Roger that captain! Use the Gaia II's on my CLX's with very positive results. Areas of improvement:
1. Solid footing / placement, far less swing effect of panels.
2. Being more solid, resulted in better inner detail, far more definition in soundstage.
3. The imaging and focus aspects improved.
4. Virtually zero vibrations or I would say close to nothing.
With the above improvements, this also allowed the TT rig to operate with absolute quietness. The other contributing factor is the difference in the floors. This is our new place and was built around 2019 and I moved in November to set things up. This flooring was concrete slab right throughout with ceramic tiles as main flooring area, no carpeting at all, other than only in the bedrooms. I purposely wanted it designed this way mainly due to the Gaia's suspension system and the way it handles vibrations on hard surfaces.
After lengthy discussions with a few tech guru's on the subject of coupling & decoupling, it all depends on what type of flooring you have. In our previous apartment, the flooring was wooden floor boards right throughout, with wall to wall carpeting in every area, except the kitchen area of course. Due to this soft surface structure, the Gaia's suspension system doesn't work optimally compared to hard surfaces.
Under each of the Gaia's, there's a hard rubber like surface, which when placed on a hard surface, it has a strong suction like effect that clamps down the Gaia's to the floor, making it a solid footing. Hence, in the case of soft surfaces, like carpeting, this footing doesn't quite hold solid because it's soft... so there's a sort of bouncy feel to it. The swing factor of the stats' panels seems to be greater unlike when placed on hard surfaces.
The bigger the panels, the greater the swing factor, and CLX's are big stats, so they will tend to swing more than smaller stat panels or hybrids. For example, Maggie's are notorious with high swing factors. Just nudging them with one finger at the top can make them sway back & forth very easily. In the case of ML stats, you have to use bit more force because they're well designed but still do have a minute swing.
So, in my particular system and room setup, I found that the Gaia's suspension system and solid footing, worked optimally when placed on hard floors, and the best is actually concrete finished with tiles. Now, I'm not saying that this is a must have flooring design for high performance speakers. Every person's room and setup is very different, not a single one would ever be identical.
Therefore, use whichever isolation system proves to be more effective in your particular room. When I had the Quad ESL's in our previous place with floorboards and carpeting, I found that spikes proved more effective. Same with CLX's, I used the supplied spikes on carpeting. It was only after we moved into our new place, that I switched to the Gaia's and realised significant changes as listed above.
The Iso Acoustics Gaia's are a well designed product and vfm, compared to the many other crazy priced gizmo's out there, which claim to do black magic! I think such accessories are all voodoo until proven otherwise.
Cheers, and enjoy those fine tunes!
RJ
This is right on the money!!!!
