AUDIO SMORGASBORD ●

<   –  depending of course on your point of view. The cost of that richness and energy is a loss of focus and definition within the sound-stage, a rounding and smoothing of micro-dynamic transitions.    Now There are those who'll see this presentation as more natural, more involving and more musical. There are also those who will point to the lack of the intricate detail and spatial subtlety that helps reconstitute the sense of reality. You pays your money – you takes your choice. However, the key realization here is that the RF-900s are not a universal tweak, but one that voices your system in a particular way. The issue is not whether they make a difference; it's whether you need the difference they make.    Let's apply the changes to a familiar track or two, in the context of the Wadia, Vibe, Pulse, Radia, OBX-R2 set up, all wired with Nordost Valhalla. This is a classic high-resolution system, with particularly fine discrimination of energy levels across its bandwidth and an even, overall balance. Listening to the Jackie Leven album Defending Ancient Springs, the opening beats of ‘You've Lost That Loving Feeling’ gain a weight and rounded shape with the RF-900s. This adds undoubted impact and drama to the track, but later, the space around and behind the vocal is less apparent, the distance and arced spacing of the backing singers less noticeable and less of a musical contrast. You gain a sense of solidity and momentum in the music, colour and majesty, but the careful jigsaw construction  of the complex

arrangement is obscured, the contrasts within the track diminished. Likewise the cascaded, stretched guitar chords that characterize both ‘Paris Blues’ and the title track gain substance but lose bite and their tumbling inner complexity.    Combak also suggest using the RF-900s in conjunction with the TU-202s, and as I still had the wooden feet around I gave that a whirl too, although the dimensions of the Wadia combined with the diameter of the wooden feet made for the sort of foot-print that's not easily accommodated. I got away with it – just, on my Clearlight Aspect rack, but it's something to bear in mind when considering these feet. But then, they are something that's well worth considering. The combination of the RF-900s and TU-202s is far more impressive (and, admittedly, expensive) than the 900s on their own. Together they build on what the metal feet do, but add such a dramatic increase in upper-bass/lower-mid energy and substance that the system actually sounds a notch, or even two, louder. Natural? Maybe not – but it surely is enjoyable. Indeed you could argue that it's simply compensating for the corresponding suck-out that so many solid-state electronics and metal-drivered speakers incorporate in the name of speed and transparency. It also restores the air and volume to the soundstage, if not the inner definition. But if you want scale, drama and impact, look no further.    So, that leads me to two conclusions. The first is that the Harmonix feet definitely do what it says on the tin.

Given the impact of all sorts of supports this is not exactly revolutionary, but reassuring nonetheless. Secondly, if I was running a system with a tendency to the dry or pinched, I'd be getting hold of some Harmonix feet just as quick as I could. Did anybody say Audiolab? The RF-56 Tuning Base and RF-333 Tuning Belt It's nice that the feet work in a way that's sort of accepted, because the confusingly named Tuning Bases and Belts are exactly the sort of tweaks that drive the scientific thought-police wild with epistemological indignation. How do they work? The load only knows... But work I'm afraid they do, at least in so much as they make a difference that's both audible and repeatable – and not a little bit spooky. Applying four of the tiny RF-56 tiles around the output sockets of the Wadia as directed (look, it's on the top of the rack, okay?) I was astonished to here the sound from the mid on up, gain all the energy and life that the foot combination had injected lower down. But now you were getting air, focus, detail and texture too. Those backing singers were back just where they should be, arrayed in that arc, separated in space and level from the lead vocal. The texture and shaping of the lyric, the way in which Jackie works his voice (and he really does) are suddenly far more intimate and convincing. Dynamics are crisper, snare beats more sudden, the attack in hard strummed guitar chords that  >

101

www.combak.net/