Cones
Blue Circle
Shanling

Knob Options
Blue Circle

Volume Controls
Blue Circle

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MSRP USD $190

The greatest problem facing the audio enthusiast today, next to choosing quality active components, is isolation from vibration.

The symptoms are well known but widely misunderstood. If your system lacks clarity, dynamics, soundstage and just doesn’t excite you musically the problem may well be vibration All audio components are constantly under attack by broadband acoustic interference (music) and some generate their own vibration (motors and bearings). A simple test is to listen to a piece of music on headphones (speakers off please). If it sounds more coherent and musical it’s probably not because the phones are better than your speakers. It is the result of your system finally being allowed to perform closer to it’s full potential without having to deal with acoustic contamination from the speakers. Eliminating the speakers isn’t a practical option so we isolate the sensitive components in the rest of the system.

As any audiophile knows, anti vibration products of one sort or another have been around for a long time now and over the years we have had experience with most of them. Some work extremely well. Some do not. None satisfied us. Since we had the resources and expertise available it made sense to design our own.

Why cones?
Our previous experience indicated that cones had the most potential. Existing mechanical, pneumatic or resilient dampers simply didn’t perform as well as some of the cones we had auditioned so we decided to focus on understanding why cones do what they do and how to optimize their performance.

A cones’ performance is dependant on relatively few variables: geometry, raw material and manufacturing technique.

Geometry:
The geometry of the Blue Circle Cone is the result of considerable experimentation and a shelf full of "almost good enough" prototypes. As anyone who is curious enough to measure one will notice, the simplest geometry turned out to be the best.

Raw Material:
Blue Circle already knew that aluminium, steels, ceramics and wood didn’t meet up to their expectations so they researched some very "exotic" raw materials. Chances are very good that you have never encountered the raw material that these cones are made from and probably never will again.  The result is a device that we know for certain is superior to any isolation device that we have auditioned. It is simple to set up, affordable and it transforms the listening experience.

Application:
Place the cones under the component in direct contact with the chassis. Cones generally do not perform well if placed under the existing feet of the component. Blue Circle suggests  three cones are optimal.

Point up or point down? It does make a difference. Try both!  . Depending on the source and nature of the vibration you will find one method preferable to the other.   The use of adhesives or other resilient compounds may degrade the performance

Start with the source components. CD players and analog turntables are the devices most susceptible to vibration, followed by any component utilizing vacuum tubes. Above all, feel free to experiment.