Forums - Herbie's Suggestions

Fireblade

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Knowledge comes, but
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A.L.Tennyson

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Herbie's Suggestions
11/13/12 at 16:58:46

Hi! As I'm still waiting for my rolling tubes to arrive, I thought I would share Steve's (Herbie's) isolation suggestions for my setup, and maybe get some first-hand experience opinions or remarks from this forum:

Steve's (Herbie's) suggestions:

I recommend a damping instrument for each of the amp's vacuum tubes:

1. Ultrasonic Rx or Hal-O III dampers for power & rectifier tubes

2. Ultrasonic SS damper for drivers

Also,

3. Four Tenderfoot isolation feet under the amp

(or, three Iso-Cups w/SuperSonic Hardballs would also do very well for the amp).

4. For the DAC, four Small Soft Fat Dots should do very well.

It's always quite beneficial to isolate the subwoofer:

5. Four Big Fat Dots are ideal on a bare floor.

To isolate the speakers, it's always best to isolate both the speaker/stand and stand/floor interfaces. The speaker/stand interface is usually most important:

6. Four Square Fat Dots are ideal

Between stand and floor:

7. You could use Big Fat Dots

Ok, that's it. What do you guys think? I'm definitely not buying the titanium dampers! Also, four fat dots under my tiny USB/DAC is overkill (the thing cannot even sit straight as its mass is lighter than the tension produced by the IC's going to the amp, so I think it needs a mortar brick on top?)

I know some of you suggested the 'Grunge ...' materials, but I was surprised I did not receive any suggestions from Herbie's in that sense (maybe those materials are implicit in his suggestions?)

Thanks for any inputs.

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Lon

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Re: Herbie's Suggestions
Reply #1 - 11/13/12 at 18:35:27

Small Fat Dots are appropriate for the DAC, you could also use Baby Booties. And a Sonic Stabilizer on the top should do the trick. I wouldn't use a brick or anything stone, but you could add something on top, using grungebuster between the weight ant the top will minimize the sonic signature of what you place on top.

To be honest, I've never really to my knowledge been steered wrong by Herbie's advice, and I think you could follow it and get great sonic advice. My two cents is consider his advice. My own extensive (I fool with this all the time) advice is to do the Iso-Cups under the amp, they sound considerably better in my situations than Tenderfeet. And I haven't really noticed marked differences in the tube dampers, so try the inexpensive options.

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Fireblade Seasoned Member Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. A.L.Tennyson Posts: 1046	Re: Herbie's Suggestions Reply #2 - 11/13/12 at 22:59:40 Thanks, Lon. I'll check on those. What about using the Grungebuster materials instead, under the stands, as has been suggested in this forum? But, I guess I'll take your word for it that Herbie's advice must make sense (except for the expensive titanium dampers, that is).
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Lon

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"Love without
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worthless!"
Philip K. Dick

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Re: Herbie's Suggestions
Reply #3 - 11/13/12 at 23:38:57

Dave, wanted to mention that there will be Grungebuster material on the Tenderfeet if you order those. So Herbie did include that material in part of his advice.

My experience with Grungebuster dots and Big Fat Dots of various sizes is that the key word in Steve's advice is "ideal." For speaker stands I think his recommendation is likely best for "ideal" performance. Grungebuster dots will definitely get you an improvement, but I bet he's right that his recommendation will give you the best possible result. I haven't used speaker stands for years and years and haven't experimented with Herbie's products on speaker stands.

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Fireblade

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Knowledge comes, but
wisdom lingers.
A.L.Tennyson

Posts: 1046

Re: Herbie's Suggestions
Reply #4 - 11/14/12 at 01:20:57

Got it. Thanks, Lon. I'm also not including his recommendation on fat gliders under the stands, as these would not be an advantage to me since I set up the stands in place on each listening session anyway.

Two weeks without my music now ... I listened to the monaural recordings, but is not the same using only one speaker. Even if mono, the sound coming from two speakers kind of make it more alive. Better than nothing, though.

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