Black Diamond Racing Pyramid Cones

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Setup   For this and the other five footer reviews I will be using my upstairs system. The CD player is a Cambridge Audio D500SE, the amplification a Classe CA-101 power amp with directly mounted EVS Ultimate Attenuators for adjusting volume. The speakers are a pair of Magnepan MMGs and the cabling by Nordost: Red Dawn interconnects and Flatline Gold MkII speaker cables. The CD player and amp are on top of the DIY Rack we built earlier. The rack shelves are pretty good themselves at controlling vibration so in order to have a more representative shelf I placed a standard shelf on top of the DIY rack supported only by the tips of the four rack pillars. A few taps on this shelf nicely confirmed that we now have a sufficiently resonant platform for our tests. Our primary assessment will be based on three footers under the CD player, two in front and one in the back. This arrangement will ensure consistency throughout the footer reviews. Performance   Usually at this point I would talk about differences (if any) brought about substituting the standard feet for these. But having had the BDR cones for some time now, it was not necessary to go through this formality; I was very well familiar with the audible benefits brought about with their use: A definite improvement manifested by an increase in precision, resolution and smoothness. Rather than dwelling on their benefit as a device replacing standard feet, I will focus more on the two versions and in particular how I perceived the cones in contrast to the Vibrapods. As suggested by BDR in their product literature I first obtained the Mk3 version and gave them a try. The Mk3's were therefore my first stab at these carbon fiber pyramids, and as it turned out my first stab wasn't necessarily the one that was most rewarding. Simply put the Mk3's were not my cup of tea. Despite benefits I discussed above, the Mk3's in my system and to my ears were a bit soft and somewhat slow. If by nature they were "warmer" then in my system that same nature could have made it a bit too warm, verging on softness and somewhat lack of get up and go. You know, a bit like when your foot stops tapping and your thoughts start wondering. The sound was a bit glazed over, a bit mellow. In comparison to the Mk4's I found the Mk3's a bit less involving. So off to the dealer I went and got Mk4's. To my relief these were now what I have expected from them in the first place. I was now hearing more precision and definition but also energy and spring to the sound I definitely prefer.   next page: