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Description (continued)

The string crisscrosses in the center of the rim where it is tied very securely. The standard version has a square plastic plate with a red circular felt on top. This square plate is designed to snap on to the crossing strings. As expected, it is on this square plate that one is supposed to position the component's own feet. The plus version sports an additional metal spring elevating the point of contact and allowing (in most cases) the positioning of the footers away from the component's own feet. The metal spring also contributes to the overall isolation and is considered an upgrade to the standard device.

The overall construction is very good. However there are two aspects that I would like to note. First is the non-stretch string. Though very tough I did notice a small amount of discoloration of the otherwise black string at the point of contact with the plastic plate. This was noticeable only after repeated attaching and detaching of the plastic plate. The second issue concerns the plastic plate and the metal spring: They are glued together and as such can come apart. It's really nothing serious and can easily be fixed with a bit of glue, but nonetheless something that could perhaps in future versions be build as a single piece.

Setup

For the sake of consistency I've setup the Tightropes as I did the other footers in previous reviews. I used three under my CD player: One under the drive mechanism, one under the transformer and the third to complete a stable triangle. I've also removed the player's own feet finding them useless and in the way.

Again for consistency my assessment will be through the same system I used previously: The CD player is a Cambridge Audio D500SE, the amplifier a Classe CA-101 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 my DIY Rack, I placed a standard shelf on top of the 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.

Tightrope Vibration Control Devices