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Addis pads - probably the greatest single upgrade ever…in the world!

You know, I've already thought about other uses like putting some beneath my living room fan to see if it improves delivery of breeze and whatnot ;)
 
Chris said:
Windhoek,
I´m sure you´ve already thought of it but I won´t get hold of any more Addis pads ´til end of the month. How about an Addis cartridge isolator wotsit ? My A&RP77 Mg will deffo be getting one in May and my Ittok to plinth interface(2 Addis washers under one bolt and 1 each under the other 2 because it was born with lousy azymuth and as it´s an LVIII not even Johnnie could sort it - I ended up making a single washer out of a credit card - platinum, of course). I´m beginning to wonder if 300 pads from a single sink protector will be enough.
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I just fashioned a cart pad from an Addis piece and stuck it between my VM95ML and the Technics headshell on my 1210GR and I think the deck sounds even better again. I'm only a few tracks into Come Away With Me by Norah Jones and it's like she's right in front of me... or is it me who's right in front of her? Either way, she sounds as real and present as I've ever heard her!

EDIT: I just realised I can put some bumper stuff between cart and Addis piece by using the flat, thin section of PVC that sits between bumpers. When you remove the bumpers it looks like a wine rack with lots of holes. Anyway, I'll peel some off and stick it to the pad then mount it again. Should be perfect!
 
Went to B&M yesterday and after trekking around managed to locate these. My Quadraspire QX stands in my lounge system came with rigid transparent bumpers pointing up which the speakers rest upon, so I just slipped in the discs in-between. Well, the change is definitely audible in this set-up. So much so, that I had to revert the speaker cables back to standard polarity (I had inverted the polarity as it just sounded better with most music) - vocals took too many steps back towards the facing wall for my liking as I like "projected" vocals out in the room towards me. There is a sense of slightly better localisation of instruments in the soundfield (already very good) especially with percussive instruments and better bass definition. So far so good. I also tried them without bump stops beneath my Aavik amp's normal feet and between the ball bearing type mounts that I added beneath the standard feet (not to dissimilar to the mounts that Aavik recommend, but much cheaper). The effects were much more muted but what I heard I didn't think was beneficial. The timing appeared slightly off and the overall sound was "less incisive". I think I will remove them or wait until I get a chance to get the hard B&Q Diall bumpers that you mentioned upstream. I should note that my Aavik amp appears to be very, very sensitive to mounting - much more so than any non-valve amp I have ever had.
 
I think all this goes to show that if it’s merely expectation bias or some other psychological effect, it’s an extremely cheap and benign one compared to the usual boxes of dirt or whatever. Actually, there’s a degree of logic to these, absent in many expensive tweaks.
 
Rana said:
Went to B&M yesterday and after trekking around managed to locate these. My Quadraspire QX stands in my lounge system came with rigid transparent bumpers pointing up which the speakers rest upon, so I just slipped in the discs in-between. Well, the change is definitely audible in this set-up. So much so, that I had to revert the speaker cables back to standard polarity (I had inverted the polarity as it just sounded better with most music) - vocals took too many steps back towards the facing wall for my liking as I like "projected" vocals out in the room towards me. There is a sense of slightly better localisation of instruments in the soundfield (already very good) especially with percussive instruments and better bass definition. So far so good. I also tried them without bump stops beneath my Aavik amp's normal feet and between the ball bearing type mounts that I added beneath the standard feet (not to dissimilar to the mounts that Aavik recommend, but much cheaper). The effects were much more muted but what I heard I didn't think was beneficial. The timing appeared slightly off and the overall sound was "less incisive". I think I will remove them or wait until I get a chance to get the hard B&Q Diall bumpers that you mentioned upstream. I should note that my Aavik amp appears to be very, very sensitive to mounting - much more so than any non-valve amp I have ever had.
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Great news although once you get the Diall bumpers that's when everything will fall into place as they do something magical together that neither one can do alone.
 
Incidentally, I emailed Addis last week to ask what material or substance these pads are made with but they replied only to say that the product is manufactured exclusively for B&M. Fair dos. So I emailed B&M to ask them instead and they replied a couple of days later and said the mats are made from... wait for it... PVC. That's right, PVC, the same material that's used to make those Diall bumpers, albeit the two have different properties with regard to resistance to compression. In some ways, I think it's about speed of compression: the firm pads compress slowly while the semi-firm bumpers compress more quickly. I don't know but that sort of makes sense to me.

I'm sure that as a combo there's something else going on: it's not simply like having firm springs with semi-firm springs on top. Together, they must do something inherently good with vibration. Perhaps they convert energy into heat. I don't know. But there you go, firm PVC + semi-firm PVC = sonic alchemy!
 
Mr Pig said:
I thought she was already right in front of you thanks to the previous rubber sundry installation? Is she now on your lap? Or behind you in the kitchen making tea? ;0)
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I think he should try condoms next...still in their packets obviously . Strategically placed they should have a climactic effect on Norah.
 
Joe said:
I think he should try condoms next...still in their packets obviously . Strategically placed they should have a climactic effect on Norah.
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Steady on, Joe... there's only one woman in this world for me and her name ain't Norah ;)
 
I find the adhesive that comes already on the bumpers is not all that dependable when trying to centre heavy things on top. Has anyone tried using extra glue and if so, which one ?
 
I haven't encountered any issues myself with the adhesive on the back of the bumpers. In saying that, I lined up my speakers and affixed the bumpers to the pads so I just had to tilt them back and slide the pads under them. If you need to make fine adjustments after installing pads+bumpers then I can see that being tricky as they're both tacky materials and will inevitably be inclined to be pulled around by whatever object is being slid around above them, especially really heavy objects like massive floorstanders.

I can't see any harm in using superglue between pads and bumpers so got to be worth a shot.
 
Got my pads from B&M, also got bargain PG Tips and some treats for the dog. I note the first post wasn’t on April Fools Day which is a good start! Bumpers out of stock in Crawley but I’m driving to Essex in the next day or two and the Colchester store has stock - lol!

I want to try them between granite chopping boards and my ATC SCM40A’s. I’ve been tempted by Gaia 2’s but at £4 this option is a tad cheaper and I will have 292 spares!
 
When I was in B&Q yesterday picking up more bumpers and hex bolts I noticed that the bumpers are in fact made from EVA, and not PVC as stated on the B&Q website. Dunno if it matters in terms of the end result, but it's worth noting all the same.
 
Joe said:
I think he should try condoms next...still in their packets obviously . Strategically placed they should have a climactic effect on Norah.
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Nah. Condoms will degrade the sound i.e. basically preventing it from coming through :D
 
ADDIS ALERT!

Since I happened to be passing, haha, I snagged the last set (clear this time) at my local B&M. They had plenty of a new sink mat that will not work nearly as well for our purposes. I think it's a conspiracy but haven't yet worked out what.
 
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