Will using other feet than the supplied ones be beneficial?

[Hear Here]

Thanks Mark. Previously I've changed the angle with the default spikes so that the panels are as vertical (straight up) as possible with those. That helped considerably in the clarity of the mids and highs.
They're elevated a bit, about 2", as I have them standing on 1" slabs of granite that themselves are decoupled by rubber feet. And that helped out to clean up the bass, but never thought about the height effect itself. I was thinking that IF I get the GAIA's I could remove the slabs of granite. But maybe I shouldn't.

I've recently ordered Expression 13As to replace my Avantgarde Uno horns. As with your speakers I have spikes into a stone slab (I chose slate as it has less "ring" than granite, marble or glass) and vibration absorbent material between the stone and the timber-boards-on-concrete floor.

By coincidence I received last week a sales-pitch email from a nearby reputable dealer extolling the virtues of the Iso Gaia feet.

For the 13As I'll have to decide whether to go for the Gaia IIs directly onto the floor (about £700 for 2 sets), or stick with the spikes and stone slab but get a much more effective vibration barrier - Sorbothane or similar.

Appearance wise, the Gaias are undoubtedly more attractive and I would hope that the performance improvement would justify the cost in relation to the 13A price - less than 5%. The description by other posters in this thread of perceived improvements would be very welcome, in particular the seemingly slightly less but much better defined bass. This feature would help in not upsetting my neighbours!

The Gaias would presumably still allow some degree of tilt adjustment too and should leave the speakers marginally lower than spikes + stone + absorbent.

I'd be interested to know why (of the new 4 new Masterpiece speakers) only the 15A is constructed with a vertical panel - the others have a significant backwards tilt. By many accounts here, several owners of tilted-panel MLs prefer to jack up the back to reduce the tilt. Explanations, opinions or theories most welcome. My only experience with ESLs is with the big Quads which are less tall than all these new MLs, but vertical. No one seems to want to tilt Quads either way as far as I'm aware.

Peter

 

[MickyP]

I've just tried some Gaia IIs and returned them as was completely underwhelmed (this was on SL3s). Clearly I'm out of kilter with folks on here and most reviews. Guess you need to try before you buy.

 

[adeep42]

Just like most tweeks. Sometimes they work for you, sometimes they don't. So many variables, system, acoustics, ears, etc. Doesn't mean you're out of kilter with us. You just got different results. Certainly, it never hurts to try before you buy.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Just like most tweeks. Sometimes they work for you, sometimes they don't. So many variables, system, acoustics, ears, etc. Doesn't mean you're out of kilter with us. You just got different results. Certainly, it never hurts to try before you buy.

But what if it does mean he is out of kilter with you and hears no improvement because there was none?

Personally I would take the items "system" and "ears" as an insult. Those imply that if a person doesn't hear something another person "thinks he hears", then their system is deficient or they don't listen carefully enough.

If someone trusts their ears and doesn't hear anything then come all the excuses for why he doesn't hear something.

Just saying that this cuts both ways.

 

[adeep42]

Mark, I think the problem is "out of kilter". I don't think MickyP is out of kilter with me. I think he's "in" kilter. To me, this audio pastime, hobby, obsession is totally a personal and completely objective activity. What Micky hears and what pleases him is fine. What you or I hear and what pleases us, is fine as well. There's plenty of room for everybody, tubes or solid state, analog or digital, box speakers, electrostatic or even horns.

I'm done. Happy New Year to All. Enjoy the music!!!!!!

 

[ttocs]

I'm off kilter. I tried for a while, but went back to pants.

I agree that there are so many unique scenarios with respect to equipment combinations, compounded by hookup variabilities, how the room is constructed, which direction the speakers face, spacing, seating position(s), what is between the speakers, . . . . wait - what was the question??

These GAIA III's look really nice. I'm in the "de-couple" camp because controlling bass is easier in my 64 year old house. I didn't realize nice isolators like this would be so reasonably priced, and there's a dealer only a mile away from me. I found out a few years ago that the more firm and stationary I can get the speakers to be reveals more articulation. I went so far as to add 60lbs of weight on top of the woofer box and got a benefit. But really, these GAIA III's look perfect for what I currently have, and the 13A's I want to get later this year.

My preference is to tweak mechanically. I calibrate also, but I keep going back to basics - uncalibrated - and being happy.

Happy New Year!

 

[Brad225]

But what if it does mean he is out of kilter with you and hears no improvement because there was none?

Personally I would take the items "system" and "ears" as an insult. Those imply that if a person doesn't hear something another person "thinks he hears", then their system is deficient or they don't listen carefully enough.

If someone trusts their ears and doesn't hear anything then come all the excuses for why he doesn't hear something.

Just saying that this cuts both ways.

And Mark starts the New Year by kicking the decomposing horse yet again.

 

[zigman]

Improvement in sound aside, does anyone know if the replacing the plastic feet on the 11As with Gaia’s will help with vibration through the floor? We want to be able to play music at decent levels but don’t want to bother the downstairs neighbor.

Anyone have experience of which sizes to get to tilt the 11As forward? Thinking IIIs and Is.

 

[gwyko]

Howdy there - let me see if I can "resurrect" this old thread. I find the IsoAcoustic GAIA to be somewhat (irrationally?) intriguing so I read these comments with interest.

I recently got my SL3s out of storage and have been greatly enjoying them again. I have a hard floor (stone tile on top of concrete) and I'm using the "glider" type of feet that came with the speakers (rather than the spikes). One good thing about the gliders is they make the speaker easy to move around to find the best position.

But, perhaps due to having only three feet - two in front and one in back - the speakers feel a bit "tippy". I assume the good engineers at Martin Logan wanted the "three points define a plane" benefits of this, but I kinda wish they just felt more solid.

In the old days I was under the impression that the rationale for spikes was to firmly couple the speaker to the floor and eliminate or reduce the possibility of the speaker vibrating slightly while in use which might otherwise occur. I'm not quite sure I understand the rationale for "isolating" with something like the GAIA - is it an improvement over the firm coupling such as achieved with spikes? Does the speaker feel more or less "solid" in terms of its physical stance with the GAIAs (or similar), or do they introduce a bit of extra "wiggle" - which I assume would be a bad thing?

I'd love to hear any thoughts!

 

[Bernard]

But, perhaps due to having only three feet - two in front and one in back - the speakers feel a bit "tippy". I assume the good engineers at Martin Logan wanted the "three points define a plane" benefits of this, but I kinda wish they just felt more solid.

Strange.....my SL3s have four feet!

 

[Brad225]

It has been a while, but I am fairly sure my SL3 speakers had 3 feet.
I believe all of my CLS speakers had 3 feet. I am fairly confident because I was surprised when the CLX model had 4 feet.

 

[gwyko]

I had to tilt one of the speakers over just now to confirm to myself and yes three feet on mine - confirmed! Also allowed me to see how much thread is there if one wanted to account for an uneven surface. Turns out you could add some significant “rake” if you wanted to since the threaded bolt looks to be about 1.5” long.

 

[Hear Here]

Improvement in sound aside, does anyone know if the replacing the plastic feet on the 11As with Gaia’s will help with vibration through the floor? We want to be able to play music at decent levels but don’t want to bother the downstairs neighbor.

Anyone have experience of which sizes to get to tilt the 11As forward? Thinking IIIs and Is.

I have 13As which are very similar regarding Gaia feet. I bought Gaia II which is good for the weight of both 11A and 13A and I believe the 15A too. Because this range of MLs have the removable electronics tray in the base, you won't be able to securely fit Gaias using the standard fittings they provide. However if you ask the good people at Gaia, they will send you a set of much longer threaded fittings specifically for these ML units. They are 53 mm long, whereas the standard ones are 30 mm.

The reason is simple. The ML spike sockets are also the Fixing bolts that secure the tray in position, so the first 1/2" or so is not threaded but is hex shaped for the tray removal tool. Therefore the thread starts well in from the base and standard Gaia threads will only have one turn which isn't enough to secure them reliably.

Once you have your pack of "Long 3/8-16 threads for Gaia II" from IsoAcoustic, you'll find these new threads also allow a certain degree of forward tilt if you wish to have your speakers more upright - as I found was the case. I went for about 3 degrees compared with 5 deg as ML builds the 11A and 13A - the 15A is vertical as standard.

Certainly on my hard floors (timber on screed on concrete) there was a significant improvement over standard spikes or the included soft transit feet. I'm sure this will reduce significantly vibrational annoyance for your downstairs neighbours, but they'll still complain if the volume is too "robust"!

Hope this helps. Peter