hi everyone in this video we'll be helping you
to understand how to choose the best isoacoustics product for your system
isoacoustics is a canadian company that as the name implies it specializes in
isolation devices for speakers and different components in this video
we'll first give you an overview of how the isoacoustic technology works
and then we'll get into how to choose the best product for your system
if you'd like to read the full article on isoacoustics be sure to click the
link in the description to go to the full article on audioadvice.com
along with this you'll find hundreds of other reviews comparisons buyer's guides
and much more now let's get started when you think about isolating speakers
there's usually two things that quickly come to mind
is the speaker exciting the surface that they're sitting on and causing that
surface to make sounds that are not part of the recording?
the other part of isolation is the surface the speaker is actually standing
on and preventing it from sending the sound
into another room for example when a recording studio has
multiple rooms they'll actually float the rooms to help isolate them
the first two parts of isolation have been addressed by many companies and
there are a lot of known technologies that work really well
spiking a speaker or putting it on a speaker stand is one
easy way to isolate it from the floor which in almost all cases will offer big
sound improvements but isoacoustics looked at
a third aspect that no one else really thought about
isoacoustics wanted to address the vibrations that reflect back into the
speaker or components from the surface it's sitting on
what they found through testing was that these reflections coming back into the
speaker had a pretty big impact on the sound that caused the cabinets of the
speakers to oscillate isoacoustics award-winning patented
isolation products come in many different configurations and sizes
they are all designed to manage the energy coming back into the speaker or
component while also addressing the first two
aspects of isolation we discussed as well
the difference you will hear when you compare it is going to be
tighter bass much greater clarity and openness to the sound
and far better three-dimensional imaging now
let's take a look at the models to determine which one is the best for your
system the very first thing to remember is that
you need to match the weight of your component with the correct isolation
stand or puck you may see a series of stands and
think the more expensive ones would be better but that might not be the case if
your speaker or component does not match with the weight that the is acoustic
stands are designed for in discussing with isoacoustics and
looking at their performance graphs it seems you get the best performance if
the weight of your gear is about 10 to 25 percent less than the maximum weight
limit bearing that in mind let's jump in and
look at the various series on all the stands be sure to keep in
mind that they're designed to work with the isoacoustics logo
in the front first let's look at the iso series
these include the iso 130 155 200 200 sub and the 430.
these are all modular stands designed for speakers
the iso 130 is especially great for powered desktop computer speakers
there are 14 variations of height with tilt adjustment to optimize alignment
with the listening position the iso 130 will
accept a speaker larger than 5.1 inches wide and 6 inches deep
which will fit right in with just about all computer speakers except for the
very smallest ones you can adjust the height from a little
under three inches to over eight inches to raise them up to ear level
and you can add up to six and a half degrees of tilt all in all these are
super flexible and an amazing value for what they do
now let's look at the aperta series this series looks very similar to the
iso stand series except these are made from aluminum instead of
plastic aluminum has some better isolation properties and if your speakers
can work with the size and the weight these are the definite upgrade for not
much more cost you also get the choice of a nice
looking black or aluminum finish they are paired to support speakers
wider than 6.1 inches deeper than 7.5 inches and up to 35
pounds per speaker they're about three inches tall and have
an adjustable tilt which is really easy to fine tune
the aperta 200 allows for a larger speaker starting at 7.8 inches wide and
deeper than 10 inches with a max weight of 75 pounds
each these are three and a half inches tall with an adjustable tilt
as well if you have a monitor you're laying on its side the aperta 300
might be a good choice since it's designed for a speaker that's at least
11.8 inches wide 7.8 inches deep and a max weight of 60
pounds bear in mind the aperta 300 is priced
each unlike the others that are priced as a pair
next up we have the isolation pucks isolation pucks are individual pieces
designed to go under speakers and components these do not
allow for tilt adjustment isoacoustics tells us these are not as
good as the stands for speakers since they're not coupled together and they
don't allow a way to mount firmly to the speaker
but for components and speakers where you just don't want to raise them up
much but you still want to get a lot of the
benefits they're great all the pucks have a small indentation
in the center it's super important for this to be completely covered on all
sides the first series of pucks is the iso
puck series there are three models in this series a
mini puck and puck 76 they are rated at 6
pounds each 20 pounds each and 40 pounds each we
recommend you use at least four and keep the number of
pucks even for the best performance just try and match them to the weight of
your component or speakers next is the orea series which is the
one i'm actually holding the isoacoustic orea series are
beautiful isolation feet for components they come in four weight ranges
of four pounds each for the graphite model eight pounds each for the bronze
model 16 pounds each for the indigo model and
32 pounds each for the bordeaux model again you'll want to try to use the four
that match the component weight without going over and staying at least
90% or less of your component weight is the best
these get some tech from their top of the line gaia series and make a pretty
big difference under components especially ones with
motors like cd players or video players next is the stage series this is
basically a heavy duty model from the puck series that's designed to be
attached to the bottom of a heavy speaker monitor
or equipment cabinet they were designed more for road shows than home use
four of them will hold up 200 pounds and you'll really only want to use these
on a speaker cabinet that weighs from about 150 to 190 pounds for the best
performance finally we have the gaia series of
speaker feet the gaia series has the most
isoacoustic tech they're made to screw into the bottom of the speaker that
already has inserts for spikes as you might have guessed there are
several versions based upon the weight of your speakers
since there is no standard for threaded spikes isoacoustics offers inserts in
every size you can imagine these are sold in packs of four
so you need two packs per pair of speakers the weight ranges go from
about 70 pounds per speaker to 120 220 320 420 and 620 pounds per speaker
if your speaker has only three spike inserts they even sell some weight
ranges individually so you can buy a pack
of four and two singles if you have a pair of great floor standing speakers
you'll be shocked at the improvement by screwing these directly into your
speaker you get the best results compared to their other isolation
products by far recording engineers all over the world
are astounded by gaia which explains why they've won so many
awards we really hope this guide is giving you
some insight on which award-winning patented isolation design from isoacoustics
is best for your system we find adding tweaks like these to any
existing system are really fun since you can immediately
hear the improvements if you have any questions on any of the
isoacoustic products or any other home audio or home theater gear
be sure to give us a call chat with us on audioadvice.com or stop into one of our
raleigh or charlotte north carolina showrooms
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