SUPPORT AND NOISE CONTROL

How your equipment is supported is fundamental to how it sounds. If you ever want to find out first hand, simply lay it all out on a hard wood floor one day, it will sound distorted, rough and bright with so much vibration transmitted through each chassis. Or put it all straight to the carpet and see how soft, smeared and undynamic it soon becomes.

All equipment inherits the sound of the surface it is sitting on to some degree or other. Also equipment does not like vibration, either structure borne or from pressure waves in the air. There is also micro vibration inherent in electronics that begins in the electronics themselves.

There are two ways of combating vibration, resonances and mechanical noise. The first is by installing sophisticated noise control feet underneath the boxes and units whether they be an amplifier, record deck or mains conditioner. Hifistay, Stillpoints and Tungsten Groove footers all use very advanced technologies which lower mechanical noise in equipment, isolate it from structural and airborne vibration and thereby increase sound quality uniformly across all parameters. All three brands give a slightly different result from one another so can be combined to wield a very powerful degree of fine control over the final sound. They all have their own preferences and synergies with different brands of electronics and speakers too.

The second method is through sophisticated furniture. You need a rack to house a system and we sell an exhaustive range from Neo to Hifistay, Bassocontinuo, Falkenohr and Stillpoints. They all have varying levels of technology inside them to combat noise and vibration, some with inbuilt footers. By the time you get to the top level racks from Falkenohr, Bassocontinuo, HifiStay and Stillpoints you can expect a very big jump in sound quality. If you layer up both footers and a good rack, then you nearly always benefit from an even larger sonic uplift.

Speakers always have their own support system provided by the manufacturer. Usually a series a spikes in the cabinet or stand. Some manufacturers also make more sophisticated isolation feet to include with their speakers. Hifistay Stella 3 way Swing and Stillpoints Ultra 5 under speakers though will always improve their performance dramatically, more so than any alternative product we have ever encountered. The loudspeaker has the propensity to colour the sound more than any other component and is subject to the most mechanical vibration so Hifistay and Stillpoints employed here are actually even more powerful than when used under electronics, turntables and mains blocks. If the budget is there then installing good footers under speakers at Lotus is a formality. Better control, precision, dynamics and transparency, especially in the lower frequencies