I've had the beaks in place now for 7 days of listening.
After about 5 days I removed them to see if I would notice a difference in sound. It's hard to put my finger on it but when the beaks are on the speakers it sounds better. Not a huge difference, but definitely noticeable. High frequencies and voices seem a little more clear and detailed. These improvements are with the beaks as you see them here. I haven't experimented with moving them like Totem suggests, but I will post an update after more time experimenting with them. Anyone else have experience with the Beaks?
I've heard just a single beak on each of a pair of Hawks make a difference. A slight one at that. I wouldn't say it was more detail but rather a little smoother in the very top end. I could hear the difference immediately when someone helped my by removing them and then placing them back on while I was listening. I would say if you can get them used for a good price, they are worth it. Just that little step up...much like a cable change in the right direction might do.
Nuck, . If I was lucky enough to have Madonna with her missletits in my house, they wouldn't be on my Totems, they would be on something else.
George, they came with my new replacement Sttafs, so I didn't have to buy them. I just had to wait 3 months for everything. If they didn't come with the Sttafs I don't think I would have bought them. But now after listening to them I certainly wouldn't want to give them back. I agree about them being another tweak, like a good cable can make.
I find it hard to believe myself, but a lot of Totem owners swear by the beaks.
When I listen to my Sttafs at moderate levels I can put my hand on top of them and feel quite a bit of resonance on the cabinet. Perhaps the beaks help by dampening or channelling this resonance?
David, thats what Totem says the beaks do. The hollowed out underside collects the "parasitic vibrations" then channels it out through the beak. The Beaks came with some info on how they work and how to place them.
When I place my hand on top of my Sttafs they vibrate at higher listening levels as well. At these levels the Beaks really vibrate as well. I'm assuming that this vibration with in the Beaks them selves is the channeling and elimination of some of the cabinet resonances.
Also, I made a change to the Vibrapods that support my cdp, and I would like to share my findings. I use to have them under the feet of the Apollo, which did seem to help a little. I now have the Vibrapods on top of hockey pucks which now support the cdp by it's chassis. Wow what a difference. Music is much more 3 dimensional with voices that are cleaner and more up front. My wife and I were really surprised at the improvement. This is the most noticeable tweak I have made and would recommend you try it if you haven't.
I think I might try the same thing under my Mira 3. I should mention that I have the equipment on glass shelves. So I probably have a lot of vibration within the glass. My thoughts for using the pucks with the pods was that if there was a lot of vibrations in the glass, the pucks might deal with some of the vibrations from the glass and let the vibrapods isolate the cdp. With the pods under the feet of the cdp they would do double duty, trying to isolate the glass as well as the cdp. I don't know if thats makes sense or not, but it seems to isolate the cdp much better this way.
Vibrapod update. I replaced the pucks under the isolators with vibracones. The cones sit on top of the isolators which supports the cdp. I also had to stick small round circles of felt under the cdp where the ball bearing of the cones touch the player, as it tended to slide on the ball bearings. The most noticeable improvement is focus and imaging. I did the same treatment for the Mira 3 as well.
I also bought some new spikes for my Sttafs, as the ones that Totem provide are not sharp at all. I wanted to see if spiking them to the floor would be better than on the marble. With the new spikes on the marble tiles I get the best performance. These spikes are very sharp and seem to really grip the marble. When spiking to the floor the speaker was still to wobbly, probably because of lighter weight (42 lbs. including the 5lbs. of mass loadind) it just could not grip the floor.
I think I am finally done tweaking the system, for now at least. Time to sit back and enjoy the music.
. If I was lucky enough to have Madonna with her missletits in my house, they wouldn't be on my Totems, they would be on something else.