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The
Stillpoints Component Stand
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2
The standard Stillpoints Component
Stand, retailing at $799, consists of 3
specially shaped and treated radial aluminum
arms that are connected and clamped into a
central stainless steel hub. The result is a
tripod stand upon which the component or
loudspeaker is placed. An additional fourth
arm is available as an option, as is an
expander to increase the overall size of the
stand, if necessary, to match out-sized
components and loudspeakers. The bottom end of
each arm of the stand rests on a Delrin
inverted cup, (called a Mini-Inverse-Riser, or
MIR,) which then rests the stand on the floor
or on one’s shelf. This Delrin cup is threaded
into a miniature version of the original
Stillpoints damper contained inside the end of
each radial arm. The shape of the bottom part
of the looped structure of the arm itself is
staggered in 3 steps to offer differing
resonances, and the entire arm structure is
clamped and damped into the circular stainless
steel central hub, whose differing material
and clamping action damps resonance in the
aluminum arm similar to the way fingers
gripping a cymbal will squash its ringing.
The top of each arm is slotted with a channel
into which an upward-facing cup, also made of
Delrin, can slide, allowing varying the
position of the 3 cups and thus varying the
size of the support to mate with a variety of
component and speaker sizes. Once adjusted,
these upward-facing cups (Mini-Inverse-Risers)
can be tightened on their threads to hold
their position. The $799 standard Component
Stand’s physical appearance evokes the Greek
tetrakys, that 3-legged symbol in which
legs and feet revolve within the interior of a
circle around a central point, signifying
motion and stillness simultaneously.
But that’s not all. One can significantly
enhance the effectiveness of the standard
Component Stand as far as one wishes to take
it by using Stillpoints’ elaborate and
expandable optional ancillaries. One can place
the Component Stand on a separate set of
upward-facing Stillpoints Universal Resonance
Damper (URD from now on,) and then augment
that by attaching the URD’s to Risers. To
optimize that interface, the folks at
Stillpoints recommend the use of their Hard
Coat Aluminum Mini-Inverse-Risers in the
bottom of the Component Stand arm, designed to
maximize the effect of the top exposed ball
bearing of the Stillpoints URD’s. Conversely,
one can remove the Mini-Inverse-Risers from
the bottom of each Component Stand arm and
thread an individual URD onto each leg, and
then either place the now downward-facing
exposed bearing directly on a surface, or
optimize it with the Inverted Riser, or an
hardened aluminum mini-riser.
There’s still more! One can remove the Delrin
MIR’s from the top of the Component Stand arm
and screw in an URD ‘volcano’ which will then
bear on the bottom plate of the
component-to-be-isolated’s chassis. Another
option is to replace the component’s existing
feet with a set of Stillpoints URD ‘volcanos’
pointing downwards into hardened aluminum
Mini-Risers. Since most components use 4 feet,
this will necessitate adding a fourth arm to
the standard Component Stand’s three. This
last technique is the company’s recommendation
for optimum results when the Component Stand
is used with floor-standing speakers equipped
with threads for using spikes.
Although the number of possible set-ups might
initially appear complex, there is indeed a
very sophisticated inner logic to these set-up
and application variations. The standard
Component Stand uses one set of URD’s (minis,
in this case.) Adding additional Stillpoint
URD’s increases the isolation of the
component: a fully “tricked-out” Component
Stand – the Stand resting on URD’s on Risers,
with URD’s threaded into the top arms of the
Stand - will have 3 levels of URD isolation.
The difference between the Delrin and the Hard
Coat aluminum Mini-Risers allows optimum
interface between surfaces. Thus the
Stillpoints line of isolation devices allows
one to tune the level of isolation and the
interface with components and the surfaces on
which they ultimately rest. They offer a
continuous series of isolating steps in an
increasingly effective system that is easily
the most sophisticated on the market.
Although there are plateaus in performance
among these variations in the Stillpoints
system, what particular variation one ends up
using ultimately will rest on the individual
component, the context of the entire system,
and an aesthetic judgment about the overall
effect. As with the original Stillpoints URD,
judging the overall effect is more rational
when all the components in the system
are isolated. The ultimate resolution of any
system is, after all, limited to that of its
weakest link.
So an entire system (speakers included)
isolated with the original Stillpoints URD’s
will likely out-perform a system with only a
single standard Component Stand under one
component. The next step in the Stillpoints
system would be to place the URD’s into the
Risers. From this level of isolation one moves
to the plateau of Component Stand
applications.
The first step would be to isolate the entire
system on the standard Component Stands. The
next step would be to place all the standard
Component Stands on a set of URD’s. Next would
be to place all the URD’s into Risers. Then
one would replace the Delrin Mini-Risers into
which the top ball bearing of the URD’s rests
with the hard-coat aluminum Mini-Risers. Then
one would swap the top Delrin Mini-Risers to
URD’s, yielding the Full Monty, fully
tricked-out Component Stand. This ‘plateau’
method raises the isolation of all the
components at the same time. Alternatively,
one can follow an incremental method by making
each change one component at a time. The
flexibility of the Stillpoints isolating
system allows one to make dramatic jumps and
also to fine-tune those dramatic jumps.
The adventuresome and impatient might try
jumping from no isolation to all the
components on “Full Monty” Component Stands.
Since the Component Stand’s isolation is
additive, one can imagine ridiculous stacks of
Stands rising up into the heavens, creating
Jacob’s Ladders to allow the celestial angels
to descend, bringing with them the sublime
Music of The Spheres.
The
Ridiculous Is the Sublime
I first tried the Component Stand under what
might be considered a ridiculous system: a
$139 integrated amp, $289 a pair speakers, and
a $150 used CD player. I placed the
speakers/stands on fully tricked-out Component
Stands and placed the electronics on a
standard Component Stand.
“- Transmogrify: to change or alter
greatly. Synonym: see Transform.
- Apotheosis: elevation to divine
status.
- Sublime: a. lofty, grand, or exalted
in thought, expression, or manner. b. of
outstanding spiritual, intellectual or moral
worth. c. tending to inspire awe usually
because of elevated quality (as of beauty,
nobility, or grandeur) or transcendent
excellence.”
- Webster’s
Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary
It is impossible to describe the effect of
complete isolation of this humble system
without using those three words. Played
‘neat’, that is, without isolation, this
system produces well-timed, rhythmic, and
involving music with quite a bit of
coloration, blurring, opacity, and lack of
ultimate detail. When isolated, this
inexpensive system musically and sonically
out-performed a non-isolated $10,000 system of
High End pedigree. To those three descriptive
words must be added ‘gob-smacking,’
‘mind-blowing’ and the secondary meaning of
‘transmogrify’: “to change with humorous or
grotesque effect.”
The speakers, Celestion 3’s, lost their
mid-bass coloration and produced tight and
controlled bass tones. Opacity was eliminated
and the speaker gained a transparency and
clarity all across its bandwidth astounding
for such an inexpensive design.
Cabinet-induced coloration was reduced to the
threshold of audibility. The amplifier, the
Sonic Impact Super T Amp, which I recently
reviewed, revealed at least two levels of
resolution that I had never heard in my
previous auditions. I realized that I had
under-estimated it in my review. “Mea
culpa!” The Marantz CD67SE CD player, a
fine if limited budget performer, began
swinging for the fences.
The overall music-making, already good, went
to great – rhythm and timing greatly improved,
individual instruments were more clearly
rendered, the gained clarity was maintained
for all the instruments playing. Sounds
emerged from the ambience of the recording
site rather than from the Black Heart of
Darkness. The sound stage, well anchored and
focused between the speakers when played neat,
went from 19-inch TV to full Movie Theater
screen, clearly larger than the boundaries of
my listening room.
Then I pulled the Component Stands out of the
system. It was like letting the air out of a
balloon: the shriveled and wizened remnants
were pathetic by contrast, collapsing into an
indifferent gray mélange.
Aided by long Minnesota winter nights and
fueled by excellent coffee and English pipe
tobacco, I systematically ran through the
variations of the Stillpoints Component Stand
in three different listening rooms,
encompassing a wide variety of components and
speakers. They included 4 turntables, 2
integrated amps, vintage and modern tube
preamps, a vintage tube power amplifier, 3
solid-state preamplifiers, 2 solid-state power
amplifiers. 3 CD players, a variety of phono
stages, and 7 sets of loudspeakers (plus one
powered subwoofer) were included in the
auditions. Winter nights in Minnesota are long
and there are very many of them.
I also auditioned their effect on systems
located in a downtown St. Paul hi-rise
building apartment and a western Wisconsin
farm home. I was able to try all of the
Stillpoints combinations except for directly
threading the URD’s into the component chassis
or into the spike receptacle of loudspeakers.
Due to the inability to get unlimited numbers
of additional Component Stand review samples,
I was not able to try to build Jacob’s Ladder.
Working through all the variations and
permutations of the Stillpoints Component
Stand system was a fascinating intellectual,
sonic, and above all, musical exercise. Rather
than regale you with a minute recount of each
of these permutations in each system context,
let me say the general pattern of
incorporating each variation in the Component
Stand system was a consistent rise in
performance at each change, resulting in an
ever-ascending musical and sonic perspective.
The fully tricked-out Component Stand was the
pinnacle of this ascent.
It was immediately obvious that the
state-of-the-art performance of the original
Stillpoints URD’s has been considerably
advanced and surpassed by the Component Stand.
The fully tricked-out Component Stand – the
standard Stand augmented by the Stillpoints
URD’s top and bottom (the bottom set
interfacing with the hardened aluminum
Mini-Risers and supported on Risers) - sets
the ultimate standard by which all other
isolation devices must now be judged.
As one might expect, the effect on components
whose job is transducing a signal, i.e.,
transforming it from one form to another –
turntables, CD players and loudspeakers - was
so striking as to appear cosmic. The effect
was similar on tube electronics (both vintage
and modern) and with solid-state electronics.
Price and superficial aspects of ‘build
quality’ bore no correlation to effectiveness.
Indeed reports from the field (and my own
experience with excessively high-mass
turntables) indicate that use with high-mass
“High End” designs is often even more
impressive than with components of more
rational mass and size. This stands to reason:
the prime effect of raising mass is to lower
the resonant frequency of the component,
making it more susceptible to subsonic
interference.
With a few combinations of components the
ascent of the Component Stand ‘mountain’
reached a point where there appeared to be no
further gain in musical communication even
though the sonic landscape and particularly
the sound stage dimensions continued to
enlarge. These occasions, though few in
number, always occurred when using CD as the
source. They did not occur when using
turntables. This was very much a personal
aesthetic determination: I always judge sonic
changes by the increase in the quality of
music-making. By this criterion, the change
from a 25-foot side soundstage to a 35-foot
one doesn’t necessarily involve increased
musical comprehension, though it can make
the performance picture more literal. I found
nothing in this elaborate series of sonic
experiments that contradicted the assumption
that effective isolation increases the
integrity and accuracy of tracking the
complete dynamic and temporal envelope of each
and every sonic event.
Some insight proves helpful when auditioning
isolating products. Since we choose and set-up
our components while immersed in the seismic
soup, some adjustment is necessary when we
leave the mire and ascend the isolation
mountain. The increased clarity, tautness and
control of bass response, for example, might
lead to the necessity to re-position the
loudspeakers in the room to restore bass
balance that has changed through the loss of
false boom and thud. Similarly, the additional
sound stage information, width, and
dimensionality might require re-adjustment of
the speaker’s focus by manipulating toe-in or
out, and/or the distance between the speakers.
Since, without isolation, we are listening
“Through a Blanket Deafly,” interconnects and
loudspeaker cables chosen to attempt to
extract detail from the murk might need to be
changed to something more neutral once the fog
has been removed. Since this will usually
involve changing to far-less expensive
cabling, this is unlikely to be considered a
difficulty. And, ultimately, isolation will
not change a turkey into an eagle; musically
inept components will not be magically changed
into musical virtuosos. The good things that
each component can produce will be brought to
light, however, and determining the ultimate
limits of resolution of a given component more
certainly judged.
A fundamental uncertainty facing all isolation
products, and particularly one with the
flexibility and sophistication of the
Stillpoints system, is predicting exactly
which combination will work optimally with a
particular component. The degree of
susceptibility to structure-borne vibration
varies from component to component, based on
the competency of its design and construction.
And there is no way of telling how competent
the design is except by audition. The
integrity and sophistication of component
construction varies widely – from the
non-existent, to the completely wrong-headed
(extreme mass and high weight,) to the barely
competent. I have, however, heard some recent
products that have been intelligently designed
and show only minor change when isolated. The
only solution is to experiment.
While the Stillpoints Component Stand produces
the same general effect on whatever type of
component is isolated, its effect on
loudspeakers deserves special mention. I was
pleasantly surprised to find that colorations
and other sonic flaws that I had attributed to
the faults of individual drivers were in fact
due to seismic interference: high frequency
quality, bass control and vocal clarity all
improved so strikingly that judgments that I
had previously made about a given driver’s
capability proved ill-founded. Similarly, the
effects of less-than-perfect cabinet resonance
design were largely vanquished by mounting the
speaker on the Component Stand. The assumption
that only ultra-expensive speakers can
maintain dynamic resolution for all the
instruments playing also proved unfounded.
Finally, the negative effect of placing
too-big a speaker in too-small a room – the
most common error in US audiophile systems -
was largely ameliorated by not inciting and
not compounding most of the bass colorations
that these mismatches produce.
The Stillpoints Component Stand released a
natural ease in reproducing all the fine
details of performance, instrumental timbre,
and soundstage recreation. This was
particularly true of the fully tricked-out
Component Stand. The ultimate quality of a
artificial technological device reaches its
acme when it ceases to sound like artifice,
and approaches the natural. A high-quality
system completely isolated on the Full Monty
Component Stands had that effect. Listen to a
cello or violin live and compare it to the
sound of a hi-fi system. One of the immediate
differences is the effortless way the live
instrument releases its transient energy,
timbre, harmonic structure, and pitch. Use of
the Stillpoints Component Stand allowed that
ease to occur so readily that it made
un-isolated components sound broken.
Congratulations to Paul Wakeen, Larry Jacoby,
and the rest of the folks at Stillpoints: they
have brought us the finest isolation system
available. If you do one thing this year for
the cause of improving musical listening in
your home, make it a full audition of the
Stillpoints Component Stand system. Prepare to
be astounded.
Paul Szabady
________________
Address:
Stillpoints
823 Main Street
Boyceville, WI 54725
Price: Component Stand - $799.
Universal Resonance Dampers - $299 (set of 3),
$399 (set of four.) Black Hard Coat Aluminum
Mini-Risers - $15 each.
Contact: Telephone:
Toll Free 1-877-410-2567 – Phone (715)
643-7110
Fax: (715) 254-0653
Email:
mailto:info@stillpoints.us
Website:
www.stillpoints.us
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