A really interesting (for me at least, as someone who's been on a long evolving journey with analog) and enlightening experiment on getting the most out of the new SOTA motor, with one major step left to complete.
The Eclipse motor is installed in the top of a cylindrical pod, leaving the bottom of pod as empty void, save for various internal cables.
So after encouragement from my friend in US running the same rig, I've experimented with applying some IsoDamp strips to inside of pod void.
Started with damping 100% of the internal pod area, but settled on about 25% in the end. Just enough...but enough, nevertheless.
And got lucky with isolation under the pod. Removed the stock squishy blobs, first of all tried my existing Symposium Svelte pad. Nice, no complaints. But I thought I'd try some hard footers, so I then tried Symposium Rollerblocks Jnrs...but just the top halves sans Rollerballs.
Wow! Just a big, instant uptick. I've carefully listened for any hint of metallic hardness, and I can't say for sure if there definitely isn't any. But my strong opinion is that the great improvement in attack, dynamics and bass articulation, that is a result is not a coloration but a greater reveal of the superiority of this motor over my previous stock one.
After several years of trying numerous footers and isolation systems, I think I know when I'm recognising a change which is more the sound of the tweak, and when it's more a reveal of the component being isolated. This very much feels like the latter.
And a big final change to come. Farad Super3 24V/2.2A LPS ordered for the motor, to be used with Sablon cbls: DC lead and Elite pwr cord. Big hopes for all this too.
Right now, I am amazed at the changes wrought by an all-round superior motor, especially in way less speed drift and likely better vibration management. Feels like a game changer, and beyond this LPS, my forthcoming Zavfino Litz-76/Bocchinos RCAs tonearm wire and armwand Audio Machina V8 anti vibration tweak, that's my long and winding analog journey done.