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Mana Acoustics

I have no regrets regarding Mana under my deck but never heard the effect under solid state.
Quite by accident I now have 3 maglev feet arranged roughly beneath the toroidal in my Sugden A21SE amp - it wobbles more than my Linn platter if I touch it - and they really do work, I think.
 
Is that Claire's? I must say JW (I heard the Anglesey variant) and Pog had great sounding systems, totally dedicated to what Mana does.
 
The Mana Effect might have been a lucky discovery by John Watson, but how it works is not magic. It is certainly not an isolation system. Quite the opposite, in fact. Properly tuned Mana couples whatever it supports to the ground, which provides a mechanical drain for parasitic vibrations from motors, transformers and suchlike. This is the reason the LP12 corner bolt mod works, and why LP12s sound better on Mana.

But, and this is the major but, if the stand is not perfectly leveled with equal contact on all four corner spikes and glass shelf is not correctly tuned, the path to ground is massively compromised with the attendant deleterious effects everyone thinks of about glass and metal. YMMV, of course.
 
Alex S said:
Is that Claire's? I must say JW and Pog had great sounding systems, totally dedicated to what Mana does.
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That's Herman's system I think?

John Watson's system made such a mockery of the notion that Mana doesn't make any difference. With the exception of his cartridge and power amps, I was familiar with all the parts of his system. Most of those components I'd heard many times in various systems. But in his system, these same components were doing something the likes of which you'd never heard before. They were redefining what you thought they could do. If it wasn't the Mana doing it I'd love to know what was?
 
GRC said:
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I guess if this is what your audio system looks like that's the closest you're going to get to a girlfriend...
 
GRC said:
Oh I'm loving this blast from the past.
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This was JW's setup at one time.

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This was one of his more enthusiastic supporters.

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This was my old (and slightly more modest) setup with Naim CDX/XPS/NAC52/NAP135 and Dynaudio Contour 1.8 MkII.

And you were no-one if you didn't have the accompanying CD:-
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Certainly a "left of centre" CD but I remember liking it in the Mana room at a Heathrow show many many years ago. May have to dig it out this evening and see how it sounds on a completely different system.

I actually loved what Mana did with the Naim Olive boxes but I've moved on (too many boxes, cables & stuff plus Mana is a complete dust magnet) but Devialet on Ikea certainly doesn't sound the same. Sold it all to a guy in China who paid a fortune for UPS to bring it over. Whatever . . .
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I wouldn't like to pick a fight with the guy who lifted those Isobariks onto the stands in the first picture!!!
 
Mr Pig said:
If it wasn't the Mana doing it I'd love to know what was?
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The room?

I've had Mana and lots of olive Naim on it.
There was no doubt to my ears that my LP12/ARO/GEDDON sounded better on a Reference Table than elsewhere, including a 5-tier Mana rack (I was desperate for it to sound good on that so as to get everything onto one oil-rig).
However, while pretty obvious to hear, the effect was very subtle. Subtle enough to convince me that burying myself under the stuff was not worthwhile given what else I could spend the wedge on.
It went a couple of years back when all I had to support was a RPi. I wonder if that sounds better on a Reference Table...?
 
SteveH said:
It went a couple of years back when all I had to support was a RPi. I wonder if that sounds better on a Reference Table...?
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Rega say that their turntables aren't very fussy about what they sit on but my experience is that all turntables are.

You describe the effect of the table under your LP12 as subtle. I can go along with that but only because almost all of the upgrades we make are, if you're really being objective about it. The small sonic difference between two Naim power amps that are a grand apart in price. The differences between the turntables in Rega's model range or the differences between phono cartridges. A lot of these differences are small and most rational people would feel not worth the cost. But we buy them.

I realized that yes, an extra Sound Stage made a small difference but the effect was consistent and good value relative to similar levels of difference delivered by changes to the hardware. Does a Rega P1 on a Reference Table beat an RP10 on a coffee table? No. But put it on a big pile of Mana and... sounds damn good.
 
FWIW despite liking Mana under an LP12 I hated it under the P9, it just robbed any warmth and weight from the deck. It actually sounded better just sitting on the floor! That was the point I sold-up and moved on. Over 20 years ago now, which is somewhat frightening!
 
Tony L said:
FWIW despite liking Mana under an LP12 I hated it under the P9..
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Sounds about right. I really struggled with the RP10 on Mana for the same reason. Tried it on a coffee table, a board instead of glass, even bought a Mana Wall Shelf in case that would work. The big pile of Mana did something I didn't want to lose though so eventually I found a better balance with different spikes and warmer cartridges etc. I would say it's still not 100% right but I know I'm going to get it, just need the right cart. Even as it stands though it's better that anything I got out of an LP12 on the same Mana.
 
SteveH said:
RPi = Raspberry Pi not Rega Planar.
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Ah! Thought it was a typo ;0)

My experience with solid state stuff is that it hits a ceiling where more levels don't make any difference. Or rather the difference is negligible. My CD player is on 8, I tried it on 14 but it wasn't very noticeable. It depends on the device as well. My Rega CD player responds more than the Naim ones did.
 
Mr Pig said:
I found a better balance with different spikes and warmer cartridges etc
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OMG! Doesn’t sound right on Mana so I’ll change the spikes and cartridge to compensate. I’m so pleased I’m out of the Mana Mentality: “It’s wrong, I know it’s wrong but I’ll change something else!“
 
Dozey said:
Experience tells me your hunch is not right. However experience also tells me that there are people out there who refuse to even try something before dismissing it.
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Experience tells me its balls. I've had all sorts of supports over the years (CDs and amps rather than turntables admittedly). Only once tried in an A/B comparison due to the logistics of such activities. No noticeable difference to the sound from any of them.

Experience also tells me that there are people out there who will believe anything makes a difference when trying to justify just having spent a lot of money chasing a fad.
 
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