Yesterday was my first exposure to Stillpoints in my system. I have a weird system somewhere at the top end of mid-fi or bottom of high end that has benefitted incredibly from numerous Shunyata upgrades on the power front, including a Triton and Typhon and Zitron PC's throughout, as well as an obscene amount of money on MIT signal cables and speaker wire. My components are good, but only modest by the standards of many on this forum (Martin Logan, JL, Spectral, BAT, Meitner etc). So it seemed that I was a perfect candidate to take my first sip of Stillpoint juice.
I bought 8 Ultra SS with adapters for my ML's since I thought that their system left a lot to be desired and i could see some gross moment of the reflection on the film and frame during high output with major mid bass. Since I had labored so hard to get the ML's in the best position for my room, I thought I would try to Ultra SS's under my JL 113's before screwing them into the ML's. I randomly put one under each corner (4 per) and took what I was very impressed with previously, especially after adding Shunyata Alpha HC PC's, to another level, in ways that I would not have imagined.
As expected the bass tightened up and in retrospect a lot of cabinet resonance went away, further contributing to the crispness, more than tightness, of the bass. What I was not prepared for was the illusion of the improved bass from the powered woofer in the ML's. Overall the bass was much more REAL with marked improvement in the foundation of the music all the way into the lower end of the midrange. Said another way, it was much more enjoyable to listen to because there was less boom, already minimal, but less is always better! I did not experiment with location and three versus 4 so I am quite interested in any feedback on these fronts.
I then moved the Ultra SS's to the ML's listening to the system with them gone from the JL and not yet installed on the ML's and it was painful compared to the increase in pleasure that I had just experienced. I then screwed the Ultra SS's into the ML's and heard a difference, but not as much as with the JL's. The difference is good enough that they will remain, but not the jaw-dropping experience some with heavier speakers have described. BTW, the gross vibration of the ML's is now totally gone on the most difficult music I can throw at them.
I have no doubt that the best choice will be getting more Stillpoint SS's or maybe Ultra 5's for the JL's and am open to suggestions regarding which on this front, remembering the modest nature of my system. Do I need 3 or 4 per? Should I buy the bases? I am also interested in suggestions about my components (BAT VK 32 SE preamp, Spectral 260, Meitner Dac, Mac Mini for audio serving, Oppo 103 as a transport. Any information on the ERS fabric would also be much appreciated.
