Need advice on Stillpoints with Magico

Hi folks,

I have a bunch of Stillpoints Ultra 5's & Ultra bases as you guys know & planned to order more to place under my S5's. Though recent mixed reports on the success of audiophiles placing the U5's under speakers has made me re-evaluate. I can hear and easily appreciate how they improve the sound of my amp, source components etc, but have heard mixed commentary with Ultra 5's placed under some speakers leading to softening of the leading edge & attenuation of the bass, but also some success stories.

I'd be interested to know if any Magico owners have placed the Ultra 5's and perhaps Ultra bases under their speakers, and if so did you get a clear improvement?

Cheers,

[CLEE]

I am also interested to know.

[Kingsrule]

Any speaker placed on a bearing type device is going to move, even if its just the slighting amount, thus smearing and softening detail. If they worked, don't you think the top speaker companies would supply them as a standard feature?

Thanks for your comments g997. My understanding is that Magico designs their speakers to be firmly grounded to the floor (ie: no movement) and that any any interface with the floor that allows ANY movement of the baffle front and back, would be detrimental to the performance of his speakers and thus to the sound of the system.

[rbbert]

Originally Posted by g997

Any speaker placed on a bearing type device is going to move, even if its just the slighting amount, thus smearing and softening detail. If they worked, don't you think the top speaker companies would supply them as a standard feature?

Some pretty darn good ones do (NOLA and Genesis at least). Even Magico uses something similar between the speaker and the stand of one of their smaller models.

[gardener]

I tried ultra 5s under my Magico S5's . The main reason was the spikes are quite small and levelling the speaker was a real pain and I had heard so many amazing things about still points
Well they certainly changed the sound. I hated it the soundstage was all over the place.
I think It was probably because of the extra height and the very uneven floors I have.
I was also screwing the still point into the spike hole leaving the base of the S5 on
I think Magico know there speakers I was wrong they are sending me some longer spikes great service
The positive with the still points is they are sitting under my Arc ref 250s they sound fantastic

[tima]

Originally Posted by g997

Any speaker placed on a bearing type device is going to move, even if its just the slighting amount, thus smearing and softening detail. If they worked, don't you think the top speaker companies would supply them as a standard feature?

Perhaps ... but not necessarily.

If the slightest movement gets turned into heat - which is how the Stillpoint device is claimed to work - it does not get passed back into the cabinet. Even if the diode effect is not perfect the net result can be an overall reduction in speaker vibration thus reducing "smearing and softening detail" and other bad effects.

While there are exceptions, I think the tendency is for top manufacturers not to include third-party products with their own but not for lack of positive effect. Third-party high-end power cords can improve the sonics of amplifiers but few (any?) amp manufacturers include them.

Even if they don't include them, manufacturers likewise tend not to endorse specific third-party products. But I don't think there are any hard and fast rules here. Some manufacturers may say "my product is complete, don't use anything else", then some will talk in terms of "some of our users claim success with product X", some will tell you what they use in their own systems at home, etc.

I think there is a lot of evidence that Stillpoints work and may give really positive, sometimes stunning, results. However, I don't think Stillpoints claim their devices work with every product or every usage scenario. What I've heard them say is: "try it - see if this works for you" and "experiment with the placement of these with your gear."

[Kingsrule]

Who said anything about endorsing 3rd party products? What Stillpoint is doing is a concept that if say Magico thought would work they'd implement it in their own way ....

And the speaker has to move to generate the heat that Stillpoint is talking about so what does heat getting passed wherever have anything to do with vibration?
With Stillpoint type devices, what is placed on top of them moves, period.

[rlacoste]

Magico has consistently, and quite bluntly advise against using any 3rd party devices under their speakers. This is not a company who would go to the utmost extreme, only to leave such an important matter as coupling to chances. Heck, they even do not recommend using their own QPods to do so. Yet, some people know better…

Hi Rlacoste, I read in Australian Hifi Magazine some commentary on the public record in which Irv Gross from Magico stated the QPods were designed for front end components, and that he does not recommend using the QPods with Magico speakers. But Irv goes on to clarify "The QPods are not designed to replace or augment the Magico Q loudspeaker feet," he said. "They may, however, be effective in decoupling other loudspeakers." At the very least, I think it's reasonable to ask if the QPods may be suitable to match with S series speakers.