Critical mass center stage 2 footers

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sakso136

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Hi fellas ,
I thought i open a new thread here to know your opinion on these footers.
They won product of the year on hifi+ magasine this year.
They look to act strangely on components by adjusting impedance( no clue how),
And they are very expensive!
Any one tried?


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Not a single bad review, quite the opposite!



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We have them under all our equipment in the store. We have all three sizes. NO DIFFERENCE in sound between the sizes, just get the one tall enough so you have the right clearances.

Vibration control and energy dissipation is big. These make a very good improvement, especially under digital and tube gear, but really everything.

They allow the equipment to operate at their full potential. Many similar competing products, but I really like the CS2.


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I recently heard a shoot out with the CS2 under all the amp components and Stillpoints, Harmonix, Nordost and Symposium in contention.Consensus was that the Harmonix sounded best, then the Symposium, then the CS and Nordost,and lastly Stillpoints. Taking the price into consideration, the group all felt the CS was the worst value!
This was a difficult test, as we had to wait for some time for the footers to “settle”.. and some could argue that the CS never did.
 
Yep the settling period is the main "problem" with them. There are reports of needing 10 days of time to fully settle (and roughly 2x longer for the original CS) - with the additional requirement that music should be playing during most, or all (though the "instructions" aren't really clear on this) of that duration. Widespread user reports indicate they can actually sound bad (as in worse than stock feet) for large parts of the break-in.

My main system has been vinyl-only sourced for several years. 10 days of music-playing burn-in time is far from realistic there. Yeah, I know: get a streamer hooked up, etc - no thanks, actually. I had good initial impressions with 3 sets of CS2 1.0 (though only a seemingly subtle difference at first) when I first inserted them. The sound tightened up a little bit. I was optimistic that perhaps the break-in reports were way overblown. But over a few weeks of listening - at just 12 hours per week - I started wondering if the sound might be backtracking. Then I took them out and viola, I found myself enjoying my system more again :-/ Maybe I'll give them another shot down the line, and figure out how to fully settle them in, but for now I had a much better use for that (rather large) chunk of money.

I use (and love) a CMS Maxxum rack for my TT/phono/pre, btw.
 
It is possible that the CS never reached their full potential with the amount of ‘break in’ that the group gave them...although we did try and AB them with some amount of settling time..in the case of the CS about a week between sessions...and with music playing the whole time. Naturally one could say that one’s aural memory is nowhere near that long, but once the other footers were placed the group listened to all the footers again, it did seem obvious that the Harmonix and the Symposium sounded quite a bit better. I can say that in the groups opinion ( which I concurred with), the hyperbole surrounding these CS pieces was just that...hyperbole.
 
Pearce Harrison said:
It is possible that the CS never reached their full potential with the amount of ‘break in’ that the group gave them...although we did try and AB them with some amount of settling time..in the case of the CS about a week between sessions...and with music playing the whole time. Naturally one could say that one’s aural memory is nowhere near that long, but once the other footers were placed, it did seem obvious that the Harmonix and the Symposium sounded quite a bit better. I can say that in the groups opinion ( which I concurred with), the hyperbole surrounding these CS pieces was just that...hyperbole.
Click to expand...

Can you specify wich harmonix and symposium were used.
According to some users of the cs2, the effect is a no brainer, but the problem is the brake in period.
I have 6 sort kone nordost on my system and they seem doing smtg with backround noise but not sure 100%


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sakso136 said:
Can you specify wich harmonix and symposium were used.
According to some users of the cs2, the effect is a no brainer, but the problem is the brake in period.
I have 6 sort kone nordost on my system and they seem doing smtg with backround noise but not sure 100%


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Click to expand...

i don't know which specific model of Harmonix or Symposium was being demoed, I will ask the guys next meeting if anyone knows the specifics. Needless to say, we all thought the Harmonix was the best...and then the Symposium second. A couple of guys thought the Sort Kones were at least as good as the CS2’s...but the majority demurred and gave it to the CS.
 
Pearce Harrison said:
i dont know which specific model of Harmonix or Symposium was being demoed, I will ask the guys next meeting if anyone knows the specifics. Needless to say, we all thought the Harmonix was the best...and then the Symposium second. A couple of guys thought the Sort Kones were at least as good as the CS2’s...but the majority demurred and gave it to the CS.
Click to expand...

Thks .
There s a long thread on wbf about them, so i thought i dig more here, i m more skeptical about them now.


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sakso136 said:
Thks .
There s a long thread on wbf about them, so i thought i dig more here, i m more skeptical about them now.


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Click to expand...

And btw, few friends use the isoacoustics area here to great effect, and they are affordable!


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sakso136 said:
And btw, few friends use the isoacoustics area here to great effect, and they are affordable!


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Click to expand...


Yes, couple folks in the group also use the isoacoustics. None of those guys are trading in their isoacoustics for the CS footers....and it isn’t because they cannot afford to.
 
Pearce Harrison said:
i believe one of the owners at WBF is also a distributor and representative for the CS line.
Click to expand...

It could be.
What made me dig for these footers initially was the hifi + review.
Alan sarcom describe them as best footers ever and were elected product of the year!!


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sakso136 said:
And btw, few friends use the isoacoustics area here to great effect, and they are affordable!


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Click to expand...

I have ordered sets of Isoacoustics Oreas for my amps to compare them to Stillpoints. Let’s see.


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