Well. Sometimes you get more by using less. In audio, this is often the case. I suggest you to apply the coral feet on the original structure without the FE stuff inbetween. Just listen and report.
There is a piece of leather underneath each coral feet. That is good enough to isolate from the hard structure of yours. What you are doing now is isolation, followed by another layer of isolation. In essence, you are listening to the resonances mixture of the maple (FE) and the coral. Take away the FE will certainly improve mid bass attack, even more solid bass foundation. All FE stuff so far has a done a very good job of undermining the bass foundation. When the bass is loose, some may feel the top end is very open. Just my 2 cents. It costs nothing to try.
Sorry to say that I have not yet tried to remove the FE platform, because I was quite busy last few days. I will try on coming weekend. I will post what my finding later.
Before you left Singapore last month, you left me with one set of Coral feet. At that time, you told me that this beautiful tool will be useful when I will get my CD transport next year. Therefore, the Coral feet were left my drawer for the last three weeks until I further studied AE Forum more thoroughly. By then, I saw that a lot of AE 大哥(s) have successfully applied the Coral feet for enhancing the performances of their great systems by putting the feet under their front ends. Before my AE system will be ready next year, I am currently using a computer connected to a USB DAC driving a pair of monitor speakers.
Based on the inspirations from AE 大哥(s), I had a crazy thought of putting the coral feet under my USB DAC which just costs two times more than the Coral feet! As a result, you can see that a small box is sitting on three big feet on the photo. I didn’t have much expectation in the beginning based on the inherent deficiency of my computer based system.
One of my favourite tracks is “Little Wing”, a song of the legendary Jimi Hendrix covered by Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood in the “Live in Madison Square” CD (I converted the CD audio data into WAV files and used software to drive the digital signal output through a USB port). Before I used your Coral feet, I felt that most instruments played by the top musicians in the Madison Square concert are under congestion in a highway. I actually cannot feel the dominance of the electric guitar of Eric Clapton as the guitar sounds are jammed by other instruments like bass and drums. I am sorry to say that I was not particularly fond of this CD before using your Coral feet.
After the use of the Coral feet under my USB DAC, I played the same song and felt a different world. I feel that I am closer to the “Live” atmosphere. At the same time, my attentions were drawn into the electric guitar of Eric Clapton which now became the main actor of the overall musical flow. Mostly importantly, the resolution of the sounds from various instruments is increased by several orders of magnitude.
I only manage to use a Chinese poem (from Stormy Warriors) to describe my feelings on the transformation of Eric Clapton’s electric guitar sounds by your Coral feet as follows:
Before: 风云际会浅水游
After: 九霄龙吟惊天变
Now I know that Coral feet are a great solution for computer front ends.
Thanks for borrowing me the Coral feet! I will definitely buy this set from you for my computer setup.
Yes, it is a kind of crazy to put the Coral feet under the "基準" DAC1 USB box but the feet effectively opens up the window of music in terms of resolution and soundstage for me.
If you use a computer as a source in your office, I highly recommend you to get a heavier computer based DAC and then put the box under the Coral feet. Even I use an economical "音頻引擎" A2 speakers in my office, the overall improvement in sound quality by changing USB cables or other parameters is significant.
For my home system to be ready next year, based on my current budget, PT more or less prescribed me with the following setup:
Orpheus Zero Transport ----> CC1 Clock ----> DAD DAC ----> Masseto Preamp ----> Skyline Power Amp ----> A new baby horn (just reported in 6moon Greece Audio Show report, to be confirmed)
I aim to play my favourite rock music like Jimi Hendrix, Queen, Bon Jovi, Luna Sea, John Mayer, etc, in a rather small room.
Milky boyz, how can you have a soundstage with a small pair of speakers! You must be kidding. By the way, you seem like using high end cables for computer based music. What sort of interconnect cables are you using now? I don't know too much about computer. Are the cables RCA to RCA or XLR to XLR?
Because I sit in front of this pair of monitor speakers on my table, the type of sound display will not be comparable to the dedicated floor set-up. By using Coral Feet, I feel that the small speakers become less apparent to my ears compared to the traditional computer desktop speakers through a normal soundcard. The music seemed like to surround me in front of my desk. In this constrained environment, the musical experiences just become better for me after using the Coral feet.
Yes, you are so sharp on the cables. Actually, I started with the normal USB cables for a long time when I was using computer as my source. Later on, I found out that the type of USB cables matter in the digital signal delivery from the computer to the USB DAC. Most of my computer hardware friends never believe this fact as they see every USB cable should be able to do the same job in digital data transfer from a computer to an external device. Of course, my current system is more for causal use and I will not order the highest-end “Argento” USB cable (I also don’t know whether it is available or not) to do the job of data transfer. I browsed through a lot of Forum and website and found out that there are two to three good companies which are making “audiophile” grade USB cable. The one you saw in the picture is “軌跡設計”Nucleus USB cable (I use Chinese in the brand name as I don’t dare to upset JLam and PT by advertising other products here! Ha Ha!) as follows:
This cable is doing wonders for me after using for 6 weeks or so. The more technical review can be referred to Positive Feedback articles. For USB cable, the connectors are same as those conventional cables between computer and external soundcard in the old days. Then I connect the Nucleus into the USB input of my DAC1 USB (Vekian DAC carried by AE also gets a USB input!). I finally used a XLR analog interconnects to connect between the DAC and powered monitors (not high-end one as this system doesn’t justify me to use Agrento interconnect which likely costs more than the whole setup!).
Basically, a office or desktop computer audio setup just needs a good USB DAC and two pairs of good cables (one USB and one analog interconnect). There are a lot of options out there nowadays. This kind of economical setup really brings me joy when I was sitting in front of a boring computer screen in my office.
Comments
Well. Sometimes you get more by using less. In audio, this is often the case. I suggest you to apply the coral feet on the original structure without the FE stuff inbetween. Just listen and report.
There is a piece of leather underneath each coral feet. That is good enough to isolate from the hard structure of yours. What you are doing now is isolation, followed by another layer of isolation. In essence, you are listening to the resonances mixture of the maple (FE) and the coral. Take away the FE will certainly improve mid bass attack, even more solid bass foundation. All FE stuff so far has a done a very good job of undermining the bass foundation. When the bass is loose, some may feel the top end is very open. Just my 2 cents. It costs nothing to try.
Did you try removing the FE platform? The result may not be to your liking but I am curious to know.
Sorry to say that I have not yet tried to remove the FE platform, because I was quite busy last few days. I will try on coming weekend. I will post what my finding later.
George
Before you left Singapore last month, you left me with one set of Coral feet. At that time, you told me that this beautiful tool will be useful when I will get my CD transport next year. Therefore, the Coral feet were left my drawer for the last three weeks until I further studied AE Forum more thoroughly. By then, I saw that a lot of AE 大哥(s) have successfully applied the Coral feet for enhancing the performances of their great systems by putting the feet under their front ends. Before my AE system will be ready next year, I am currently using a computer connected to a USB DAC driving a pair of monitor speakers.
Based on the inspirations from AE 大哥(s), I had a crazy thought of putting the coral feet under my USB DAC which just costs two times more than the Coral feet! As a result, you can see that a small box is sitting on three big feet on the photo. I didn’t have much expectation in the beginning based on the inherent deficiency of my computer based system.
After the use of the Coral feet under my USB DAC, I played the same song and felt a different world. I feel that I am closer to the “Live” atmosphere. At the same time, my attentions were drawn into the electric guitar of Eric Clapton which now became the main actor of the overall musical flow. Mostly importantly, the resolution of the sounds from various instruments is increased by several orders of magnitude.
I only manage to use a Chinese poem (from Stormy Warriors) to describe my feelings on the transformation of Eric Clapton’s electric guitar sounds by your Coral feet as follows:
Before: 风云际会浅水游
After: 九霄龙吟惊天变
Now I know that Coral feet are a great solution for computer front ends.
Thanks for borrowing me the Coral feet! I will definitely buy this set from you for my computer setup.
Thanks for everything!
Milky Boyz
Yes, it is a kind of crazy to put the Coral feet under the "基準" DAC1 USB box but the feet effectively opens up the window of music in terms of resolution and soundstage for me.
If you use a computer as a source in your office, I highly recommend you to get a heavier computer based DAC and then put the box under the Coral feet. Even I use an economical "音頻引擎" A2 speakers in my office, the overall improvement in sound quality by changing USB cables or other parameters is significant.
For my home system to be ready next year, based on my current budget, PT more or less prescribed me with the following setup:
Orpheus Zero Transport ----> CC1 Clock ----> DAD DAC ----> Masseto Preamp ----> Skyline Power Amp ----> A new baby horn (just reported in 6moon Greece Audio Show report, to be confirmed)
I aim to play my favourite rock music like Jimi Hendrix, Queen, Bon Jovi, Luna Sea, John Mayer, etc, in a rather small room.
Great to know you!
Milky Boyz
Because I sit in front of this pair of monitor speakers on my table, the type of sound display will not be comparable to the dedicated floor set-up. By using Coral Feet, I feel that the small speakers become less apparent to my ears compared to the traditional computer desktop speakers through a normal soundcard. The music seemed like to surround me in front of my desk. In this constrained environment, the musical experiences just become better for me after using the Coral feet.
Yes, you are so sharp on the cables. Actually, I started with the normal USB cables for a long time when I was using computer as my source. Later on, I found out that the type of USB cables matter in the digital signal delivery from the computer to the USB DAC. Most of my computer hardware friends never believe this fact as they see every USB cable should be able to do the same job in digital data transfer from a computer to an external device. Of course, my current system is more for causal use and I will not order the highest-end “Argento” USB cable (I also don’t know whether it is available or not) to do the job of data transfer. I browsed through a lot of Forum and website and found out that there are two to three good companies which are making “audiophile” grade USB cable. The one you saw in the picture is “軌跡設計”Nucleus USB cable (I use Chinese in the brand name as I don’t dare to upset JLam and PT by advertising other products here! Ha Ha!) as follows:
http://positive-feedback.com/Issue46/awards.htm
This cable is doing wonders for me after using for 6 weeks or so. The more technical review can be referred to Positive Feedback articles. For USB cable, the connectors are same as those conventional cables between computer and external soundcard in the old days. Then I connect the Nucleus into the USB input of my DAC1 USB (Vekian DAC carried by AE also gets a USB input!). I finally used a XLR analog interconnects to connect between the DAC and powered monitors (not high-end one as this system doesn’t justify me to use Agrento interconnect which likely costs more than the whole setup!).
Basically, a office or desktop computer audio setup just needs a good USB DAC and two pairs of good cables (one USB and one analog interconnect). There are a lot of options out there nowadays. This kind of economical setup really brings me joy when I was sitting in front of a boring computer screen in my office.
Nice to talk to you!
Milky Boyz