Listener, Volume 7, Number 4 - July/Aug 2001
Battling Bad Vibes Fire at will. Tag team accessory survey by Rob Doorack and Bruce Kennett
Rob Doorack - Let's move on to the Greater Ranges Neuance shelves. In the interest of full disclosure of any possible bias, it should be noted that I owe Greater Ranges' Ken Lyon $2: He overpaid me for postage on a copy of Listener Vol.1, No.1 that I donated to a charity auction. After having his curiousity piqued by auditioning a Sound Organisation stand in 1986, Ken spent 12 years researching materials and construction methods for audio equipment supports.He tested over 300 prototypes during the process before settling on the present design.Neuance shelves are quite different from the Symposium products. A 19-by-14 inch Symposium Ultra Platform,for example, weighs 22 pounds, while a similarly sized Neuance shelf weighs but a few pounds. When I first picked up a Neuance shelf, it reminded me of a surfboard: a hard outer shell enclosing a very light interior. Ken doesn't reveal a lot about what's inside the shelf , but he will admit that it has laminates on top and bottom with a foam core of "decreasing density".
Bruce Kennett - And speaking of inside,Ken told me that he'd auditioned over a dozen kinds of glue while developing the Neuance shelf!   Rob - Ken contends that that the relatively high-mass OEM shelves in these stands and others store vibrational energy and then release it back into the audio equipment,smearing fine detail. He describes the Neuance shelf as "a low-mass, rapid dissipating, constrained-layer isolation device that damps internally over a very broad and even frequency range".   Rob - The Neuance is clearly superior to the ones that come with the Target. I'd say that anyone who has equipment sitting on a Target or similar support should immediately replace the stock shelf with one of these. I was impressed with what they did in that situation. The sound was more expressive,with better detail and more air and depth. The Neuance just stomped the stock Target shelf.   Bruce - I agree.It is inviting, and the word I keep coming back to is"flow-y". The music just kind of loped along,very smoothly and musically. The bottom end was rich and full. In some cases I felt the top end was a little closed-in, but I really didn't care because the music was really nice.   Rob - Yeah.I would say that in general the level of improvement the Neuance shelf rendered was comparable to the Rollerblocks with the steel balls, but they do different things. I think the Neuance shelf is superior in portraying the music while the basic Rollerblocks setup was better at exposing detail. The sense of flow in the music was better with the Neuance than with the steel ball Rollerblocks.   Bruce - I did some comparisons between the Symposium Super Platform and the Neuance shelf. I felt that the Symposium really excelled at the percussion stuff,and the Neuance at the woody things. But again, it was flow-ier.   Rob - The Neuance is warmer than the Mana shelf,which by comparison sounds a little,well,glassy. The Mana sounds brighter and harder. The difference is subtle, but I think that in terms of overall tonal coloration,the Neuance shelf is more accurate. The Neuance has a wonderful smoothness and ease... the decay of sounds like cymbals and plucked strings seem to go on longer with the Neuance shelf, and it projects slightly more information about the ambience of the recording venue.I guess I'd say that the Mana handles the attack side of asound better and the Neuance is better at the decay side.The Mana sounds faster,but it's sounds die out more quickly,too. The Neuance shelf has a certain delicacy and nimbleness that the Mana doesn't. I don't think I'm going to replace all my glass shelves with Neuance shelves,but that is because my taste is to have my music delivered by a battle axe and not a rapier. Still,no one should misunderstand me: The Neuance shelves are an entirely valid alternative to the stock Mana glass shelves, and in some ways the Neuance shelves are superior. If you think your Mana stand has too much fervor and not enough refinement,the Neuance shelf is your answer(Oh, man,I'm going to get mugged on the Mana forum for this!). I'm not done with these things yet:I have one under my Spacedeck.I'll report on that in a future article.