a lot of visitors to my house always wonder why i didn't use any tweaks. they always suggest that i should start using some to bring my system to another level. but they don't know that my biggest tweak is my mana table and mana soundframe which have been serving me very well for more than 7 years now and i swear by them.

many audiophiles, especially the younger ones (those who went into this hobby in the last 5 years) don't know about mana being a top-notch equipment support maker from UK. mana is expensive to start with and we don't have a local dealer. the funny thing about mana is that it doesn't like anything on top on it, which means to say it doesn't work well with other tweaks like cones and resonance controls.

tonight both panzer and ck witnessed how the ceraballs failed in my system. they don't work on either my preamp and cdp. the resultant sound is a taming of energy and musical flow, curtailing of air, slowing down of rhythm and compacting of images. the singer with ceraballs on sounded sedated, as if she has had a full meal and too lazy to sing, eventho' her image is more focused and sharper, the later being the only advantage. incidentally we tried a track which is full of energy, zing and PRaT and the ceraballs slowed down everything. we tried to turn the ceraballs up and down but the overall effect is still negative.

well, as i have said, my system is well balanced and it doesn't need much tweaking.

que cera cera, whatever will be, will be.


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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

the mana range-all ever so popular awhile back,is actually engineered to control resonance,just like other resonance controlled devise.

whta you should have done is to compare manavs the finite Ceras and stand,.....I did and left the manna for a friend, and move to FE spider with spider ceraballs.

That being said the manna tables are quite excellent for what it does.John atkinson is one of the most famous enthusiast of manna;despite all his collegue moving on to the Pagode...

Anonymous said...

Williamson ir absolutely right.
1.Both works by bringing the resonace down to subsonic level;in the case of the Finite ,it is circa 5hz.The manna less so,and some measurements shows that it actually works more like the 'tuning' feet as popularize by the Harmonix tuning feet.In another word,less neutral.

2.Being a proud Brit,it was very difficult for me to concede that the Germans has bettered us again;I left Manna to go to the Finite camp all the way.

3.you can still find manna tables in abundance in 2nd hand market in the UK and they are quite cheap.

4.there are quite a few active manna-related forums on the net,and you still could get many producers producing manna like tables in the US,UK and Australia;once you understand how it works it is quite easy to do them as DIY projects..

Anonymous said...

Too much of a good thing,perhrps?

Anonymous said...

No ,to me it isn't a matter of too much of a good thing but using them the right way.

Anonymous said...

agree with the above sentiments;it should be manna vs FE..

hifikaki said...

if you still have the ceraballs, I'd suggest you try them too under your monoblocks, which are placed on the floor. Let's see how that goes. :-)

maggielurva 愛美姬 said...

williamson and richard,

excellent comments there. the mana may be outdated by never designs like FE but for what it is worth, it is an excellent investment.

i must say the impact of the ceraballs is very drastic and i am sure in the right system they will shine.

i look forward to trying the FE racks.

Anonymous said...

The FE rack will probably cost more than your Meridian player.. ;)

Anonymous said...

The FE racks will cost a lot as a whole. So maybe just get the platforms to try out. You may also try Symposium, TAOC etc. too.

Panzer said...

hifikaki,

The 2 extra sets of Ceraballs are with me now. trying something a little diferent with them.