I’ve met
a lot of audiophiles who doesn’t believe in tweaks, power cords, interconnects
or speaker cables. And they don’t understand why anyone do so, especially if
any of these items costs thousands of dollars. What surprises me is that some
of these audiophiles owns very expensive gears! Is it because they never tried the
tweaks? Or refused to do so? Or could it be poor system synergy making their
system sounding worse? I won’t speculate the reasons.
I always
believe in having an open mind. This is because I want to improve the sound of my hifi system which lets my enjoyment during listening sessions. So auditioning gears or tweaks in my system is a thing I like to do. This let me hear if the hype is true
or is it just merely hype. If it works in my system, then I will decide whether
it is worth the amount of money I must fork out. And the thing about tweaks, especially
good ones, is that it will remain longer in your system whereas hardware in the
system will probably get upgraded at a quicker rate.
The thing
with tweaks like Stillpoints which I have auditioned for some time now, is
because there is a strong scientific reason behind it. Furthermore, it works
extremely well in my system. I am not saying this because I am biased. Every
time I add a set of Stillpoints Ultra SS under my BMC CD1.1 cd player, then Audio
Research Reference 5SE preamplifier and later the Wilson Sophia 3 speakers, I
heard a drop in noise floor. This help to improve depth perception of the
music. Imaging also became more stable.
And since
I have another set of 4 Ultra SS lying around, I thought I hook it up on to the
Stillpoints Component Stand (SCS) which was sitting on the Delrin support. The SCS
is placed under the BMC. I was not expecting anything great to happen. This is
because the noise floor of my system is already very low. And in this aspect,
it did not.
But what did happen was the improvement in image palpability. Before
adding the Ultra SS, the imaging was already good, being very 3D. This seems effortless
now, letting me follow the music much more easily. This seem to happen to all the music I listen to, during the audition. The palpability not only affects the vocalist but also the accompanying instrumentalist in the track. Decay of the instruments now seems very natural. Bass also become more pronounced
but not overpowering. I also find that I can play my music at a slightly lower
volume than what I used to. In fact, it seems that the music is being played in my listening room. Wow!
I kept thinking how much I have to pay to change my hardware to get this level of sound that I am now getting. Certainly not what the Ultra SS costs.
In my
system, I have yet to hear any negative thing about Stillpoints gear that I
have inserted into my system. It does not enhance any frequency. In fact, I
find that they are quite even, letting all frequencies to flourish.
