Spidey's Secret. FE Spider Clone Set Up Tips.

I bought my two FE Spider clone racks a few years back when I re-modelled my man cave. As a hifi green horn at that time, I wasn't even aware of the Finite Elemente brand of hifi racks. However, I thought the Spidey clone on display at the Middle Kingdom shop in Amcorp Mall looked good and very adjustable for my needs at the time and sometime in the future.

And I was not wrong! When my Pass Labs X-0.2, a 3 chassis preamp came about I set out to look for another 2 Spidey clone shelves. I found them on our local Hifi4sale website, I contacted the seller called Kakibook, and made the arrangements to pick them up from him.



Illustration #1


I brought the 2 extra shelves home and started to dismantle my existing set up to accommodate them. In my usual spirit of sharing, I hope that some of you readers out there are using the same stuff, be it the clone or the real Mc Coy(I am not sure this tip works with the real Mc Coy though?) may benefit from this set up tip. I've tried to set up the Spidey clone rack many times, and the result is a hard, card boardy, if very focused sound. Some of my buddies who use the same Spidey clone also report a very pitchy, sharp high mid range cut in the ear bleeding sound. A few of them are on the brink of giving up on this cheap Chinese sh*t(as they call it!). I hope this article comes in the nick of time?

As I've said, I've set up these Spidey clone a few times now, each time with a different method, and each time, result in different sound from the same hifi components. I am most happy with the sound I got from the latest set up method, which I am sharing here.


Illustration #2

I started by observing the quality of the new shelves and compared them to the older ones I got a few years ago. The latest shelves have better finishing on the wooden spider links, otherwise all else looked on par quality wise. I am glad to report that cheap made in China sh*t have very consistent fitting tolerances, as the latest shelves fit on the the older outer aluminium columns with the same precision too. 

First, when assembling the wooden spider links to the centre crown, as on illustration #2, note the hex screws with the red washers(from the inside of the crown), when tightening the hex screws, at this stage, do not tighten fully, I suggest finger tight or perhaps even a little free play is alright too, and leave it at that. Continue all four wooden spider links exactly the same and the result will look like illustration #1 on the top.


Illustration #3


Then continue to attach each shelve tier to all the four aluminium outer columns. This time again, do not tighten all the hex screws yet, again finger tight or a slight free play is ok too. Once you've got all the shelves on just like the picture above(illustration #3),  then you can use either the black rubber interface provided, or like me, use the FE Ceraball Spider(the real ones as they are no clones of these yet!). Now you can attach the spike feet and cups provided, or in my case, FE Ceraball Universal to the bottom of the four outer columns, as shown on illustration #6. Then put your equipment on to each shelve. I know, all the hex screws are not yet tightened and the whole Spidey assembly is a little wobbly at this point, but do not worry, it'll hold, provided your gear is not extra ordinarily heavy. All my equipment weight and 8mm thick glass interface adds up to about 80kgs or so, and it held as pictured in illustration #5.


Illustration #4


Now with the aid of a spirit bubble leveler as seen on top of my Linn LP12 turn table's platter(illustration #5 again). You can start making adjustments to the four outer columns by either extending the spikes up/down wards or in my case the FE Ceraballs Universals(as shown on illustration #6 below) to level the whole Spider rack assembly.

Illustration #5


Now here's the funny thing, once you've got the top tier shelve leveled, all the lower shelves will sort themselves out, with very minor adjustments required, which we now get to. The final part! The minor adjustment of each lower shelve required is the small free play of the connecting hex screws on the centre crown and the outer columns. At this stage, there's nothing you can do about the free play inside the centre crown, but tightening the outer columns hex screws as pictured on illustration #4, you can actually push up/down slightly the connecting wooden spider links to level them on each individual lower shelve whilst tightening the hex screws. Once all the shelves are levelled, you can sit back and start playing some music.


Illustration #6


With the FE Spider clone rack set up this way, the hardness of the sound is no more, replaced by a more expansive sound stage with organic imaging qualities. The pitchy high mids are gone too, replaced with smoothness and solid mid range density. the whole system some how sound more effortless too. There is an openness to the sound which made the music on play very liberating. I am enjoying my music with a new perspective all over again.

A note about those original FE Ceraball Universal and Ceraball Spider, when used with the Spider clone rack, they do bring about some sonic improvements over the standard issued spikes and rubber interface. However, the cost of the original FE Ceraball varieties is very high and some might question my use of them with that cheap Chinese sh*t of a rack. For me, hifi is an irrational hobby after all!

The whole dismantling and re-setting up of the FE Spider clone took me about six hours in all, or a good part of my afternoon, with the aid of some elbow grease, but for me the results are worth the effort. I hope this little tip helps other users of the the same product.

Living With The Bryston BDP-1/BDA-1 Combo.

I was very impressed by the Bryston BDP-1/BDA-1 media player combo when it spent nearly two weeks in my man cave. Impressed enough to wanna buy them! I waited more than a month for them to arrive and since then have lived with them for two months. As some may say, it's easy to find a new best friend, but living with that person could open a whole dimension to that relationship. Here's my take so far on living with the Bryston combo.

The Bryston BDP-1 top, and BDA-1 bottom shelf.

When I first set up the Bryston combo, I just wanted to start off quickly with some music. So I set them up just by dumping them stacked on to the top shelf of my FE clone rack, on the space last vacated by my beloved Marantz CD 7. I just re-used all the cables available at hand to start things going and at the very least have some digital music during the long Chinese New Year holidays.

Using my way too cool iPhone 4 as the interface to access my music.

I fired up the player and was greeted with sound. However, I was not prepared for what I'd describe as a discrepancy in the sonic results that I had known from during the time of the review, more than a month ago. The Bryston combo sounded horrible with digitalis symptoms a plenty. However, having a few buddies on the band wagon, is really reassuring. Jo and Felix, both who got their units from an earlier batch assured me that they need some time to run in.

150 hours or so of continuous playback, had proven them right. The Bryston combo finally opened up and blossomed. I heard some of the sonic characteristics that made me wanna buy it in the first place. Both my Bryston buddies were on the express tweak experimental highway and their daily updates of what worked and didn't, came on a daily basis. I just followed the path laid down by them. Kudos to these two enlightened gentleman who proved time and again that hifi need not be a selfish hobby.

Bryston BDP-1 cables in white! From left, AOR Ref 003 power cord, Voodoo Reference AES/EBU digital cable(out), Telos Gold RCA cap, and LAN cable for WiFi router.

I started by experimenting with power cords, and found that the BDP-1 is not too sensitive about one power cord choice. However the BDA-1 would benefit from careful consideration of power cord choice. I found that Felix made AOR Ref 003 power cords suited the Bryston combo way better than the PS Audio xStream Statement SC. The sound with the PS Audio seemed incoherent, bass heavy with lumpiness, and constricted overall sound. The Felix made AOR Ref 003 is just way more open sounding, with better tonal balance, if a little less smooth on the highs. The PS Audio xStream Statement SC found new lease of life powering my Pass Labs X-Ono phono stage, with superb results.

Bryston BDA-1 DAC cables from front to back, AOR Reference 003 power cord(with Furutech IEC plug), Telos Gold RCA caps for inputs, Voodoo Reference digital cable(in), and Audioquest Sky XLR(blue) analog output.

I then set about to split the combo by giving them each a shelf of it's own. However, that meant re-configuring my rack space. It was a lot of work, as in the process, I also re-tensioned all the joints on the FE Spider clone rack. Trick to getting good sound from the said rack is to first tighten the joints on the outer legs, as solidly as possible. Then work towards the joints on the inside of the centre crown hub, where all the four legs are linked. However, the joints here need only be finger tight. I know it appears wobbly at first, but once all 3 tiers are done, one by one, starting from the lowest, working towards the top shelf, will result in a just as solid rack. By the way, if one has the FE Spider clone(or the original one for the matter), it's worth investing in the Ceraball Spider too for each tier, and a set of Ceraball universal for the feet of the four outer columns. The Ceraballs do make a huge difference to the sound, even if they're insanely expensive!

Odisleuth came over for a quick listen, and remarked " What did you do? the Brystons didn't sound like this the week before!" I replied, "I did a few things".

The Bryston combo as set up on the first day in my man cave. Do not stack them like this, as it's very bad for the sound quality.

If there was one thing that turned me away from CD transport/DAC combos all this while is due to the fact that the digital cable linking the two could make or break the sound. The Bryston combo is no exception! The AES/EBU cable that links up is one of the most important component, that will shape the final sound. I am in the process of checking out my options and you'll certainly read more about it in the near future.

In the mean time, I am also checking out other things that will affect the performance parameters of the Bryston combo, again which I'll report on in the future. I've discovered many other things that I normally take for granted when it comes to audio, but the Bryston combo makes me work harder, just to squeeze more performance out of it. There's really too much to write about in a day.

Simultaneously, I am also cataloging my entire CD collection, only this time, in to a 2 terabyte hard disk in my PC. I am also working on back up copies of the data, just in case the worst should happen. If there's one thing I hate about living with the Brystons is the amount of CD ripping required to catalog all my 2000 plus CD collection, not huge, yet it's still many hours of work. However, more importantly, as I go along, I rediscovered my music collection. To find rare albums in my collection that I've long forgotten about. Even then, my analog rig too, is benefiting from the new found perspective when setting up the Bryston combo.

It's all hard work, but it's worth all the effort, because I am finally advancing, and much nearer to achieving my sonic goals. More updates to come.

The Big-Brother: finite elemente's Cerabase

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

Many readers of this blog has been alerting us to finite elemente's ceramic ball interface for quite a while.

In one of my earliest post "Eggleston Who?" (May 2008), Zimmermann, P Walsh, ramon, Jacques, Tsang, tim, landau, gray, catalona, kim tan, and many more readers since, have suggested that I try the Cerabase under my EgglestonWorks The Nine loudspeakers. Well, we do listen to your suggestions, and I am going to tell you the story....

If you have been following this blog, you'd know that finite elemente's products are now pretty much entrenched in Panzer's and my systems. Finite elemente has 3 models in their Ceramic Ball Interface range. The smallest is the Ceraball that comes in 2 versions - the 'spider' version, meant to be used together with the finite elemente Spider equipment rack (which Panzer has outfitted his rack with), and the 'universal' version (which Panzer uses as loudspeaker footers and I use for equipment support). Next comes the Cerapucs, which I use in place of my finite elemente Pagode Signature rack's spike feet. And lastly, the Big Brother, Cerabase.

The small brother, Ceraball universal, at the left, and the big brother, Cerabase

The Ceraball universal and Cerabase dissected

From the photo, you can see a contrast between the Ceraball and the Cerabase. The Cerabase, at RM2,400 for a quartet, is 4 times the price of Ceraball. However, you get more than 4 times the Ceraball in many aspects - in size, weight, and the most expensive part (as I understand), the precision ceramic balls - the Cerabase comes with 3 big ones whereas the Ceraball has only one little one.

Each model of the cera footer has its optimum operating weight range. For Ceraball it is 0.5kg-80kg (for 4), whereas the Cerabase's range is 20kg-500kg (damn, that is half a metric ton!). This means the Cerabase is more suited for the big items in your system, such as the equipment rack, big power amp or the loudspeakers.

I placed the Cerabases first under my Pass Labs XA60 monoblocks, directly supporting their bottom plates. The initial result was dire, to say the least. All types of music lost coherence, the sound was a mess. This was when I first realized that the Cerabase needed a 'run-in' period. Huh? This thing just sits there, it is not electrical nor mechanical (like loudspeakers), what could be a plausible explanation? I speculate that the answer may be in finite elemente's explanation of the workings of the cera footers.

You can get this from finite elemente's brochure - it says that the "vacuum" effect created in the coupling between the ceramic ball and the footer's body is what draws off unwanted resonances. One would need a heavy enough weight and some elapsed time, I believe, for the vacuum to form. Thus, one would expect the cera footers to achieve their optimum performance after being placed under a weight for a while.

Over a 3-day period, I observed the performance of the Cerabases improved. However, there was always a slightly hollow feel to the music, music sounded like it was gutted at the centre. I could not shake this effect fully even after 5 days' 'run-in'. Probably I had to wait longer for the 32kg(70lbs)-per-side monoblocks to 'run-in' the Cerabases or they still prove to be too light for the Cerabases to work optimally. Even so, the improvement was there, similar to what I got when they were placed under my EgglestonWorks The Nine loudspeakers, about which I'd elaborate later.

Cerabases under EgglestonWorks The Nine

So, I decided to move on to my loudspeakers then. At 57kg (125lbs) each, they posed a better challenge to the Cerabases. I placed the Cerabases under the speakers' feet, which were designed to receive their own massive spikes. The downward force of the speaker did indeed snugly pressed the Cerabases onto the floor.

I had to wait just overnight for the sound quality to stabilize. What made itself obvious to me first was a vast improvement in the bass region. On Bill Miller's "Red Road" album, there is an exciting Native American drum track - "The Inter-Tribal Pow Wow Song", from the title I think you can guess what the content would be. :-) The drum on this track went deeper, and more importantly, it gained more focus and better definition. Everything was done also with much more precise timing, the drumbeats added an inevitable rhythmic momentum to the entire proceedings, pulling the listeners along. In fact, this timing precision was obvious too in all kinds of music with each music note start and stop at the drop of a dime.
The Cerabases also gave music a better organization and structure, things were placed in their spot in the soundstage and were firmly anchored down. The soundstage simply did not waver. There was also better delineation and layering of the sound images. Taking the Pow-Wow Song as an example again, the human shouts and screams were placed on the same plane as the speakers' front baffle, whereas each drum whack was firmly placed slightly to the right at a distance of around 3-4 feet behind.

The Cerabase's prowess also improved on quieter music, such as 2v1g. In addition to those focus and soundstaging improvement mentioned earlier, I also got a more palpable atmosphere.

In terms of the system's high frequency performance, I found that it was less smeared, I could listen 'through' into the subtle changes in the treble region whereas previously these events were more like a glob of 'bright light' without much details and shadings. But since it was now less a 'glob of light', one might perceive a change in the sonic balance, especially if you have damped your listening room previously to bring your HF region in line with the others. I found that I had to draw the curtain open at the front of my room a little more and toyed with speakers toe-in to bring the HF back up a tad again, so to speak.

What I went through in hifi the last few weeks has been educational to say the least. I learnt that my system still have more to give, there are better transparency, details retrieval and musical enjoyment to be had and there are 3 routes to it:
1. via the normal upgrade of a component - such as the Pass Labs XP-20 pre-amp
2. via better power supply quality to the system - witness the Torus Power RM8's performance
3. via resonance control- such as finite elemente's Pagode rack, Ceraball, Cerapuc and Cerabase

The magnitude of improvement fell roughly in line with these products' price points. However, of all, the last gave the best improvement / price ratio, in my opinion, which could be because this was the most ignored aspect in my system previously.

No doubt about it, the impressive Cerabase is the Big Brother.

finite elemente is carried by Audio Image, tel: 03-79563077

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P.S., There is a fourth route actually, that is the 'torquing school' route, which lil'kc and Ken had shown me much in one afternoon. But I am not knowledgeable enough to espouse on it. Treat this as a teaser, I hope I have a story to tell in the future. :-)

P.S., Below is a picture of the EgglestonWorks The Nine's spike, posted in response to km ng's question in the desirable thoughts about the way I placed the Cerabases.
If I were to use the Cerabase under my EgglestonWorks speakers permanently, I'd look to custom machine an adapter bolt so that the Cerabase can be screwed on securely in place of the spikes.

EgglestonWorks' Speaker Spike, screwed into the metal stud at the speaker bottom.
This particular speaker is in turn placed on upturned Cerapucs. (picture from EgglestonWorks The Nine review by Jason Victor Serinus from Secrets of Home Theatre and High Fidelity)

Posted by hifikaki 4 April '09

Of finite elemente's Rack

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

My finite elemente pagode signature rack finally arrived at Audio Image last Friday.

I got it assembled at home myself last night. Though its structure did not seem too complex, it still took me one and a half hours to put it together. As the assemblying progressed, I had more and more respect for the design and manufacturing quality that finite elemente had put into their product. Every thing - every nut, bolt, spike, pillar, platform - just fit into each other with very very little tolerance if at all. The final fit and finish was simply exemplary (an interesting aside - the top of the range pagode Master Reference comes fully assembled, Adrian (owner of Audio Image) had one which he showed me on Friday).

Well packed and well labelled

One particularly great user-friendly touch is in the side-spikes. Finite elemente had a small hole drilled through the spike body so that adjustments, even very fine ones, can be carried out easily with the metal pin provided. Dimples are also drilled into the locking collar nut, to allow you to easily lock the spike in place, again using the same metal pin.

Note the spike in the upper part of the photo, the owner can easily adjust the spike with the supplied metal pin, shown sticking through the spike

It is this kind of great engineering and design precision that make me think of the finite elemente pagode rack as the Mercedes Benz in the hifi rack world.

All this is of course as it should be, the pagode signature has a premium price to match, coming in at more than RM7k list (model E12, 60cm height, 3 tiers). Adrian also told me that the price has just been raised again by the manufacturer, check with him for the latest (016-6001218).

The only complaint I have is the assembly instruction. If I did not have Adrian's briefing on Friday, I think I would need an extra hour to figure everything out. It is well written all right, but poorly organized - it is all in words, no picture or diagram; in one numbered step there are many tasks to carry out, all written in 1 long paragraph. This is no way for reader-friendliness really.

The one-sheet assembly instructions that reads like an essay :-)

The assembled rack

Some may question whether it is worth spending so much on a hifi rack. Buying the pagode signature rack could be a moment of insanity on my part. :-) However, after a few listening sessions, I know it is the right path to take. I listened with all the equipment placed on the pagode signature straight (i.e., without the finite elemente ceraballs), its performance is so much more superior than my acrylic+wood rack plus 2 sets of ceraballs (both racks have the bigger cerapucs installed under the feet).

With the Pagode Signature, more low level details emerge, the sound floats free of the speakers; bass gained extension, has better definition and articulation; the entire soundstage is more solidly placed. The magnitude of improvement is no less than upgrading a major piece of component.

The finite elemente pagode signature rack in action

I'll introduce the cera feet to the equipment on the pagode rack one by one and see whether I could get further improvements, will share my experience here later.

I wish I have come down this way earlier. If you have a competent system already assembled, rather than looking at the next equipment upgrade, look into the racking aspect. Your equipment may perform fine on your existing rack, such as those ubiquitous metal or acrylic rack, you really will see a further substantial leap in performance when you install a properly designed rack.

A good rack will stay with you for many cycles of your equipment changes. So in the long term, it is actually a better upgrade step for your money.

It will not be a wrong decision, how many finite elemente racks do you see on the used market?

Posted by hifikaki 9 March '09

Finite Expenses.

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

The Ceraball Universal, with the M8 screw and jamming nut assembled(as per diagram D).

We were provided loaners to play with the last time(smart tactic Adrian!, give'em honey and they'll stick like bees). After returning the loaners, I started missing the Ceraballs effect. So I had to get some of my very own, but this time with a twist.

I managed to wrestle two sets of Ceraballs Universal from our friend GCK. I decided to use them under my pair of Audio Physic Spark speakers, which weight in at 17KGs each. Just nice for the Ceraballs.

Audio Physic Spark with the original spikes in use.

When using the Ceraballs Universal to screw under the speaker feet, do remember to use the jamming nut on theM6/M8 attachment screws provided. I tried using the Ceraballs under the Audio Physic with and without the jamming nut, and found that the Ceraballs does nothing for the sound without it. It sounded exactly the same as using the M8 spikes provided by Audio Physic. The speakers are then adjusted to balance on all four Ceraballs using a water mark level provided by Audio Physic.

Audio Physic Spark with the Ceraball Universal.

With the jamming nut in used, and the speakers put back in to their original position, the effect was like as if my system had an EQ installed, with the adjustment of a smiley curve! The bass and treble frequencies overwhelmed the mids! But that was just what I needed, I had always thought, that if I had a little more in room bass response, I could pull the speakers a little further in to the room, to better re-create stage depth, an area which my system could further improved upon.

The speakers are further pulled in to the room by 4 inches. Making them sit 36 inches away from the speaker's back wall, and 16 inches away from the side wall. With the speakers repositioned, I found the smilley EQ curve effect gone. The system now sounded very tonally even, as before, with a touch of warmness, but that mid range bloom so evident before has very much subsided. With the new speaker position, the stage depth does indeed improved, without compromising stage width, which is something that, I had to do a balancing act before. not this time. Bass also extends lower and tighter. In short, it's like I've upgraded to a bigger Audio Physic in to my room!

Nice shoes!

Since I had FE Spider like rack, I wondered if the FE Spider Ceraballs fit? Again I borrowed some from Adrian to try for fitting. To my surprise, they fit really well! Some how the rack and the Spider Ceraballs just locked in like hand in gloves.

I opted to retain the glass shelves I had and allowed them to sit in between the Ceraballs and the equipment instead of having the equipment sitting directly on top of the Ceraballs. I like the look better that way, well, hi fi can also be eye fi sometimes. With the limited lateral movement of the Ceraballs along the X beams on the Spider like rack, the glass shelves also makes equipment balancing on 4 Ceraballs easier. The whole rack was re-adjusted for even balance using the same Audio Physic provided water mark level.

As before, with the Ceraballs under the Marantz CD7, only minor effect was observed. The sound tightened up somewhat, with an overall tidier presentation. The Ceraballs did a little more when added below the Pass Labs X2.5 pre amp. It allowed music to breath a little more freely within the sound stage. Musician which sometimes appear to elbow each other now has their own playing space within the sound stage. You can say the sound stage is a little more 3D in effect. The slightly excessive highs have given way to a more mature, mellow yet airy qualities. The mids now allows the voices gain more palpability and density. The already tight bottom end now gained an elastic quality too, that makes bass guitars and double bass instrument that little more believable. Kick drums are now distinctly heard, with each kick, even when the music mix is very busy.

Ceraball Spider under CDP and Pre amp.

The biggest benefactor of the Ceraballs Spider is the Rega P25 Turntable and phono stage. With the Ceraballs underneath both equipment, the vinyl part of the system can finally catch up to the CDs. I found my self suddenly playing much, much more LPs than before.

Ceraball Spider under Turntable and Phono stage.

The final tally, I got 2 sets of Ceraballs Universal, and 4 sets of Ceraballs Spider.

Perhaps it's the way my system is flawed, kinda plays to strengths of the Ceraballs. I can't be sure, but I suppose YMMV is still a caveat that is relevant, based on ML's earlier findings with the Ceraballs.

Lastly, word leaked out to some of my hi fi buddies that I had spent a small fortune on the Ceraballs. Suddenly, I am the butt of all jokes Ceraballs.

One suggested perhaps that I should also have 4 Ceraballs under my listening chair, but with my weight, the Cerapucs would be a better option!, if only he'd pay for it.

Another even suggested that I should have a Ceraball stuffed in to my ass! Well, if it made my hi fi sound better, with out feeling the pain in the ass!, I'd certainly consider.

Posted by Panzer 19 February '09

Finite Elemente Cera Ball/Puck & Resonator.

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

Top: FE Resonator.
Under: Cera Ball, Cera Puck & Cera Base.

Hifikaki had been poisoned by the FE Cera products, that we all know. He wants me to test it out to see if I feel the same. Ever so kind, he passed them all, the Cera Balls, Pucks and Resonator to me just before the CNY holidays to play with.

It been a few days that I've been playing with the Cera stuff plus Resonator, and can form my 2nd opinion of them.

First the FE Cera Balls, in my short, honest opinion, every hifi system, irregardless of price range, should at least have set of these sitting below the source components. If your budget allows, have a set below every component! Even though they're not exactly cheap, they're so good, they'd out last your component upgrades till the end of your hifi journey!(If there's an end to it all?)

Every component I put them under, from my friend's modest Marantz CD63SE to my own Marantz CD7, seems to wrought out very positive results, especially more so with budget to mid end equipment! With the Cera balls under the CDP, you can expect to get an overall the tightening up of rough edges in the sound, yet give mids, i.e. vocals, more density and "natural" presence within the sound stage. The bass also benefits from the tidying up, by sounding fuller, yet each note more distinct. Splashy highs are mostly subdued overall(if it's there, it'll still be there somehow, but only much less heard!).

Cera Balls unders my Rega, spot them?

Here's my surprising find, with the Cera Balls under budget CD and turntables(if my humble Rega P25 qualifies as one), you get the most bang for buck sound wise! Whilst placed under my own Marantz CD7, the result were merely a whiff of subtle the improvement found on the budget machines mentioned earlier! That said, you also can't expect a Marantz CD63SE with Cera Balls, to sonically out class the CD7 sans the Cera balls. You just can't turn sows ear in to silk purse!

Next up is the FE Cera Pucks, which works very much just like the Cera Balls, but on heavier equipment, like power amps and so on. I had no chance to try them under my mono blocks with only a set of 4 pcs. But opportunity presented itself when I got the back breaking heavy Isotek Titan power line conditioner for review. From my experience with the Isotek Sigmas, I knew the Titan would benefit from some kind of an after market feet or equipment stand. With the Isotek Titan sitting on the four Cera Pucks, the result were pretty much the same as I got from the Cera Balls under source equipments, but only more! There was much less back ground hash heard with the Cera Pucks placed under the Isotek Titan PLC.

Cera Pucks under Isotek Titan.

Lastly, the FE Resonator. I find that the resonator did absolutely nothing to the sound when placed on top of my CDP, pre-amp or phono stage! Strange, I thought I must have done it wrong! I checked the manual again, and follow the instructions carefully one more time, but the results were the same! I heard absolutely no difference to the sound coming out from my system, with or without the Resonator!

Then I remembered what a hifi buddy told me on an earlier listening session of my system. He told me that he had heard some metal ringing qualities in my system(yes, his ears are that sensitive!), and he had proceeded to check the top plate of every hifi equipment that I had by feeling it with his hands as we played the system aloud. He picked out the Isotek Sigmas's top plate as the culprit! Then asked me to do something about it. I haven't the opportunity to get around to it.

Resonator on top panel of Isotek Sigmas, note: instruction says you can't place Resonator dead center for good effect!(I tried that too!)

So the Resonator was put a top the Isotek Sigmas(see picture on top) and now, finally, I heard an overall smoother high mids. The high hats though previously non splashy and never edgy, now gained just very slightly more refinement and "air". I must stressed that the improvement is very subtle, and not easily distinguished. My very own opinion formed of the Resonator is that, unless you've got equipment with rather thin, undamped steel plates as top panel, I don't think it will do much if placed on most high end equipment with 5/8 inch thick aluminum top panels.

Did I get poisoned? Well, I am lining up to get my self some Cerra Balls!

Finite Elemente is sold by Audio Image, tel: 03-79563077

Posted by Panzer 28 January '09

Finite Elemente Is Good Math

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

My original intention was to get a Finite Elemente rack, but after reading their website and brochure, I became interested in their equipment support footers too - which they call 'ceramic ball interface'.

One thing about Finite Elemente that appealed to me was that they were forthcoming with their designs approaches - there aren't many hifi accessory manufacturers who would dissect their products, show you the innards, tell you about their ingredients and their design philosophy, all with no voodoo, no hush-hush top secret materials and no over-the-top performance claims.

And the fact their design aesthetic is very very pleasing to the eyes does not hurt too.

The local dealer, Audio Image, was running dry on FE stock. The Pagode Signature rack and ceraballs universal, which I wanted to get, were on backorder. But I managed to get a demo set of 3 ceraballs universal and a Resonator for trial. After a weekend tryout, I went back and bought myself a set of Cerapucs - which can be used under heavier equipment or under the Pagode Signature rack.

Boxes for the Cerapucs, Resonator and Ceraballs

One thing about the 'ceramic ball interface' (cbi) is that bigger does not mean better. Finite Elemente clearly specifies the optimum equipment weight range for each cbi model in their brochure, and the dealer also emphasized to me as much. Using a bigger cbi under a light equipment may even make it sound worse. Again, impressive - this shows that FE has been thorough in their research and they are definitely not out to milk their customers - by selling you something bigger and more expensive than what you really need.

I put the three ceraballs under my Copland CDA822 cd player. Hmmm...., the effect was immediate. The little bumps and kinks in the music flow got ironed out (ironically I always thought that those were the artifacts of the CDs). The soundstage and images became more stable. Low level details came through more, there was more ambient information; on some jazz instrumental tracks, I could hear the musician vocalizing under their breath while playing at full steam. Listening to music became a more relaxing experience. What was also great was that the Ceraballs did all these without changing the tonal balance of my sytem, unlike some cones that I tried before which tend to thin out the sound.
I went on to try out the Resonator, which is designed to take care of resonance from the equipment top plate while the cbi takes care of it at the bottom. It had further effect on the sound - but the magnitude was not as big. It also required more experimentation, different locations on the top plate gave slightly different result.

Resonator on top of the CDA822

On the cdp, the Resonator further tightened up the sound. Image outlines became clearer. The sound was cleaner. After a couple more days of listening, I felt that the high frequencies had a slightly shut-in quality, the sound got a little dark. Sign of overdamping? Not sure. I took the Resonator away and placed it on my Pass Labs X2.5 pre-amp, same improvement in imaging (cleaner, better defined), almost no shut-in effect on the highs. Furthermore, the music took on greater precision in its timing.

On a whim, I placed the Resonator on my Shunyata Hydra 8 - same effect as on my X2.5, just slightly less so. Now, this one is beyond me - the Hydra 8 is a totally passive device, it just passes electricity, has no transformer in it (which may vibrate) and does no processing of the music signal, but the Resonator still had an effect.

At the end of the day, I felt that the Resonator does not give as big a bang for the buck as the ceraballs though. Talking to Adrian, the owner of Audio Image, he said that the Resonator is more for fine tuning, that is when you have done all you could to control resonance and you are looking at squeezing the last ounce of performance out of your system. He told me he used a Resonator on his turntable. The big difference? Hearing a musical sound with the Resonator and totally non-musical without.

Cerapucs under the X2.5

I went on to try the cerapucs (meant for my rack actually) under my pre-amp. The X2.5 was not heavy enough for 4, so I used just 3. Another 'Hmmm...' moment, the same kind of improvements as seen with the ceraballs under the cdp, albeit at a smaller magnitude (law of diminishing return?), but with added effect of soundstage expansion - greater depth, and some improvement in width.

Eventually, Adrian's order of ceraballs came in, and I got my own set. Swapping the cerapucs to ceraballs under the pre-amp gave a different perspective in sound (the demo set of ceraballs were still under the cdp). With cerapucs under the X2.5, the sound was richer and the pace was more measured and precise, it was a more mature sound. With ceraballs, the sound was faster and better lit. (I should put the word ' slightly' in front of every description). There was no difference in other improvement aspects between them, as far as I could tell. The final choice would come down to taste and how deep your pocket is, but also bear in mind the weight of your equipment. In my case, the preamp might still be too light for the bigger cerapucs to perform even better.

I look forward to get more cbi for trial - under my monoblocks and loudspeakers, to be tested together with the rack later.

This experience taught me that resonance control is another important area for sound quality. We (or at least me) tend to invest more on cabling & power conditioning, and be cavalier about equipment support - ignore it at your own peril, the magnitude of improvement can be as big as moving from stock cables to a high quality pair, or from no power conditioning to something that is really good.

Go out now, beg, borrow, buy (don't steal :-) ) a set of ceraballs/pucs and try them out. I bet you'll be amazed by the improvement, especially if you have not used any vibration/resonance isolation device in your system.

The star in the range must be the ceraballs universal, they are priced such that they would not be out of place even under entry level equipment. And as you upgrade your equipment, they will continue to retain their usefulness - Now, if that is not darn good math for your money, I don't know what is!

Posted by hifikaki 19 January '09