One of the true highlights of last year's annual January Jamboree in the Desert (CES, y'all), was the system put together and hosted by Acoustic Dreams of Fairfield, Illinois. They occupied one of the handful of larger suites at the rear of the ground floor of the San Remo, and from it they held forth one of the most authoritative demonstrations of the entire event, to these ears at least.

The primary source was one of the most dynamic sounding turntables I can ever recall hearing, the $36,000 V.Y.G.E.R. Indian Signature Turntable. It also happens to be one of the most striking transcriptors you will ever see.

A pair of Ayon Audio 52-B Reference Amplifiers, 55-watt amps based on the 300B and priced at $24,500 a pair, provided the current to feed the $40,000 Lumen White Whitelight Reference, which use a 1-inch inverted dome ceramic tweeter, a 3.5-inch inverted dome ceramic midrange and three 7-inch ceramic woofers in a proprietary "jetvalve" vented enclosure and boast only 7 crossover components. Acoustic Dreams fabricates the Dead Ball Isolation devices (set of 3/$190) that were used underneath virtually every component in this remarkable system.

This room was well set up and achieved a wonderful balance between the so-called hi-fi attributes (detail, transparency, resolution) and musical communication. Luxuriously rich and liquid, delicate tonal development, macrodynamic attack approaching the live event and a coherent voice set this room apart from much of the rest of the CES entrants. What was truly astounding to me during one of my three trips back to this room to just listen was a demonstration by Bruce Featherling.

During my listening, I had been completely taken by how dynamic the system seemed. This was striking to me as many digiphobes who choose to pooh-pooh vinyl point to the specs to show how digital is so much more dynamic than records. Perhaps on paper, but don't believe everything you read. At one point, as we were discussing the minutiae of the system, I mentioned to Bruce that the system seemed quite loud. He smiled, grabbed an SPL meter and showed me that the room never hit peaks over 80 dB! Now that, my friends, is a remarkably good sign that this system was working VERY well. . My mention of how unique the Dead Ball Isolators seemed in comparison to all other variety of squishy, pointy or ball bearing leaden devices I have run across led to Bruce sending me a set to play with.

The Dead Ball isolators bring into play a host of principals, combining numerous energy dissipation methods from visco-elastic absorption to constrained layer damping, all of which make sense individually. A composite of many different materials, the ball that sits atop the device is a polymer of proprietary composition. The three-tipped, anodized 6061 aluminum crown that secures that ball above allows for minimal surface contact with the ball. The base is constructed of 1144 steel and coated via the KEPHOS process; a liquid treatment applied to increases overall hardness. Between these two layers is a specially selected, highly compliant, open-cell, damping material applied to control lateral vibration. Underneath the base are two layers of non-ferrous material to help control resonances with a special adhesive that changes vibration to heat. Finally, pressed into the center of the crown is a steel ball bearing.

Since my first foray into the use of "isolation devices" with the Mission Iso-Plat back in 1983, I have found mixed results with such tools. Bruce suggested that these attractive and, by comparison to some of their competition, affordable devices were highly effective under turntables, so that is where I started. I was quite curious to see what this amalgamation of individually proven techniques could achieve. Would the synergy prove effective or would the technologies work against each other?

Standing over my Oracle Delphi looking down, after removing the cones I had been using, I placed one of the Isolators at the 3 o'clock, 7:30 and 10:30 positions under its base, roughly equivalent to the location of the factory feet, but further toward the inside, just enough to avoid contact with them.

My first impression was not insignificant. Bass authority and articulation was heightened to a degree that I have never noted with any other cones, balls or bearing isolators. Quite honestly, under my 'table, the wholesale improvement they offered greatly outdistance those afforded with the Aurios MIB's. To be fair, the MIB's do a better job under my transport and DVD player, but the slick bearing pucks start at $400 per troika. In that application, under a transport, the Dead Ball's do a respectable job, but they do not quite offer the focus and depth that the more sophisticated bearing isolators afford. Hardly damning testimony at half the asking price, eh?

With the Dead Ball Isolators, individual instrument locations were more focused, tighter in their placement and more detailed and agile in their individual voices. Treble detail, though recording specific, is almost always one of the fortes of vinyl over digital, and was revealed with a greater ease, yet not more etched or granular in any way. It was more like some slight veiling had been removed, one that I had never noticed prior to the insertion of these effective little gizmos!

The longer I left them in place, the better they got. It seemed that after about a week they had improved even more, perhaps due to some settling-in process. I now noted that large-scale dynamics offered a slight increase in their range, resulting in enhanced impact and visceral attack! The subtleties of instruments like bass guitar and bass drum, as well as the lowest fundamentals of piano, acquired even more speed and superior enunciation than had been noted immediately after their insertion.

Music now emanated from a "darker" background, seeming to be quieter overall between tracks and within hushed passages. Resolve across the entire frequency range increased, with significant improvement down near the noise floor, where the system now recovered tremendously adroit detail. Microdynamic shadings were improved, from the frantic recreation of the explosion of air hitting a microphone when a vocalist spoke a word beginning with the letter 'P" to the delicate attack and decay of a percussionists triangle located deeply within a complex musical tapestry. Finally, they seemed to provide a stride closer to naturalness, especially with male vocals and piano. Their use offered a reduction of the "chestiness" and thickening artifacts that often accompany such voices.

I employed them under other devices, from transports to DACs to amplification products, and while the results were very similar in overall voice, none were as significant in degree. That is not meant to diminish those results, by any means. I simply found the greatest scale of improvement when used under my Oracle. If fact, I would like to have about six more sets to experiment with, as I am curious to see what results might be obtained using them as the primary isolation device. I am most curious about what affects they may have under loudspeakers, as, with just one set at hand, that was one area where I could not adequately experiment, as well as one that I think may be quite significant.

Even with my desired degree of experimentation unrealized, I am compelled to give these eye-catching devices a hearty thumbs up. The measure of improvement they brought to my system in just the one application under my 'table was something equivalent to that of moving from a merely competent interconnect to a superb one. And that, my friends, for their $200 asking price, is no slight sanction!

I have found the Acoustic Dreams Dead Ball Isolators to be the most effective isolation method I've ever employed under my vinyl playback system, bar none! While your actual mileage may vary, I have to say that these Dead Ball Isolators from Acoustic Dreams are one of the most sonically significant isolation devices I've found, regardless of price! Bravo to Acoustic Dreams for both the production and realistic pricing of these remarkable devices.

There is nothing like music... to fill the moment with substance. --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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