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Auva Footers

stvnharr

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Apr 1, 2022
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Recently I installed Auva 50 footers under my speakers. Auva's are products from Stack Audio in UK and only sold dealer direct online. I installed these after a personal recommendation from an audio friend whose recommendations are always spot on. The Stack audio website is full of information on what the products supposedly do, along with numerous reviews and customer comments. Reviews and comments are always on the positive side, otherwise they would not be on the site. The product information is extensive. But then it is about selling a product. They do come with a 30-day money back, so it is a safe purchase.
Once installed I did a slight speaker positioning adjustment, and I started listening.
It did not take too long a time to tell that something was vastly different in the music. And the vast difference is that the Auva's seemed to remove the electronic signature of the audio system. The music came alive and brought a "You are there" sound and feel to the music. This was across the board with every disc that I have played, no exceptions. I might add that this is especially so with acoustic instruments and all human voices. Of course, the musicians are not there in the room with you quite obviously. But if you close your eyes to remove visual stimuli, the music does sound like the real natural sound of musical instruments and human voices, with nothing really added. I listen to classical and jazz, with some folk music at times. I tend to not listen to electronic popular music very much at all.

In reading the recent ISO Acoustics thread there were 2 posts about the Auva's, posts #48 & 50. The poster in #50 was quite positive about them.
I do admit to being skeptical about these at first. Highly praised tweaky things that I have tried in the long ago past, just did nothing for me like they supposedly did for others. But my audio friend's personal recommendation did sway me to make the purchase, and that is really the only reason I bought these. I'm glad I did!

The Auva's are the real deal! They are highly recommended. I have found them to be the biggest sound improvement that I have ever made in all my many years of audio listening.

My speakers are in the pic below. They are DIY, designed in 2003 by the late Rick Craig of Selah Audio, and remade in 2018. They are simple DIY speakers nothing too fancy. They are a 2 1/2-way design with Seas W18E and Hiquphon OW,1. They are reasonably similar to Troel's CNO25, though my design predate Troel's by a long time. The speakers are driven by a Starkrimson Ultra amplifier. All music is sacd, DSD128 files, DSD256 files, or DSD256 converted from pcm by my Marantz SA KI-Ruby player.
 

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You're doing the community, but more importantly yourself a disservice by foregoing some easy, controlled tests to make sure that what you're hearing is not just in your head.

Any microphone, even just your phone can be used in conjunction with free software like Deltawave to objectively confirm (or deny) that these feet are doing what they claim.

Here's a great example of such a test:

Never, ever trust sighted, uncontrolled listening impressions. Especially with these sorts of audio tweaks!
 
Wow, some interesting and excited, if somewhat uninformed, responses.
In answer to.....
These footers are not $5 silicone pad thingies.
I live in Australia and why would anyone think I have some connection to Stack Audio in the UK.
I actually have no way to make any measurements of any kind. This is why I did not do them. I know that many here only trust a graph, and not what they can hear. It's just that I am unable to do that.
I actually meant to write a disclaimer at the end of my post that I understand what I am writing is worthless anecdotal listening experiences, and nothing really factual. But for some reason I forgot to do that. So, thanks for reminding me that I should have done that.
Sorry.

I am not trying to offend anyone's sensibilities here.
I was actually quite amazed that these footers actually did something. I did not really expect that to happen. I just wanted to share that experience.
Yes, I do enjoy listening to music much more now. It is what I like to do.
 
Wow, some interesting and excited, if somewhat uninformed, responses.
In answer to.....
These footers are not $5 silicone pad thingies.
I live in Australia and why would anyone think I have some connection to Stack Audio in the UK.
I actually have no way to make any measurements of any kind. This is why I did not do them. I know that many here only trust a graph, and not what they can hear. It's just that I am unable to do that.
I actually meant to write a disclaimer at the end of my post that I understand what I am writing is worthless anecdotal listening experiences, and nothing really factual. But for some reason I forgot to do that. So, thanks for reminding me that I should have done that.
Sorry.

I am not trying to offend anyone's sensibilities here.
I was actually quite amazed that these footers actually did something. I did not really expect that to happen. I just wanted to share that experience.
Yes, I do enjoy listening to music much more now. It is what I like to do.
Show us some sort of actual evidence would be a good start. Australia does seem deprived of a lot of good audio value, but this just is a waste of money IMO. Good luck!
 
I actually have no way to make any measurements of any kind. This is why I did not do them.
Again, a phone and computer is really all that you need. No fancy measurement equipment required.

I know that many here only trust a graph
Not really. A good confidence interval from a controlled listening test can be as, if not more valuable than a graph.

What does not hold value are sighted listening impressions.

It's just that I am unable to do that.
You have the resources already. Whether you're willing to use them, is up to you.
 
I actually have no way to make any measurements of any kind. This is why I did not do them.
You don't have a smartphone or $100 to buy a USB mic? These feet cost like $50 each.

I know that many here only trust a graph, and not what they can hear. It's just that I am unable to do that.
Not only does a wise listener not (entirely) trust what they themselves hear, they never trust what someone else says they hear without something to back it up.

Nothing personal, but "placebo effect" exists and as far as I know affects everyone with normal cognition and hearing to some extent. You, me, and every other commenter on this world wide web of ours.

So of course you heard a difference, but what we now have to establish is why. The most common cause of unlikely heard differences happens in the brain. Until we rule that out, there is not much meat on the bone of a discussion like this.

I am not trying to offend anyone's sensibilities here.
I was actually quite amazed that these footers actually did something. I did not really expect that to happen. I just wanted to share that experience.
Likewise. And it's plausible but (not widely considered) likely that isolator feet would improve sound. There just isn't very much vibration that comes out of good speakers that feet would typically affect either way. That is not to say there's zero, nor is that to say there's no way it could propagate into the room... but the times it's been tested objectively, the results have been very minimal.
 
These footers are not $5 silicone pad thingies.
A higher price makes the product more attractive to "audiophiles". ;)

I know that many here only trust a graph, and not what they can hear. It's just that I am unable to do that.
Most of us trust also scientific, blind ABX tests.

This is something Amir (who runs this forum) once posted:
Let me repeat: the chain that sounded worse was with Innuos! Why did I hear a difference? The measurements indicate that none should be audible. Well, the brain is not influenced by just sound. When I changed the setup to just D70s, my mind became a detective, focusing and analyzing the track I was listening to. Not surprisingly, it started to hear detail, openness, air, etc. that it missed the first time. In other words, the comparison is invalid because the state of the brain is changing due to test being sighted.

Sometimes (blind) listening tests are better than measurements because we can measure lots of things that we can't hear. For example, I don't know how much distortion it takes before I can hear it (and it depends on the nature of the sound and the nature of the distortion). And some acoustic-related things related to human perception (like "soundstage") can't be measured.
 
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I actually meant to write a disclaimer at the end of my post that I understand what I am writing is worthless anecdotal listening experiences, and nothing really factual. But for some reason I forgot to do that. So, thanks for reminding me that I should have done that.

If you needed to write a disclaimer like that ^^^^ at the end of your post, do you really believe that you should have posted the information in the first place?
 
First this: "I actually meant to write a disclaimer at the end of my post that I understand what I am writing is worthless anecdotal listening experiences, and nothing really factual."
Then this:"I was actually quite amazed that these footers actually did something."

Do you understand you are contradicting yourself?
 
I don’t doubt you heard something. Most likely explanation, IMO, is that the speakers were too low previously and now they’re at a more sensible height in relation to your reference seat.
 
Wow, some interesting and excited, if somewhat uninformed, responses.
What information do you think is missing? Subjective opinions based on uncontrolled conditions provide very little information.
 
WOW, keep them coming!!!!!!
I seem to be providing great entertainment for some.
Continue on.....
 
I was all in for some of these on a different Forum member excellent poetry,then he preceded to tell us that putting them under his TV box made the picture better! At that point I realised just another subjectivist cult.
 
Theo ( Stack) has the good sense to exploit the still largely technically uninformed subjective customer, you can’t really blame him business is business, it is slightly a pity as he started out actually trying to make a proper product a streamer.
Keith
 
In reading the recent ISO Acoustics thread there were 2 posts about the Auva's, posts #48 & 50. The poster in #50 was quite positive about them.
That was me.

I did point out in my post that the comparison was sighted and that it was impossible to do any fast switching and therefore any blind comparison due to the nature of the product. I was not positive enough about them to spend the £1K asking price! I am not going to spend that based on an uncontrolled comparison. I know that perception is not reliable.

Your report on the improvements matches what several friends of mine say they experienced which was a massive improvement leading them to immediately pull out the money and buy them. That was not my experience at all. However, when it comes to audio tweaks in general, these friends tend to be more enthusiastic and less sceptical than me. They are in the 'I want to believe' camp.

I have asked for before and after measurements from either the dealer or the manufacturer, so far these have not been forthcoming. As pointed out this would not be so arduous a thing for them to do.

Stack also sell isolaters to be placed under electronics - some report massive improvements here too, as noted above the fellow who thinks his TV picture improved. Clearly this is total nonsense. They also sell some magic box that improves ethernet - again complete rubbish.

Not averse to the idea that what a speaker sits on can change its sound. It is at least within the bounds of possibility. But since a controlled listening test is very difficult with this sort of product, we still need measurements - and there's no excuse for not providing them if the product really behaves as claimed.
 
But stvnharr you have been a member of ASR since 2022. You have been active and posted. You know ASR's position. To then say about eight feet (which cost $500) that they resulted in this: I have found them to be the biggest sound improvement that I have ever made in all my many years of audio listening. Then you know what responses you will get here.

In itself, $500 for eight feet is not extreme (extremely hifi snake oil that costs much more than ten times that), but to say that they make a huge extreme difference is. Have you ever changed speakers during your HiFi years? Hasn't that made a bigger difference than a few feet?
 
Wow, some interesting and excited, if somewhat uninformed, responses.
Uninformed? Yeah... this is a group of uniformed individuals blindly following scientific method when they should simply believe YOUR ears. What fools we've all been. Looking at who has responded... for you to call them uninformed is beyond blind ignorance.

The next thing that you know... we'll think that math matters... rather than one person's subjective vision. I think that the ASR faithful should disband and follow the OP down his rabbit hole... where enlightenment is for sale... $$$ is no object... "praise the lord and pass the snakes". :facepalm:
 
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It's easy to ask for measurement but in reality wouldn't it actually be hard to take meaningful measurements.
Presumably you'd have to somehow account for the fact that the speaker would be at a different height. Also, how would you ensure that the speakers were placed back in exactly the same spot after you'd moved them to attach the footers?
 
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