Herbie's amazing Cone/Spike Decoupling Gliders

solentgreen · « **on:** 3 Jul 2009, 09:44 am »

Hi,

I'm a Newbie here, and a happy owner of VR4jr speakers. I am enjoying the journey of gradually discovering tuning & set-ups ideas to extract even more performance from my speakers.

IMHO, if there is one area where the VR4jr's performance is less than wonderful, its the bass. My power amp is a Krell FPB300c so the amplifier is unlikely to be the problem. My listening room is also a good size, being of dimensions (20 x 25 x 9) ft. ith hard wooden floors. I have tried varying speaker locations etc. The bass did improve a great deal after loading with 20 pounds of metallised sand granules, but it can still get a bit boomy on certain music. I should clarify that I don?t think the VR4jr's bass performance is poor, but an audiophile friend uses PMC IB2i speakers, & to be frank, the VR4jr's bass is not in that class; not that it is expected given the IB2is are twice the price of VR4jrs. Its just that I feel the VR4jrs are so good that its on a par with the IB2i's performance in other areas.

To try to improve, I just got a set of Herbie's Cone/Spike Decoupling Gliders to replace the standard VR conical metal discs that came with my speakers - my speakers came with the later conical spikes. Well, the Herbies's Cone/Spike Decoupling Gliders improved the bass alright, but much more than that, it brought an amazing improvement in all-round detail & sound-staging. The improvements are not subtle, but is unmistakable and clear on first listening; similar to improvements you get from a significant component upgrade. At a very reasonable price of $12.50 each, I feel it?s a no-brainer for any VR4jr owners who are still only using the standard spikes & discs.

Delacroix · « **Reply #1 on:** 3 Jul 2009, 04:41 pm »

I have a sampling of Herbies Audio Labs products in now for review in A$$Audio, including the giant gliders for my VR5s -- stay tuned --

kgturner · « **Reply #2 on:** 3 Jul 2009, 05:51 pm »

you're reviewing for ass audio?

mikel51 · « **Reply #3 on:** 3 Jul 2009, 07:21 pm »

I have been using furniture moving pads under my vr4jr since I purchased because I wanted the ability to move them to both improve set up and to be able to move them closer to the wall when needed for guests and WAF. These pads do look something like the Herbie's gliders. They have foam in contact with the speakers and hard plastic gliders for that function on the carpet. I did try to put some caster on the speakers, but I found the plinths were not strong enough for the stress placed on the spike threads (MDF). Hence I never thought of using both the spikes and the furniture moving because I was not sure the threads holding the spikes into the plinths would take the strain of moving the speakers around.

I will be interested in the review with VR5 Annies, as I am expecting a pair to arrive next week

Delacroix · « **Reply #4 on:** 3 Jul 2009, 11:14 pm »

Quote from: kgturner on 3 Jul 2009, 05:51 pm

you're reviewing for ass audio?

Well, perhaps the $ is an S or I am an ass but the A$$Audio reference is to Affordable Audio -- we just throw in two $ for shorthand - check the circle here -- its a free, online magazine run by volunteers for fun and information, not for profit.

panomaniac · « **Reply #5 on:** 4 Jul 2009, 02:10 am »

Quote from: mikel51 on 3 Jul 2009, 07:21 pm

I have been using furniture moving pads under my vr4jr ...

Interesting.... My wife (who has worked in many a furniture store) loves those gliders. Never thought of using them with speakers.

solentgreen · « **Reply #6 on:** 4 Jul 2009, 04:52 pm »

The Herbie's Cone/Spike Decoupling Gliders looks to be constructed of a brass disc with an indent on top to interface with speaker spikes, a hard teflon coated base, and their damping material in between. I think what makes them so good is that their design, being able to work with normal speaker spikes, provides the best of both worlds of retaining a point support while also providing the benefits of proper decoupling. Certainly, in my system with my VR4jrs on hard wooden floors, they brought a major improvement. I also suspect that they will work much better than furniture gliders, with which spikes cannot be retained, and which does not have the damping materials in-built.