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RINGMAT FEET
Audio
Smorgasbord
“Ringmat
recently supplied me with some cork domes to try in conjunction with
their feet that I’ve been using for a while.
It was an instructive experience. ...
Using
the track ‘Back Street Slide’ from Richard and Linda
Thompson’s superb Shoot Out
The Lights LP I started off by using just the feet under Tom
Evan’s Groove phono stage.
The most obvious effect was in the bass, where the kick drum
had much more slam and impact.
The overall separation of the instruments was improved with
better timing leading to a greater understanding of the interplay
between the musicians. ...
Adding
the domes first to the Groove and then to the Argo [HR Pre-amp] was
a big leap forward, or rather it was when I realised that the
foot/dome combination should always be used in sets of three under
electronic components, and not four.
Now there was a greatly increased sense of a band of real
people playing together and off each other.
Thompson’s voice had much more body, and more importantly
was much more expressive.
Those micro dynamics where a singer very slightly stresses a
particular word were much clearer.
Finally
I tried the feet with and without the domes under the Pulsar DAC.
Oddly here the feet alone were much more satisfactory than
the foot/dome combination.
With the feet used on their own, the results were very
similar to the feet used with the domes under the Groove and the
Argo.
For example, playing another Richard Thompson track
‘Uninhabited Man’ from the CD Mock
Tudor showed a staggering amount of extra bass depth, the kind
of extra depth that adds hugely to the overall recorded ambience.
The whole soundstage was bigger and had more acoustic.
When you manage to achieve this sort of effect in your
system, you suddenly find yourself able to hear more easily into the
recording, separating the musical strands and giving greater insight
into the interaction of the musicians. ...”
Dave
Ayers, Hi-Fi+, Nov/Dec 2001
From
the earth to the sky
Can
a new tweak and a pair of new feet bring you nearer to musical
nirvana?
The
first part of the article is about the benefit of earthing
loudspeakers. The next
part, which now follows, is about the new feet.
New feet
The
next tweak, unfortunately, is not quite free.
It is about putting new feet under your equipment.
In the first instance you should probably start with your CD
player, but both your record player and your amplifiers will benefit
from it.
What
kind of feet are they? Well,
this is about feet from the Ringmat firm.
Ringmat Feet do not seem very convincing the first time you
see them, just as with the Statmat.
What you get is a small box, with four small plastic Feet, a
leaflet with instructions, and a small piece of film made of the
Statmat material.
The
instructions are thorough, as you are told to place the Foot, with
coloured dot, underneath the front right foot of the component.
The piece of film is to be placed under the back right foot.
According to the leaflet, this is to discharge electrostatic
fields into the surrounding air, and, whether it is true or not, you
can hear if it is missing. To
be less abstract, I can hear it when my wife is using the hairdryer,
as my power amp starts humming.
This is greatly reduced when the feet and film are in place.
Why does the
bumblebee fly?
The
purpose of the Feet is to reduce the small vibrations and
electrostatic discharges that come from all electrical appliances.
Through the year I have tried quite a lot of products
designed for this purpose, from rubber and sorbothane feet through
to metal spikes, but I have never heard feet with such a positive
effect as these. The
fact of the matter is that Ringmat Feet, in a strange way, enable
your equipment to work in such a way that both micro details and
dynamics are more convincing. How
these Feet work I can’t tell you, just as I have never been able
to get a convincing explanation about the workings of the Statmat.
But what of it! According
to science, the bumblebee can’t fly, but it doesn’t care and
flies anyway!
More air
A
good example of the working of the Feet is the sound of a string
ensemble, where I can now hear the air around the single violin
player, and not just a massive string sound.
It gets much easier to follow the breathing of a singer, for
example, on the latest Nick Cave CD, “The Boatman Calls”, which,
by the way, is a brilliant recording, where it is now possible in
many sections of the music to hear his lips moving.
Another CD, which is very much recommended, is Diane
Krall’s “Love Scenes” where, on the track “My Love Is”,
she sings accompanied only by the bass player.
All the way through the number she clicks her fingers, and
only with the Ringmat Feet in place have I been able to hear how she
moves her fingers in relation to the mike.
Also, the bass on this track is much better defined, as it is
now possible to hear not just the body of the bass, but also the
single strings and the wood behind them.
It is also much easier to hear the recorded acoustics on most
recordings, as much of the information of the recorded space has
become so much better defined, with a much bigger soundstage in
height, depth and width. On
an older recording, like Roger Waters’ “Amused to Death”, you
get a much more three dimensional impression of the sound effects in
the strange Q-sound production.
On a recording of the Classic Trio, the sound of the cello is
much better defined and the attack of the piano keys much more
precise. At the same
time the whole soundstage seems quieter.
Much more important than all these details is that the music,
all the way through, sounds warmer and more like reality, as if you
have taken an electronic veil away from your system.
On the best recordings you are now able to close your eyes
and feel that the performers are in your room, and that is, after
all, what our quest for the perfect sound is all about.
All
in all, here are two tweaks that will give you just as much
improvement as buying expensive new equipment.
P.S.
Statmat is now in a new MkII CDi version, which is at least
as good as the first one, but easier to use as the diameter is
smaller and, therefore, easier to use without getting it wrinkled.
Bjarne
B. Jensen, High Fidelity 4/2000, Denmark and Sweden
Opinion
Are
those my feet?
"At best, Ringmat Feet produce an improvement comparable to
the Townshend Loudspeaker Seismic Sinks I raved about last month.
Taking a set of Feet to a friend's house and using them under his
DNM pre-amp, the effect on the music was magical. Sonically, things
became subtler and more varied in tone and texture - more real and
believable, less obviously 'hi-fi'. Fine detail was enhanced, but
not 'in your face'. The effect was of a subtler, sweeter
presentation that was friendlier to the ear.
Ringmat Feet aren't inexpensive, but cost is a relative thing; if
they perform to their full potential, it'll be money well
spent."
Jimmy
Hughes, Hi-Fi Choice, April 2000
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