Posted on Tue, 22 Aug, 2017
Posted by Bob

Iso Acoustics GAIA loudspeaker isolation feet promise to enhance the performance of your loudspeakers with enhanced imaging and isolation.

Are you seeking to enhance the performance of your beloved loudspeakers? What if we told you could make a noticeable improvement on even those ‘flagship’ loudspeakers for just a few hundred pounds? Surprised?

Enter – Iso Acoustics GAIA isolation feet, your secret weapon in the quest for tighter sound and greater imaging….

 

Iso Acoustics GAIA

 

Iso Acoustics

Iso Acoustics was founded by Dave Morrison, a designer with 20 years’ experience building radio and television studios at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. As part of the design team behind building the world’s largest multi-media center in Toronto, it’s fair to say Dave knows a thing or two about acoustics and studio design!

Iso Acoustics boasts a number of celebrity engineer endorsements for their studio orientated range of loudspeaker isolation systems, including Grammy award winning engineer, Frank Filipetti (Elton John, George Michael, Carly Simon etc.)

The Benefits of isolation

Fundamentally, a loudspeaker is a piston, with the speaker cone acting as the piston; the goal is to move the surrounding air molecules as efficiently as possible. Thanks to various physical effects, however, this is, in reality, only ever a theoretical ideal.

OK, here comes the science bit. Ready? OK, here we go! Newton’s third law states that “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”. In Practice, that means that as the speaker cone moves forward, the speaker cabinet is trying to move backward.

Resonance, the effect of other objects vibrating in sympathy to transferred vibrations, is another highly relatable side effect. I’m sure more than a few of us have experienced items ‘jumping’ off surrounding surfaces following late night, high volume listening sessions!

The practical downside and real world consequence of these phenomena are reduced loudspeaker efficiency, inaccurate sound reproduction and a potential ‘smearing’ of frequency bands thanks to unwanted colorations and phasing effects.

Proper isolation works by decoupling the loudspeakers from their supporting surface, which reduces the energy from the speaker drivers exciting other objects and causing resonance. It also allows the speaker and enclosure to float independently, ensuring maximum efficiency.

GAIA installed

Iso Acoustics GAIA

Iso Acoustics GAIA isolation feet, promise to reduce or as much as possible eliminate many of these unwanted aberrations and anomalies, which are common place problems, even with some of the very finest high-end loudspeakers.

Designed specifically with floor-standing loudspeakers in mind, Iso Acoustics GAIA isolators are machined units that incorporate IsoAcoustics’ patented design to provide a high degree of speaker isolation. Lateral movement and oscillations are resisted and internal reflections from the hard supporting surface are attenuated resulting in “greater sound clarity and openness“.

Three different sizes of GAIA isolation feet are available and are sold based upon the overall loudspeaker weight in mind. A range of adaptors is supplied enabling fitment to most any commercially available loudspeakers, including B&W’s fabulous Nautilus series speakers.

 

GAIA

 

Reaction to the Iso Acoustics GAIA isolation feet has been overwhelmingly positive. The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s control room recently outfitted its B&W Nautilus 802’s with a set of Iso Acoustics GAIA 1 feet, with impressive results.

Studio design consultants, WSDG, noted that the addition of the Iso Acoustics GAIA1 feet to the BSO’s Nautilus 802’s resulted in “improved clarity, imaging and time domain improvements“.

With glowing professional endorsements like that, don’t you owe it to yourself and your loudspeakers to give the Iso Acoustics GAIA isolation pucks a try?

3 thoughts on “Iso Acoustics GAIA: Isolation for your hi-fi loudspeakers”

  1. Pall Silvan Ennigard says:

    Can you share the price ?

    1. Audio Affair says:

      Absolutely Pall, we tend not to mention price in blogs as sometimes pricing can change and go up over time so we include links to our website instead where prices will be “current”. These currently start from £199 for the small size – see http://www.audioaffair.co.uk/isoacoustics-gaia-isolation-pucks-set-of-4

  2. Pall Silvan Ennigard says:

    Thanks

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