of dimensionality, and the dynamic impact, of individual instruments. The presentation becomes cleaner and more liquid without losing detail or focus. Indeed, soundstage dimensions are better delineated. Very appealing! Placement and fine tuning vary from component to component but close proximity to transformers is recommended. I was able to put Shakti stones inside my LAMM amplifiers-right between the input transformer and the large torodial power transformer--to highly beneficial effect, but you will want to be very careful before you put stuff inside your amps. At $230 each the Shaktis aren't cheap, but they're good...and unique as far as I know. _______________________________________________________________________________ Have you ever had one of your favorite CDs rejected by your player because it was scratched to the point where it wouldn't register! This is particularly upsetting when it is a CD you bought fifteen years ago and is no longer in print. Well, John Murphy of Compact Dynamics and his CD Optrix and CD Magic might well turn out to be your savior. These are not new products-they've been around for a few years--I just hadn't ever had the need for them. But when I finally did, they came through in a big way by saving several irreplaceable CDs for me. It is to be hoped that you won't need these products every day, but they're sure good to have around when you do need them. Keep 'em handy! _______________________________________________________________________________ Finally, Full Spectrum Audio of New Jersey lent me some very fine cables for a speaker review. These cables performed well above average as far as I'm concerned, and their Exotic power cord was particularly good. Man, did it have an effect in my set up! It was akin to putting everything on steroids, or Shaklee Vita-Lea vitamins. Wow! My components woke up with a bang...the energy level was raised several notches right away. These cords may be expensive, but they sure deliver in cloves! _______________________________________________________________________________ That rounds it out for me. A warm thanks to the above manufacturers for having had such a positive effect on the reproduction of music in my home...you all have products to be proud of. Also, a sincere thanks to many makers of other fine products which I was given the opporrunity to sample and review, but which for one reason or another didn't wet my noodle to the same degree. Perhaps the guy whom I'll end up being most grateful to is Don Wadia Moses, who provided me with space age Q2 Vapor Corrosion inhibitor tablets which I've popped into my equipment. I'll let you know in about twenty-five years how well they worked! Sources ______________________________________________________________________________ LaserBase with "Twinkle-Toes" - Robert Genna: LaserBase Audio & Video / Skyline Musical Products 1-800-326-8777 TAD Systems - Jack Bybee AudioPrism- Byron Collett Cascade Engineering - Mike Roberts /Agent:High-End for Less - Ron Rogers Highwire Audio - Don Palmer Shun Mook Audio Inc. - Andrew Chow Shakti Audio - Ben Piazza /Agent: Musical Surroundings Compact Dynamics Co - John Murphy Full Spectrum Audio - Ralph Romano Fi Magazine / JAN/FEB 1997 / Volume 2 Issue 1 / Pages 101 & 103.