Denali feet
 

It looks like the Denali feet will allow the addition of spikes allowing coupling through a carpet to the sub-floor. Has anyone tried this (or perhaps Grant or Caelin will chime in).

I’ve read in a thread someplace that they recommend against spikes and coupling with the Denali.

The Denali chassis has been analyzed using accelerometers to minimize vibration. It even has dampening gaskets on each of its outlets. The Denali does not need to be “coupled” to the floor.

Think about it for a moment. Your speaker is “coupled” to the floor. The speaker is a massive vibration generation machine pumping energy into the floor. Why would you want to “couple” a well dampened piece of equipment (Denali) to a vibrating floor?

I ask because under PLACEMENT in supplies user guide it states: " Do not place the device directly on a rug, carpet, or soft furniture". Having carpet in my listening room it prompted me to ask. And to clarify its carpet on a concrete slab.

Caelin,

I have a Denali D6000/S (Not the T). I'm considering moving it out of the rack and onto my hardwood floor. Would this be acceptable, (not wanting to switch out to a T)?

The T model has its own, integrated base and high quality SSF feet. So, it can be placed directly on the floor (or carpet). It can and will sound better on a dedicated amp stand or a good hardwood plank (shelf) etc.

The S model was designed to go on a good quality shelf rack. So, it would suffer in performance if placed directly on the floor - especially if it is on a rug. Things that help if you don’t want to use an audiophile amp stand - hardwood plank, granite slab, etc. You could also get the optional SSF feet for it. All of this improves performance. Power conditioners react similarly to shelves, stands and supports as amplifiers do.

Hope this helps guys.

Thank You, my 'S' is performing 'as advertised' !

Thank God I have an Audioquest 7000 on GAIA feet.

The floor.... The floor is the "common collecting ground" for all vibrations. Analogy is thinking in terms of electrical applications.

Vibrations are bad. This is the common belief and many theories and practice in audio hobby focus on that. We spike our speakers so that the cabinet vibrations can be drained away into the "ground" or the floor". Macro and micro vibrations of the speaker cabinet are typically considered bad because they smear the focus of imaging and otherwise "color" the sound. Sometimes, the vibration is said to be sympathetic and is actually a part of speaker design to various degrees of success...

Further, we set up our equipment on racks, often also spiked because the sound waves emanating from loudspeakers will set all objects in motion at their resonant frequency. That much is a given. Some like to use the "feet or footers or coupling or vibration draining devices" between the rack shelves and components.

Obviously different materials have different resonant frequency and so do coupling devices in terms of the frequency bandwidth they either "absorb" or "conduct" away from the vibrating object of interest.

There is probably not one device that can effectively drain or absorb all the frequencies present in the sound wave bandwidth our speakers are putting out. The best devices at doing at such a task are the "active" devices such as the anti-vibration, active tables for precision instruments which "actively" cancel vibrations present in a device of interest. Precision devices such as an scanning electron microscope where vibration free environment is mandatory would be almost useless if it was vibrating.

The only true way to get rid of vibration is "actively". "Active vibration control is the active application of force in an equal and opposite fashion to the forces imposed by external vibration. With this application, a precision industrial process can be maintained on a platform essentially vibration-free."

Other than active vibration control, everything else is "tuning" for a specific bandwidth since there is hardly a material that would absorb or dissipate a very wide range of frequencies.

Getting back to our "floor" or "grounding". Obviously a slab of concrete under the carpet is very different than a hardwood floor supported by joists on the other floors of the house. Two different materials, different vibration draining/absorbing coefficients. Walk on a slab of concrete, zero vibration. Walk on a wood floor supported by joists, vibration. That doesn't mean concrete doesn't vibrate, it does, just at a much higher external force and frequency of resonance. But as we all know, even bridges collapse from resonant frequencies as witnessed before.


Mass is obviously our friend when it comes to audio. The thickness and material selection for the chassis build is also pretty important. Some manufacturers will take that into account, some may not. A tin can resonates much easier and more noticeably than a dumbbell and the two resonate at different frequency as well. :D

In terms of the audio components, if vibration control is important for a power conditioner (and the benefit of vibration control of such a component in an audio chain), or any other component for that matter, if it has enough mass then placing it on feet that would couple to ground/floor and drain vibrations, would be logical. If it does not or the chassis is thin and resonance prone, anti vibration feet that can absorb some of the bandwidth of resonant frequency would be better. Disclaimer, I am simply going from observational and experimentation experience and as always in audio, this is IMHO, YMMV, take it for what it's worth and all that good stuff. :D

Thanks for your thoughtful reply :tresbon: