Pillow experiment...

I've read a lot of posts from Tom Port about trying pillows under equipment for improving sonics. He said to just try this experiment with a standard pillow and you should be pleasantly suprised. I was, very much so. I put a pillow under an mdf board that my Dynaco ST-70 sits on, made sure everything was stable and level (pillows have a habit of shifting until the proper balance is achieved). The results were amazing. The bass tightened up a lot (more defined/less muddiness). The soundstage's depth, width and clarity improved (a lot more space/more realistic). Everthing sounded more musical and less strained. I'm guessing that the pillow helped isolate and control a lot of vibration that was eating away at the sonics. I would like to thank Tom Port for sharing this amazing tweak with this forum. Thanks Tom!

Todd

 

Gary,

I luckily have a few extra "head" pillows in the apartment (the wife took a lot of things but thankfully not all the pillows/they weren't firm enough for her/oh well/she took the bed...). I'm also curious about these "magic pillows" that Tom sells. Maybe I should have posted this in the "soft"ware forum (ha!). I have the amp sitting on an mdf board and the board sits on the pillow. It took a few minutes to get the balance stable and level. The Dynaco's transformer are in the back (heavier) so I need to make a few balance adjustments. It seems very, very stable now. I was checking the level, etc. all weekend to make sure nothing sagged or drifted. Still level and "parked".

Todd

 

Pillow Talk

All,

How do "magic pillows" improve amp performance? Do they add stability?

Bob

 

That's an easy one Bob. The pillow absorbs vibration preventing it from going through the amp.

 

Bob,

I think a pillow helps the amp's performance because it can get a decent night's sleep and less chance of a crick in the transformers.

My guess is that the pillow is helping absorb vibration from the amp and from the room. Tube amps usually need some sort of vibration control. This seems to work very well. Perhaps cones do also but I haven't tried...

Todd

 

Dave,

Vibration caused by the speakers, I assume, like harmonics?

Bob

 

Yes siree Bob.

 

Dave,

Thanks for indulging in my "novice" type questions! Now I suppose there will be a market for designer "magic pillows"....

Bob

 

Actually Bob there is already. His name is Tom Port/Humorem.

 

I've also found that placing a pillow or two over my ears cuts down the glare of bright-sounding recordings....

 

With some recordings, I actually take it a step further. I just ram the damn pillows into my ears. They tickle my brain sometimes. I hate it when I can't get one of them out. People think I look rather strange with half a pillow dangling out of my head. I tell them it's for medical reasons, not fashion...

Todd

 

It's actually a little bit of a drag, now that my hearing is refined for high-end listening. I will actually get up and leave someones home if they are running crap and want it cranked up.

Had this happen at a friends place for the very first time and I passed it off as "Gee I must be gettin' old as my hearing can't take that kinda volume anymore." but my better half knew right away what the problem was. Quite an eye-opener actually.

 

pillows

I'm glad you guy's are trying some of these cheap tweaks that are on this forum. Tom's magic pillows are a fairly inexpensive tweak that make amazing results with almost all equipment. I first tried it on my cd player ( biggest improvment ) and went on down the line ( preamp, phono, amps, everything but my tt ) . It's a lot cheaper than buying some expensive isolation devices and in most cases works better.

 

I've also heard that if you place a pea under the pillow before listening...oh...nevermind...that's another story...

 

Black Diamond Racing

I have had really good luck with Black Diamond Racing cones and "round things" under my equipment. The effect is quite dramatic - the music floats free of the speakers. Not exagerating.

They are well worth the money IMHO. You need sets of three under each piece of equipment. It adds up, but I don't know how else to get there.

We find that pillows are more effective head isolation devices when we're trying to get schleepies than the BDR cones, though, around our house.