Isolation Feet for Avantgarde - IsoAcoustics Gaia or bFLY Talis Pro

Hear Here

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Feb 14, 2020
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Portsmouth, UK
My new Avantgarde Duo speakers have arrived, but I find they are too tall ! The Manual suggests they should be tilted so one can just see the top of the bass enclosure. This requires much more tilt than I want from an aesthetic point of view.

The design includes rather fancy adjustable-height spikes, but these can be removed and replaced with soft vibration-absorbing feet, although surprisingly this is not recommended by Avantgarde. For me the advantages of soft feet are that the height can be reduced and unwanted vibration and noise to my downstairs neighbours can be minimised - and importantly they may sound better.. My floors are timber boards on screed on concrete.

OK - the choice for these 100 Kg speakers is:

IsoAcoustic Gaia 1 (or Gaia Titan Theis). These would allow a 2-3 cm reduction in height and it's a well respected technology. I have Gaia II feet under my old Duos and I much prefer these over spikes, sound-wise.

OR - bFLY Audio Talis Pro L feet. These are German made and new to me, but I stumbled across them recently and they could be a better solution as it would allow a 5-6 cm heigt reduction. This would probably eliminate the need for any forward tilt, but what about the sound?

Has anyone any experience of the Talis Pro feet? Or can you suggest a further alternative that may better either of these? Thanks Peter

PS Does anyone believe that Gaias sound better with their name logo facing forward than randomly tightening them up whereever the logo ends up?

Links:

Avantgarde support frame - see photo

Gaia Titan - https://isoacoustics.com/gaia-series/gaia-titan/

Talis Pro - https://www.bflyaudio.uk/store/p5/TALISPRO.html
 

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Hear Here

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A third option has been suggested by a well-known Avantgarde expert - Symposium Svelte Platform. Not feet, but a vibration absorbing pad that the speakers stand on. Anyone use these under their speakers? Thanks. Peter

https://www.symposiumusa.com/SveltePlus.html
 
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Hear Here

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Feb 14, 2020
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If you don’t want to tilt your speakers forward because they are too high have you considered simply raising your listening seat?

When Jim Smith came to voice my system years ago we raised the listening seat by 3 inches.

Thanks - Good idea, but sadly not practical. My listening seat is one end of an 18 ft long sofa capable of seating 10 people! It has 22 screw-in feet that could be changed for longer ones, but that would be a huge job and would leave the seats too high for comfortable sitting.

The odd thing is that ealier Unos and Duos were designed so the mid and top horns could be set at any of 5 different heights. With my seating the mid-position was ideal - and I sudspect it would be for most users. However the new Duo XDs have fixed height drivers and this equates to the highest position of the earlier speakers.

We have lost user-adjustable height options and this has been fudged by the suggestion to tilt the speakers forward. What's particularly odd is that the bass enclosure has become much less deep (back to front), so this extra enclosure height (needed to increase enclosure volume for the bigger drivers) would be unnecessary if the enclosure were a little deeper.

My plan is to lose some of the 9 cm / 4 1/4" of wasted space under the speakers and Jim has suggested the Symposium Svelte Shelf as a way of achieving this. I guess the Townshend Seismic Vibration Isolation Platform would achieve much the same. Peter
 
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Blue58

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Jan 20, 2013
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Hi Peter,

I understand the issue of the fixed height of the Duo XD compared to adjustable ‘old style’ Duos and you may just have luck using my preferred option from Herbies Audio Lab, Giant threaded Studs.
34CB613C-4F39-48F6-9F97-910FF143C129.jpeg
https://herbiesaudiolab.com/collect...s/threaded-stud-glider?variant=12651507187767

Just choose the correct thread length and size, perhaps shorter thread at front and longer at back so you can also achieve a slight degree of angle towards you. They work for me on suspended floorboards on the 1st floor and do reduce the amount of energy transferred into the floor. Previously I had stock feet, Black Diamond Racing Cones and though I didn’t try the Gaia feet I think they would not lower the overall height.

Be patient with the burn in and try and get your dealer to measure the room to enable correct DSP application.
 

Hear Here

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Feb 14, 2020
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Many thanks - another helpful suggestion. Those Herbies feet would certainly reduce the height considerably. The Gaias would probably be my first choice but would only save 2 cms I think, whereas I'm loking for a 5 cm reduction in height if possible. Peter
 

spiritofmusic

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Jun 13, 2013
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A third option has been suggested by a well-known Avantgarde expert - Symposium Svelte Platform. Not feet, but a vibration absorbing pad that the speakers stand on. Anyone use these under their speakers? Thanks. Peter

https://www.symposiumusa.com/SveltePlus.html
Hear Here, I'm a massive fan of Symposium, running their Rollerblock Modules isolated shelves rack system w gear on Rollerblocks HDSEs.

I did run my Zus initially on Svelte Shelves, then adding HDSEs in place of the stock spikes. But I've subsequently dispensed w these for Arya Audio Revopods footers.

The Sveltes are a perfectly admirable solution for my Zus, and likely would have stayed had I not auditioned this superior alternative.
 

Hear Here

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Feb 14, 2020
735
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Portsmouth, UK
Thanks for that. So you now just use Revopods presumably fitted into the spike threads? I've heard good things of these pods but I believe they are about 5 cm high, but I'd appreciate confirmation of this. IsoAcoustic Gaia I and Titans are about 5 cm tall and would only reduce the AG's height by about 2 cms. The Talis Pro feet are only 2 cm high so more attractive if they sound good. Trouble is I've not yet found a UK dealer that knows the item well enough to recommend it!

Symposium Svelte Plus or Townshend Seismic Bars would also achievbe this sort of height reduction. Peter
 

spiritofmusic

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Jun 13, 2013
14,606
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E. England
HH, just measured the Revopods.
3.5cm high.
 
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audiobomber

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Oct 13, 2020
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Sudbury ON, Canada
A third option has been suggested by a well-known Avantgarde expert - Symposium Svelte Platform. Not feet, but a vibration absorbing pad that the speakers stand on. Anyone use these under their speakers? Thanks. Peter

https://www.symposiumusa.com/SveltePlus.html
I used the Symposium Svelte between standmount monitors and custom steel stands for years. The stands really caused a mess, even though they were made of heavy steel plate and sand-filled schedule 80 pipe, topped with granite. The Sveltes took the stands out of the sound.

In my current setup, I have the monitors on top of heavy wood/steel-frame/granite cabinets. I was using the Svelte shelves, but I was unhappy because the tweeters were above ear level, and the methods I tried to tilt them were not satisfying. At the 2019 Toronto Audio Fest. I heard a very convincing demo of IsoAcoustic products, and the IsoStands had a highly customizable tilt feature. I replaced the Svelte with ISO-200's, and was more than happy with the difference. The bass tightened up to an obvious degree. The tilt aimed the tweeters to ear level, but IMO equally important, the MTM drivers were now in the same plane. The resulting sound quality improvement was quite a shock. Having said all that, my monitors are 40 lbs each, your speakers are 200 lbs. I can't say for sure whether your result would be similar, although I strongly suspect so.

Physically, neither Svelte nor IsoAcoustic seem an obvious choice for you. Symposium recommends the Svelte Shelf to be placed directly under the speaker cabinet, providing maximal contact between the cabinet and support. The Duo cabinet rests in a frame, which would result in a smaller contact area. OTOH, Gaia pucks are too tall and don't allow for tilt. A dilemma for sure. I would probably go ahead with the Gaias and shim under the ones at the back of the speaker with something that won't compress for tilt.

I wish I could be more helpful to your situation, but maybe someone reading this post will find some value. I bought ISO-130 stands for my secondary system. I will not have another speaker system without IsoAcoustics support, they are amazing and the price is a bargain given the results.
 
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