PART 1 OF THE STACK AUDIO INTERVIEW WITH THEO STACK & JOSH STEPHENSON.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 มี.ค. 2024
- G'day, everybody, here is part 1 of the stack audio interview I did with Theo and Josh. I hope you enjoy getting to know a little bit more about the guys behind these products.
This is the website for Stack Audio. If you have any questions, please reach out to Josh. I'm sure you'll be happy to help you.
stackaudio.co.uk/
Great company, phenomenal products and as important, fantastic service Josh. The two in tandem will hopefully push you forward. I’m adding to my system as I go.
Thank you for all your endeavours that we benefit from.
🙏🙏🙏
Great interview fully agree once you put them under your equipment you don’t want to remove them. I ended up with 11 sets + 1 set of AUVA 50’s My Townshend Seismic Podiums are the next to go and will be replaced by AUVA 100’s. One of the most noticeable upgrades you can make to any system.
Fantastic to hear. Yeah, I will be doing much the same, replacing everything I have with their products underneath all of my components.
You can't unhear what you hear, and you certainly don't want to go back.🎧😁👍
My order of Stack Audio isolators has just arrived - very well packed for the long trip from the UK to Australia. The EQs are all well protected in their boxes of four. The AUVA 70 speaker isolators are beautifully made , and are also extremely well packed for transport.
From the Installation Guide: "The manufacturing process is critical to the performance of the AUVA isolators. The outer shell is precision machined from a solid billet of aluminium with a durable anodised finish. The internal cells containing the particles in the isolator are precisely made and tested to tight tolerances to ensure they perform as expected."
Very, very nicely made pieces of equipment.
Excellent Paul, that's just another piece of the puzzle that has fallen in place for the big install.👍🎧🙂
"I trust my ears." Me too. My ears tell me that the AUVA under gear need time to settle in. Give them two weeks before you determine how much they can do. Once they worked well under a streamer/upsampler, I tried four under a fancy passive power distributor. It took some time, but I had the same reaction you did. Still doesn't make sense to me, but my ears have decided. Great interview. Thanks. Great team at Stack Audio. Wishing you much success.
Yes, I agree with all of the above. Theo and Josh are great guys, and they've got a very impressive product there. You just can't unhear what happens when you put their products underneath your components. Mine are staying put. Wait to you hear their speaker footers, that was nothing short of amazing under my Wilsons.👍🙂🎧
Been looking forward to these interviews! Nice to see the people behind the products which are being so well reviewed by Shane and many others. I agree with Shane and other comments - excellent customer service from Josh and Theo. Very keen to hear the impact of the speaker isolators and component isolators in our room (which has a suspended timber floor, with all of it's possible "issues").
Eagerly awaiting Part 2.
Yes Paul, it was a great interview. The guys were lots of fun, and their passion for what they're doing is clearly evident.
I got good vibes from this interview. Thanks very much.
It was my pleasure. I really enjoyed talking to Theo and Josh, and there is more to come.👍🎧😁
GM
☕️❄️ Listening at work
21:32 BINGO!
Once you’ve been exposed…you can’t unhear it.
😁🎧👍
Nice interview, with some surprising answers on product backstories. It is understandable why Stack Audio left the turntable parts market. Aftermarket turntable parts is a bespoke, highly specific endeavor. The Linn LP12 is most amenable to modification, as many companies have successfully demonstrated to critical acclaim, including those aftermarket components that Stack Audio offered. And literally every aftermarket modification company was targeting the main problems of the Linn LP12 being a basket of resonance energies that was incompatible with accurate vinyl playback. Those who like that “alive” Linn LP12 sound don’t want to hear an accurate LP12 playback system.
But offering three different tiers of kits and sub-kits, as well as a plethora of different armboards at each level was likely a marketing decision Theo regrets. Every customer order was essentially custom order, particularly with regard to armboards.
One can stock 10,000 units of an isolation widget without fear of not selling them. So the marketing decision to switch to isolation widgets as the primary products is a rational marketing decision.
Yes, Drago, I was very keen to ask them your questions ( thank you for your questions), and I figured just the same as you did, and Theo only confirmed that commercially it was just not viable to continue down that path.
All I can say is thank goodness he put his efforts into what he's doing now because speaker and component isolation done that well make a huge difference to anyone's HiFi system.👍🎧🙂
@@shanestephenson8423 On a marketing scale and strategy, widgets sell whereas bespoke custom components don’t. End of conversation. Theo didn’t need to trash his Linn LP12 product line aftermarket mod products the way he did. It’s a disservice to his customers. Bad rationale. And Josh sold me a set of the EQ widgets for my Linn LP12 to improve isolation. That’s a bad look, given what Theo said in part 1 of your interview.
@dragocelander6671 I'd have to disagree with you there Drago. I don't believe Theo was trashing what he had done with his lp12 mods it was just commercially not viable to continue down that path. He spoke of moving those components onto another distributor more prepared to take it on. He is certainly not leaving people without the option to continue that upgrade path. You simply won't find two fellows more into customer service than these two guys are. In my 35 years in this game, they are shining lights as far as I'm concerned, both in their commitment to continue to improve and their passion for what they're doing.
@@shanestephenson8423 Shane, I respectfully disagree with you. Defend Stack Audio all you want. There is no more Stack Audio LP12 mods out there, whether from Stack Audio or a mythical other. And it begs the question of why Josh would promote their EQ products for an LP12 that would otherwise not benefit based on what Theo said in the interview. Replay the tape, and explain where I’m wrong, mate.
@dragocelander6671 Theo said that some people prefer the harmonic for want of a better word (distortion) that comes from the lp12 because it is the Linn house sound.
Other people would like to isolate the turntable under the EQ's. That's why this hobby is subjective. People prefer different things, and that's ok. Stack Audio is focusing more on isolation products now. The company is evolving, and there's nothing wrong with that either. Therefore, continuing down that path was not in keeping with their current direction.
Theo said he was looking to have another company take over the lp12 mods it may not have happened yet, but it's a relatively new decision.
Quite clearly by your comments, you're very passionate about your lp12, and there's no problem with that from me. It's just not my sound.
But going hard at them for doing their job and providing music lovers with a product (and I don't know what you asked them in relation to what you wanted for your lp12) is a little harsh, I think with the greatest of respect to you.
I value you as a subscriber and a regular commenter here on my channel, so much so that it was your questions I chose to ask the guys in the first part of my interview.
I am not on their payroll. I just don't work like that. I have just found these products to be revolutionary. My job as a reviewer and a channel is to get that information out to other people who may not be aware of Stack Audio so they can try these things for themselves. They may have a different opinion to mine, and once again, that's ok.
Besides you can look better in the music. Does it also add calmness??
Yes, I agree there is real transparency and detail without apparent fatigue after you put these isolators under your HiFi components, especially the speakers.🎧🙂👍
😆..you saying “I’ve got a turntable “..is like someone else saying they’ve got a few old cars in a garage…turns out it’s a vintage Ferrari collection 😆
Lol 👍🎧😁
9:12 LINN LP12 😮….its still sitting in my storage room 😢
It's a collector's item😁
I recommend you sell it, if it’s in great condition. Most are not. Linn used crappy plinths that readily broke down or chipped. I am selling one of my Linn LP12 tables that is in great shape. I’m keeping my other Linn LP12 table, primarily because it’s really not a Linn LP12 product anymore. 😂
How does vibration not transmit through the outer shell, avoiding the particles inside the cells? Is there an elastomer also inside that sits on the floor and is below the compartments with the particles?
Hi there, There is a threaded input shaft that goes into the speaker and then screws into the centre of the top of the isolator. All vibration would transmit through that input shaft down into where the particle dampening cells are in the top of the chassis of the footer.
As for the component isolation, it is a two-part system. The outside of the structure never touches the shelf of your rack it is isolated through a telescopic thread with a silicone foot on the inner section of the footer.
If Theo or Josh see this, of course, they may be able to elaborate, but that is my understanding.👍🎧🙂
@@shanestephenson8423 Thanks for that. Do the spikes screw into the silicone? That can't be so there is something I still am missing.
The component isolation has the silicone feet. The speaker system has 3 screw in spikes on each footer, so 12 in total for each speaker.
I think I've left a link in this video. I'd suggest going on their website and having a look and possibly reaching out to Josh, who will be very quick to answer any enquiries you have.👍🎧🙂
@@shanestephenson8423 I see. So the ones for speakers are basically a hollow particle filled bulbous spike. They may not reveal to me how the vibration cannot avoid the particles if they have a patent still pending. Thank you.
@captainwho1 Yes, I think you will struggle to get any IP out of them, which is only fair enough. I guess my job as a reviewer is to tell you what I think and that they really work better than anything else I've ever tried, and I've pretty much tried everything there is to try.👍
What i can't understand is why don't these speaker manufacturers that produce multi thousand pound speakers not include this dampening into their designs. Surely if the differences are that great they would kill any competition.
Hi, that's a great question and one that i actually asked Theo off camera. He said they were considering working with some manufacturers in the uk to produce something that was bespoke for an individual's speaker design, but nothing was confirmed as yet.
Essentially, from my experience in the industry, it works like this. Speaking manufacturers leave certain areas to other designers. Everybody is trying not to step on anyone else's toes as it were.
Giving someone else a market to develop a product in is almost a bit of an unwritten rule in the industry.
A suspect that probably is not great for the end purchaser, as i'm sure it would be cheaper to incorporate everything in a speaker design, but it's as you would know any one thing my not be everyone's cup of tea and the tweakers out there love putting different things into their system to see if they prefer the outcome of that tweak, and the manufacturers know this and it keeps the hobby alive I guess.
Good question though.👍🙂🎧
Jean Maurer comes to mind. I saw a video here on YT that showed the construction of one of their speakers and the woofer is isolated from the baffle and there is a steel rod that transfers the recoil of the driver to the back of the speaker which is filled with sand.