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New EBLT's from Rega

No, you don't get it. The Mana Clamp is not remotely like changing feet or a cable. It's much bigger and wonderful sounding. And I have absolutely no idea how it does it!

By the way Lambo, do you use your Clamp on glass or board? I got a board with mine, to use until I got a bit of glass, but when I did I found I prefer the board by a large margin. Normally using a board kills the sound but with the Clamp it sounds great.

As I see it all the Mana Clamp is doing is allowing the piece of equipment to rest on spikes. The hard Rega feet would achieve the same (imho) but with out adjustment. Having made my own home brew Mana type sound base using angle/spikes/glass under a SET integrated, the glass killed the sound. Swapped it for a board and the music came back.
 
As I see it all the Mana Clamp is doing is allowing the piece of equipment to rest on spikes. The hard Rega feet would achieve the same...

Trust me, it's not that simple. I have no idea how the Mana Clamp does what it does but it's a lot more than just provide hard feet.

In the past, I have always found Mana to only sound right with the kit on glass. If it sounds better without the glass something is wrong and needs fixed. I set up the Clamp super carefully on glass but it didn't have the magic I'm getting on the board.
 
Trust me, it's not that simple. I have no idea how the Mana Clamp does what it does but it's a lot more than just provide hard feet.

But it is, angle-iron/spikes/glass/board couldn't be simpler (I'm not knocking it btw). Spikes all the way for me although I'm more of an oak cone man now.
 
Hi Colin
Yes I had board until the glass arrived
In my system and my room I prefer the glass :)
However it won’t take a minute to try it the other way round
Having said that mine is on the mk2 soundframe on o ref top whether that makes a difference (??)
 
Having said that mine is on the mk2 soundframe on o ref top whether that makes a difference (??)

I don't know. My DAC is on a four-tier Rack on four Sound Stages. on top of that are two Sound Frames, a Reference Top and now the Clamp so the Saturn-R is on nine?

I bought four bits of Mana early last year including two Sound Frames intending to sell what I didn't need. I put an extra Frame under the Saturn just to try it, not expecting it to do anything as the CD player is just acting as a transport. Surprisingly, it was better so it ended up staying.

But the Clamp was Wow! Not like adding another Frame or Stage, much bigger and not the same effect. Mystified.
 
Seem ages since "buy more Mana" was the common subject.

Well, you can't really buy it any more so it's not really a thing. I don't really want my piles to get any higher, I thought I was done. Just tried the clamp because what the heck.
 
Sounds good news - pity is I bought 2 spare belts when Audio-T Preston closed just over a year ago & I have not needed to use either.
 
Back to belts, presumably I don't have fancy reference belts on my Planar 8, but can anyone enlighten me what better belts would bring (in terms of musical enjoyment), assuming the existing belts are in good shape and not slipping etc.?
 
Can anyone enlighten me what better belts would bring (in terms of musical enjoyment).

Think about it like a piston rod on a steam train. Its job is to 'push and pull' the platter round. So you want it to be as stiff as possible but it also has to be flexible to go round the pulleys. At one extreme it could be so stiff it barely bends and at the other so soft it doesn't transmit the power accurately.

Rega will have been looking for the Goldilocks formulation that results in the most accurate platter speed. I also understand they have put a lot of effort into making the cross-section of the belt round! Might sound obvious but any imperfections will translate into speed errors.

You can hear it. I bought an aftermarket belt for the Planar3 in the shed and it sounded worse than the old belt the deck arrived with. Think of the effect of a turntable motor PSU, makes the motor run more accurately. The belt is the part that's actually transferring the power.
 


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