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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

The very first thing I tried with these racquetball halves was to place one on my desk and put my hand over it with the opening upwards and covering my hand. I was surprised to feel very little vibration when I tapped my desk. It appears the halves were doing a fair job of "taming" desk born vibration, which was a promising sign of results to come.

I first listened without the racquetball halves in place, just the CD player on top of the shelf arrangement I discussed above. Much of what I like about this system could be heard without any footers in place. Good dimensionality, acceptable focus, good dynamics and fair amounts of detail. However the sound was a bit rough in the treble and had some strain in the mid.

I placed the racquetball halves under the CD player, two in front and one in the back and replayed the track(s). Yes, there was an improvement but to be honest, not a stellar one. There was a subtle but noticeable increase in resolution, focus was a bit tighter and the highs were a bit less splashy. Reading back my notes I took during my audition, I noticed I had underlined a phrase, which read: Less edgy. And yes the sound was a bit more relaxed - not dull but easier to comprehend. Removing the racquetball halves I confirmed that the sound was a bit more boomy and somewhat more defused as compared to when they were in place. My impression therefore was positive if not overwhelming. Which is about right for a tweak of this type.

Conclusion

Despite an overall slight improvement, my expectations from this tweak were somewhat higher than actually realized. I guess the improvement was a bit more subtle then I would have wished for, or perhaps the interaction between my player/system and this tweak wasn't that beneficial. Nevertheless, if you have no other footer or vibration control device in place - this alternative is a Best Buy. It's worth a try simply because of its simplicity and affordability. It costs next to nothing and is definitely better than those plastic feet so many players are equipped with nowadays.

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Comments (add)


Paul	Hi Make sure you have one ball directly under the motor spinning the CD and another directly under the transformer not so much as in the symetric corners of the unit. You want to damp vibrations generated by the unit such as by the spinning of the CD or if the transformer hums, vibrates. Use other balls to balance the unit so it doesn't tip over. This is true for points or other " feet". Always apply them on the hot spots not on the geographic corners of the unit by default. good luck. Paul

Boris	Good tip Paul! I've made similar recommendations in my other footer reviews.

Peter	Fill the half balls with Blu Tac. Vast improvement over empty balls only.

Racquetballs Sliced In Half