The well constructed deceptively simple Stack Audio Auva EQ's arrived today this time 4 x CSA-1's to support 0-4 kg each, I had removed the 4 round feet from the bottom of the 11 kg MC7R preamp yesterday in anticipation, I slipped the Auva EQ's under the MC7R where the feet had been, to be square just the front right needed adjusting by a few millimeters achieved by rotating the synthetic base insert. The MC7R is also behind the right OTA Quad 57.

I don't think you needed to be gifted with clairvoyance/second sight to assess that I would experience another boost in resolution/sound. though not just higher resolution equally there is added realism, yes now greater fine detail, but so much less hurry no struggle to hear it, the removal of more audio detritus is as if everything has slowed down Listening/watching a Virgin box a 2012 recording of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds (The New Generation) I had bought the original double LP on it's release in 1978 & have seen The New Generation stage show several times at a couple of venues including the O2 where this recording & the DVD were made. The Sky box recording now has a similar visceral feel to watching the show at a/the large open venue.

Listening/watching another Virgin box recording this time of a 1974 Mike Oldfield live performance of Tubular Bells, this could/had sound a smidgen congested in places, with several performers rather than Mike Oldfield's original discreet solo individual tracking for the LP (yes I bought it at the time) now so relaxed the individual musical components though individual all work together so well, the xylophone when struck just sounds so right, steel guitar strings sound different to gut/nylon ones & the tubular bells resonate perfectly.

Yet another Virgin box recording, recorded in Beijing, Carmina Burana with a massed choirs' Women one side Men the other of the large orchestra again more relaxed more detail & reality & dynamics not usually associated with Quad 57's

Norah Jones at Ronnie Scott's again off the virgin box I'm one of the audience sitting at a table, her trio is 10-12 feet away.

On a selection of Virgin box recordings of Indian music, with Sitar the effect/sound of the drone strings & sympathetic strings are clearer, the sound of Sarod has similar sympathetic strings normally difficult to hear, not now.
On one performance a double ended drum called a Mridangam was projected into the room,

I have listened to all of my usual musical fare when listening since I have no wish to have two many variables, with the latest addition of Auva EQ's under the MC7R, my consensus is more relaxed, greater detail, smoother but not pipe & slippers I actually perceive more treble & mid range, if the bass is deeper I can't tell but it is definitely cleaner somehow the note of double bass are not muddied/muddled together in any way.

On playing my Quadraphonic version LP of Dark Side of the Moon, The best version I have heard the studio tapes were used for the 5-1 DVD. A gift at the time from EMI after I found the home address of the CEO in Tatler, addressing to him a letter of complaint about the unavailability of the album despite their constant advertising.
The opening heartbeats are deeper than I remember again seemingly slower with more substance.

Other music not mentioned, Virgin box recordings Cat's 1999 not the recent crap film, performances of Indian classical music including Tabla,Sitar,Rudra Veena,flute's etc, The Shadows farewell tour concert & highlights of orchestral recordings including The Messiah (Handel) with Iestyn Davies countertenor, on CD while(1<2)(deadmau5), LP's Transformer (lou Reed) Snowflakes are Dancing (Tomita)LP Tapestry (Carole King)LP, Wish you Were Here (floyd).

Listening today everything sounded even more relaxed (It's a Bank holiday in the UK) the amount of noise created by tiny vibrations that the AUVA 50's have reduced from the speakers & Auva EQ's have removed from the preamp & amp  is astounding, I remember decades ago if when playing Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon if on listening to track 3 On the Run It was printed in magazines that if you could hear any of the words included in the indistinct Tannoy announcement you had a good cartridge/system, I could hear with my very much younger ears "Flight 255 for Rome,Cairo & Lagos" indistinct then repeated with footsteps.
Today playing the Virgin box recording after revisiting a couple of times to confirm with my now 75 year old ears, I heard the words "Have your baggage and passport ready and then follow the green line to customs and immigration. BA two five five to Rome, Cairo and Lagos." No word "flight" spoken. I played my Quadraphonic LP with the same result...

That alone is confirmation of the effects of the Auva EQ's have & from comments on other forums these effects are shared by others & seem to work in most cases in a similar fashion regardless of system & room. It makes it viable for me to recommend them to friends.

I was told by Josh at Stack Audio in an email The code is 7.5wigwamgroup, it is currently active until the end of May.

On PFM yesterday  Gustav Errata  wrote "It has been extended by a couple of weeks! I enquired when I ordered some AUVA EQ a few days ago".

This is also how Black Ravioli works. The better the contact with the underside of the chassis, the more damping it provides.

I ordered 8 x Stack Audio Auva 70's, they  arrived this morning. I had an important task to do for a very sick friend so my daughter came & waited for them.

When I got home, After playing some music, I spun off the Auva 50's from the OTA Rupert stands under my OTA Quad 57's & screwed in the Auva 70's using the existing 6mm-8mm adapters.

I wrote a few posts ago that touching the outer frame "I noticed that I could effectively through my fingertips feel high or low notes depending on what instrument was prominent at the time the other being a Rudra Veena , a plucked multi stringed instrument with large gourd resonant chambers at each end, on the change over of instrument prominence, there was no smearing of the notes both instruments could be felt, correlating to the audible effects I heard particularly clarity & fine detail". Well today noticeably less perceived vibration in the frame.

The Audiophile man wrote a review that interested me, he wrote "In my mind’s eye, I imagined that Stack Audio had designed and possibly even tested these feet with conical drivers in mind.

So I attempted to second guess my imagination and wrong-foot Stack Audio.

That is, picking up the AUVA 70 feet first, I decided to give the 70s a tough test from the off. To begin, I decided to place them under my Quad 57 electrostatic speakers.

Here, you’re looking to install some control on two sheets of shimmering cling film. To me, if you can bring a semblance of order on those, then your basic speakers will be child’s play, by comparison."

I have the same, 57's on Rupert stands. I believe it is the insubstantial narrow Quad 57 frame with limited bracing that is the main culprit. Counter intuitively they may have more need of damping/absorption than a lot of stiff braced box speakers

Alastair Robertson-Aikman (deceased) former owner of SME famously had an enormous subterranean listening room, I read that he attached large solid brass side pieces to damp the vibrations in his Quads, these days brass would probably be more expensive than the Auva's that do not damp but in their Auva chambers absorb & convert vibration into heat.

The Audiophile man quoted a CD. "Created by Aziza Brahim, the CD was released by Glitterbeat. Called Abbar el Hamad ait, it is a bit of a stunner, especially my test track, a sumptuous romantic piece called El canto de la Arena featuring a melancholy female vocal, a slow-paced yet chocolatey romantic guitar, bass guitar, pipes, small sets of bells and a host of organic percussion (no digital is allowed in this one) the type of which I have no clue so please forgive my ignorance. They sounded wonderful though. Deep, tight when hit and effective"

I bought that CD to evaluate the Auva 50's fitted to the OTA Quad 57 stands using his evaluation as a sort of bench mark. With the Auva 50's the CD sounded very good with the Auva 70's percussion not just drums but blocks etc & acoustic/electric guitars are much better still. I would not argue with Audiophile man when he wrote. "With the Stack Audio AUVA 70 feet in place? Errr, blimey! I mean….blimey! I felt like I needed to suddenly sit up straight and pay attention. I actually did do that, without realising. As if the music had just woken up. The entire soundstage was suddenly precise and focused. The mids were crisp. The treble was exacting. The bass was even tighter than before. It started and stopped on a pin head".

I'm now listening to Brian Wilson & Friends DVD which I am very familiar with, as with the preceding music the volume control is a notch or three lower. The soundstage depth has increased in line with it being a very deep stage they are spread over, instruments are etched in space the OTA Quad speakers seem revitalised, more exciting. the punch of drums is stunning, the little sounds like drumstick's hitting each other, rimshots whether Guiro Jam Block an instrument with ridges that are rubbed/strigilated! Bell Splash Cymbals ringing or Triangle. Human voices/whistling are projecting they have an almost magical quality. Acoustic/Electric/Mandolin Guitars superlatives fail me. Trumpets/Cornets have a real rasp where intended. Zoe Deschanel of She & Him, singing God Only Knows is mesmerising. Took me right back to a unbelievable party in the Kings Road Chelsea late 1966...

As I listen, like the Auva 50's & Auva EQ's the sound is improving as the Auva 70's Auva Chambers settle when I last spoke to Josh at Stack Audio he said customers said the material in the Auva Chambers of the 70's could take 10 hours to settle, the 50's took 2 or three days here to settle properly.

The Audiophile man wrote. "Now the stereo image was placed with mathematical precision. It was like a big bloke with a luminous green jacket and a Theodolite had paid my listening room a quick visit. The sheer accuracy of the vocal now was very impressive indeed. Because of this almost mathematical precision, the supreme focus, the removing of even a hint of wooly bass or slightly meandering mids, everything sounded clearer now. Vocals, the actual lyrics, were more easily understood. Nothing got in the way of the delivery any more".

I have compared the Auva 50's with the 70's playing all the same music, as much as I loved the Auva 50's & could have lived very happily with them however the sound now is in a different league...

I will report further when the Auva 70's have settled. When I can take in my OTA Quad 57's whilst still a subtle speaker that's sounding as if they are on steroids.

The whole album is musical well worth a listen. Tomorrow Feist Metals to see how it is handled.

On another forum I was thanked for updating in relation to the Auva 70's.

I wrote : The Auva 70's are more than I expected by far, I was stunned with the difference after the very good Auva 50's, I said I could happily live with them as I can happily live with the Auva 70's, however before you spend your hard earned pennies, I'm minded of the words of Paul Rigby-The Audiophile Man as below 3 paragraphs.

"So, one final, final test then. What are the differences between the AUVA 70 and AUVA 100 feet, if any? Iturned to Ella Fitzgerald’s version of One For My Baby on the Speakers Corner pressing of the Harold ArlenSong Book double album, originally out on Verve.Differences, if any? Lots is what I’d say! But hear this, moving from the 70s to the 100s is to move from excellent hifi to truly high-end HiFi. And I mean top-of-the-line. It’s like moving from an exceptional boron cantilevered cartridge to a cartridge packing a sapphire or even diamond cantilever. That sort of standard.

"At this point, all talk stops. You’re forced to listen. There is a level of sound quality here which is just exceptional. Truly exceptional. In short? Down went the noise again, up came the detail."

"I expected some sort of improvement from the Stack Audio AUVA feet sure but nothing, nothing in sonic terms, quite like this. The sheer level of precision from the music now was quite outstanding. For my HiFi system, at least, it felt like the last ingredient to make the entire HiFi chain click into place. It’s almost like my HiFi system needed a big nudge to give it that sense of clarity – and I didn’t know. I didn’t know that was even necessary until I tested the AUVA feet.The largest and most dramatic improvement was moving from basic feet to the 70s. That was a shock. Sayingthat, the move from the 70s to the 100s was a move to ‘proper HiFi’. High-end HiFi. HiFi that nods towards the sound and says, “Just stop what you’re doing and..take…a…listen…to…thisss.”

I had the advantage of fitting Auva 50's first to the OTA Quad 57 OTA Rupert stands, the sound was so much better than before, it was quite an unexpected jump to the sound after fitting Auva 70's. As I have mooted do Quad 57's require more damping/absorption than some box speakers because of their insubstantial almost 2 dimensional frame as below. As for Auva 100's as yet a pipe dream.

After I added the Stack Audio Auva 70 footers to the One Thing Audio Rupert stands under my OTA Quad 57 speakers, the Auva 70's seem to have supercharged the OTA Quads I have often written/boasted about the bass I have arrived at after my efforts to prevent RFI/EMI from entering my system, the bass now is hard to credit coming from Quad ESL speakers the ambiance, treble & mids is now also incredible.

Today I played The Endless River, I bought the Deluxe Edition 2 or 3 years ago, listened to it at least a dozen times, found it ok, I just felt it was not quiet up there with other Floyd albums but it was relaxing.

The starting point for the album was the music that came from is the 1993 Division Bell sessions, when David Gilmour, Rick Wright and Nick Mason played freely together at Britannia Row and Astoria studios. This was the first time they had done so since the ‘Wish You Were Here’ sessions in the seventies. Those sessions resulted in The Division Bell, the band’s last studio album. In 2013 David Gilmour and Nick Mason revisited the music from those sessions and decided that the tracks should be made available as part of the Pink Floyd repertoire. It would be the last time the three of them would be heard together. The band spent over a year recording and upgrading the music, using the advantages of modern studio technology to create The Endless River.

I read that Mick Mason thought the album is a tribute to Rick Wright, whose keyboards are/were at the heart of the Pink Floyd sound. Sadly Rick Wright died in 2008 from lung cancer.

Today I listened to the 96/24 bit DVD, Post Auva 70's. I heard textures in the bass for the first time, I had read that this is a tone picture depicting a young man punting across a sea of clouds. Today I realised that the work is a tone poem depicting a journey like classical composers of times past wrote.

Dave Gilmour said: "Unapologetically, this is for the generation that wants to put its headphones on, lie in a beanbag, or whatever, and get off on a piece of music for an extended period of time." though I rarely use headphones, but yeah at 75 I get it..

As my wife is out I tried out the modified Auva 50's under the Croft, it was an interesting exercise, bear in mind I have Auva 70's under the OTA Quad 57's on Rupert stands the change wrought to them is stunning I wrote that they were "as if on steroids". I have Auva EQ 2 under the Rogue Atlas Magnum power amp, Auva EQ 1 under the MC7R pre amp & Auva 50's under the Hydraulic Reference turntable so you would think the law of diminishing returns would be fast approaching, though apparently not, I could do worse than quote MartinT on that subject on page 1 of this thread, "That never seems to happen. I've experienced the same surprise many times over!".

Inserting short bolts into the Auva 50's with spring washers under the heads for the Croft phono stage to sit on, rather than without ie. just threaded holes, the use of the bolts, further improved the bass yet again the midrange is oh so open as is the treble, on some tracks the singer is projected forward in the soundstage as presumably the recording engineer intended on others the lead instrument, the gains are beyond my vocabulary the system or more properly the LP music is simply sounding in Goldilocks style ie. "Just right" as to whether Auva EQ's would be better still or different would be supposition on my part

Like previous Auva's I have used after a couple of hours the sound is improving further as I am listening, the signal valves I use in the Croft are 6NP2 EV OS very vibration resistant valves/tubes from the Russian space program & an 6N23P as a cathode follower also vibration resistant. However, are any of the internals actually creating vibration or is it all or mostly airborne? whatever the Auva Chambers seem to be absorbing something from somewhere. Listening to a very relaxed mono Pet Sounds vinyl LP (Beach Boys) though a central image, it has a depth/layer of sounds that was almost absent before as were some of the unusual background sounds, I'm now able to hear emerging from a silent background.

There is/was an added bonus. Because of space considerations in the alcove the equipment sits, my Cambridge CD4se that I use as a CD transport sits on the Croft with a light but solid 1" deep wood & plastic frame with isolating "bumpers" top & bottom, sits between the Croft & CD4se, this is to allow the plethora of ventilation holes in the Croft to do their job. Playing CD's there is also an improvement commensurate with the vinyl replay, as with the phono stage instruments are fixed clearly in space but with space around them. I'm listening to Minnie Riperton she is singing "Loving You" the birds in the background sound so real.

I have spent the last 44 years with Quad 57's in this flat/apartment trying to get to this engaging musical zenith, what could be the next route will take some consideration.