IsoAcoustic Gaia Speaker Footers

[Blake]

Just installed the Gaia footers to my speakers and..... wow!  My speakers sound significantly better as compared to using the stock footers.  The difference is not subtle.  Quite shocking.  Highly recommended.    

 

Now I understand why they won the EISA 2019-2020 HiFi Upgrade Product award.  Well deserved.

[Blake]

Oh, I guess that would help, just being a bit lazy.

 

Speakers are Raidho XT-1 on Raidho stands.  My mini review of the Gaia is Post #79 in this thread:

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/raidho-xt-1-new-version-of-the-award-winning-x-1.795502/page-6

 

[Blake]

I only used the Gaia footers on my speakers.  My subs are on IsoAcoustic subwoofer stands, but the sub stands are a different product than the Gaia.  The sound quality changes are described in the link I posted earlier.

 

 

[Blake]

On 10/10/2019 at 7:36 AM, PAR said:

BTW, after talking to Iso Acoustics in Canada and as guidance for the correct product to purchase, the Gaia's are really meant for floorstanders with bushes for spikes. The pucks and the stands seem more aimed at the pro market for either stand mounts or for e.g. meter bridge mounting. The essential point is that the base of the speaker is in direct contact with the isolation units as one aim is to prevent resonances between speaker base and the support  i.e. don't screw Gaias into a speaker stand base in replacement for spikes. In that case you need the pucks or one of IsoAcoustics stands between the stand top plate and the speaker. 

 

Hi PAR, 

 

A few clarifications are required here for accuracy.  The Gaia footers are not intended for use only with floorstanding speakers.  They can also be used with monitor or stand-mounted speakers. 

 

The key is whether or not the speaker in your setup is physically attached or bolted to the speaker stand. 

 

If your speaker screws into or is bolted to the stand, then IsoAcoustics recommends that you replace the stock footers on the speaker stand base with the Gaia footers (in my situation my speakers and stands are bolted together, so I used the Gaia footers).   The reason for this is, when the speaker is bolted to the speaker stand, the speaker and stand act as "one unit", like a floorstanding speaker.

 

If however, the monitor speaker is just placed on a speaker stand with no physical attachment to the stand, then in that situation, the Iso-Puck or an IsoAcoustic stand is the product to use, rather than the Gaia. It sounds like that is the case with your setup.

 

As a side note, in case anyone is interested, here is an installation video with some installation tips.