Mana Acoustics

[Barrymagrec]

The great thing about this type of thread is that it gives me the opportunity to update my ignore list.

I don`t have an ignore list, I just ignore people randomly.

 

[Spike]

Who said that?

 

[Alex S]

My CD player is on 8, I tried it on 14 but it wasn't very noticeable.

Too far away?

 

[Woodface]

This has amused me greatly, I thought the whole Mana thing was the worst kind of cult 20 years ago & this still holds true.

Makes other adherents seem like rank amateurs.

 

[david ellwood]

So is new mana doomed because of the use of toughened rather than float glass?

 

[lambo]

You can still get float glass

 

[jimification]

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.

This makes sense but if that's the case, why is the "mana effect" stronger with more "stages" of mana? One would assume that if there is an efficient "mechanical path to ground for unwanted equipment vibrations" then one layer would do it? I guess the idea is that more layers absorb more vibration internally but wouldn't you reach diminishing returns very quickly that way? It seems more likely to me that there is some kind of pleasant musical resonance going on in each stage which accumulates with more stages maybe?

To identify this, my questions to those with mana would be: 1) Is the effect more pronounced at louder volumes? Is the effect audible when using headphones, or when the the source (and mana) is in a different room from the speakers?

 

[Mr Pig]

It seems more likely to me that there is some kind of pleasant musical resonance going on in each stage which accumulates with more stages maybe?... Is the effect more pronounced at louder volumes?...

I agree with you, I think you're on the right lines, but I think it's probably more complicated and there is more than one thing happening. The effect under speakers and electronics is not subjectively the same for instance and too much under speakers is not to my taste.

I guess everything is more pronounced at higher volume but yes, you can still hear it at lower volume. Not just Mana but any support. It was the Audiotech table that got me started. That was the first stand I had that made a clear and worthwhile difference to my LP12 and I remember how it sounded better even at very low volume. While the deck was away getting serviced I plonked my CD player on it, as it was sitting there empty, and that was the real eye opener. It sounded better too, even at low volume. My initial plan was to get another Audiotech table for the CD player but then Mana appeared on my radar and that was that.

I can give you a example of how it's not isolation. If I play Gorillaz 'Feel Good Inc' at high volume the CD player will skip! You can feel the vibrations in the CD player with your hand. Turn the volume down, plays perfectly. Only track that does it. It's a neat party trick but clearly, the support is not isolating the player from vibration. Which you would think would be detrimental? And it often is. So...what the heck?? I genuinely don't think anyone knows.

Under a turntable, the effect of more levels does not diminish. You would expect it to but it doesn't. It does under electronics. I've only had three levels under my speaker but I'm down to one now. Not used headphones since I was in my teens.