Aurios under my Vantage

[Steve Daigneault]

Heard that amusicdirect.com had Aurios 1.2 on sale (50% off), so decided to pick up a pair and try them out under some of my gear. originally, i thought i'd get them for my preamp and cd player. when they came, i was really impressed with how well made these little things are. definitely first class. well, under my preamp and cd player they went, and the soundstage tightened up a bit, image seemed a bit cleaner, but nothing mind shattering.

i then dropped them under my vantage, replacing my spikes, and BAM! bass and mid-bass was SOO much better. focused, clean, open, and now felt much more balanced with the mids and highs. wow, definitely a very worthwhile "tweak", that for me, in my system, is much more than a tweak. i now consider these little guys a requirement!

btw... my floors are parquet over cement, and i always thought spiking was the way to go. wrong, at least in my system. i feel like i just had my room treated by a sound professional.

 

[Munster]

Glad they work for you ! At $200 a pop though its a little more than a "tweak" for me. Did you try any other isolation methods prior to these? What were they and how do these compare ?

 

[Steve Daigneault]

didn't try anything else. i guess i felt like if they didn't work, or i didn't like them, i could sell them on audiogon for pretty much the same price i paid for them. if i needed to try something less expesive, i think i'd try some vibrapods + some "dead" balls in side them. that's what i'm goign to try for my preamp, as soon as it all arrives.

check out happy and unhappy balls

 

[Reverb2009]

I have a set of 1.2’s under my DVD player and found a noticeable increase in performance there, the music opened up, the blacks became blacker, and in movies the picture became a lot smother and sharper. I can’t like with out a set under my DVD player, its accuracy has defiantly jumped up a few notches.

I also have a set of Aurio 1.0’s under my pre-amp, and a set of Final Labs Daruma IIIa’s under my Camelot dragon and amplifier. I did not see much of a change with my other gear like I did with my DVD player, but the change was enough to leave them there.

Now that you have reassured me the Aurios are worth it under the speaker I think I will fallow you and get a few sets and upgrade the performance of my speakers.


Thanks

 

[Steve Daigneault]

it's actually pretty stunning the difference the aurios have made under my vantages. i'm really amazed, and feel very lucky that i tried this "tweak" out. becuase the improvement has been so dramatic that i would have been really missing out on a lot if i hadn't tried them out under my speakers. got home tonight, started listening again, and am just floored. i'd say at least a 30% improvement. the vantages on spikes were causing rumbling and bass problems that i didn't really know the extent until i got the aurios. damn, really awesome improvement!!! $200 is CHEAP for what i'm hearing now.

 

[Reverb2009]

it's actually pretty stunning the difference the aurios have made under my vantages. i'm really amazed, and feel very lucky that i tried this "tweak" out. becuase the improvement has been so dramatic that i would have been really missing out on a lot if i hadn't tried them out under my speakers. got home tonight, started listening again, and am just floored. i'd say at least a 30% improvement. the vantages on spikes were causing rumbling and bass problems that i didn't really know the extent until i got the aurios. damn, really awesome improvement!!! $200 is CHEAP for what i'm hearing now.

Do you have hard wood floors in your home? Or did you put the Aurios on a platform before the speaker?

I have my Descent sub sitting on a Grand Prix audio isolation stand, and the difference is amazing, to say the least. I was amazed that isolating the sub made a difference on the entire system. We spike our equipment to put it on a solid footing, that seams to tighten up and improve the sound, but after the isolation stand I have come to the conclusion that the vibration from our speakers is bettered transferred to our floor by the spikes and then into our other equipment thus degrading the entire system.

Isolation bearings in my opinion seam to work best under components with moving part’s like speakers, CD/DVD players spinning CD’s, turn tables, ETC.

 

[Steve Daigneault]

yeh, I've got wood parquet floors, but concrete is under the parquet. Like you, I thought that spikes are what I needed under my speakers, but the vibrations transferred back up into the speaker and also into the rest of my equipment. The sound has made a big jump, and now I'm a believe in decoupling my speakers from the floor. I think some say that this will negatively impact imaging or the soundstage? but i think the soundstage has improved, and things are still focused and in place, and since there is better balance throughout, and less "rumbling" and muddying, i think the soundstage is better. that, and things are also clearer, and each individual voice and instrument are better delineated. damn, i'm a little stunned!