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Hi Fi News & Record Review - October 1998

headroom

reviewed by Ken Kessler

A Battery powered amplification system: too good for everyday use ?

In recent conversations with friends in the hi-fi community, a sad realisation emerged...repeatedly. It's dawned on many of us that things are getting a bit too tame. Sure, there are still fanatics out there who support horns and single ended triode amplifiers and vinyl with religious zeal, but even they seem 'normal' compared to what used to pass for fir-breathing audiophiles.

Along with the decline in DIY and kit-building - which we can trace to increasing laziness and the demand for instant gratification in the late 20th-century - there's been a form of active if subliminal discouragement which has nailed the production of oddball, outre hardware. Before you point one finger at the CE regulations and another at the 'corporate' nature of digital audio, it goes far deeper, For whatever reasons, we're all guilty of making hi-fi predictable, samey and safe. But maybe the Japanese are still capable of serious rear-guard action, despite their recent economic woes, for a Japanese company named Final - which may or may not be the same crew which once produced the unfortunately-acronymed Final Audio Research Turntable - has just the tonic.

Are they fans or buddies of Ben Duncan, or shareholders in Duracell ? Dunno. But the Final Music 5 preamp and Music 6 Power amp take the battery-powered alternative to its ultimate - no, make that 'final' - conclusion: these components do not connect to the mains at all. Quite obviously, the designers didn't feel that Nicads or Li-Ion or any of the other rechargeable types were 'good enough'. Instead, the power amp contains 36 UM2s ( C-cells) and the pre-amp uses 28 UM3s (AA-cells). According to the importer, you should be able to run the system for two hours a night for a month and a half before you need to shell out around £40 at Woolworths for a fresh set. There's a reason why this tedious but important fact of Final operation is mentioned at the beginning. Asking customers to spend upwards of £200 per annum for batteries is insisting on a commitment wa-a-ay out of line with the Granny State mentality of CE regulations, the consumer protection mode of thought and the overall homogeneity of home electronics circa 1998. The Final stuff unashamedly addresses psycho-tweak concerns - remote control and 430mm dimensions and IEC mains plugs and anonymous LED displays be damned.

Try to think of it as you would caviar or live Rolling Stones gigs: something you don't get that often. In effect, you use the Final combination sparingly, for special occasions, as you would a Ferrari, a Leica IIIg or a 1930s Rolex Prince. And what a treat it is.

Both units are two-box affairs, the mains chassis being 230x24x160mm (whd) control units attached to outboard battery boxes. Although they look nothing like the Swiss confections, the two Final control units made me think of Nagra, especially with socketry on the side and back, with meters on top, a cluster of toggle switches: hell, they possess such a professional feel that you can't help but think of studio kit.

And you will be fiddling those toggles a lot if you don't want to run down the batteries. As warm-up time seemed to make little or no difference, there's no point in wasting the juice. The meter tells you what shape the batteries are in, a red LED indicates mute status, and there are enough output level pots on both control units to match these to all manner of sensitive speakers. After all, the power is via battery and the amp is rated at a mere 10W, so let's be sensible about this.

Music 5 provides three sets of line inputs ( one is marked phono, though, should you feed it an RIAA pre-amp), accessed via the toggles. Add a rotary volume control and the left/right output controls for fine-tuning and that's it beyond the mute and battery check facilities. Despite the seemingly hair-shirt nature of this pre-amp, it's actually a luxurious little thing, with a nicely finished metal case, a Perspex top plate and top-flight hardware throughout. Ditto the control section of the power amp, though, naturally, it sports fewer controls. Connected by dedicated umbilical cords terminated in DIN-like connectors, the battery cases match the looks but not the dimensions of the primary units.

You'll have this stuff up and running in mere minutes. I fed it the signal from the utterly yummy Musical Fidelity X-RAY to the Music 5 via Musical Fidelity's own X-Series cables, and connected the '5 to the '6 with Discovery Plus Four. Speaker cables, connected to the '6's mighty binding, posts were vintage 'cloths iron' ART. But the speakers were...Quad 77-10Ls. I know, I know, I've contradicted my own recommendation for speakers of an easy, sensitive nature, but, to my surprise, the Finals weren't fazed at all. What fazed me was the sound: I have never and I mean never heard anything approaching the '5-plus-'6 for sheer background silence, an absence of nasty electronic artefacts, or - as a direct result - such ear-opening transparency. In a flash I knew exactly what all of those gurus meant when they said the only way to approach perfection is to do away with the mains/ (Ben, please take a bow.) And while I've used both passive and battery-operated pre-amps, I had never tried a power amp as well which was completely immune to the influence of the national grid. And to complete the picture, I also used a Sony Walkman Pro and a Panasonic personal CD player in battery model to savour total independence.

Trouble is, you'll just wanna listen forever. And then it's time for a reality (no, make that a battery check) and you have to decide just how much you're prepared to spend for your  musical pleasure. so maybe the Final Music 5 and Music 6 have something else in common with a vintage Rolex or a Ferrari: maybe you also need a 'real world' system for day-to-day usage.

Then you hear that glorious, sweet, crystal-clear sound. And suddenly a tenner a week for batteries doesn't seem so crazy after all.

MUSIC-5 and MUSIC-6 reviewed by Jon Marks   " Hi-Fi World "

Hi Fi World - February 1999

reviewed by Jon Marks

THE FINAL FRONTIER

Battery fiend Jon Marks goes all the way with mains-free pre and power amplifiers from Final.

The goal of every audiophile is to assemble a system which is hard to turn off after a listening session, a system which plucks at the heart strings and lifts the sprit. Unfortunately, the road to hi-fi heaven is littered with obstacles like poor room acoustics, the veto of the domestic authorities, incompatible components and bad electricity.

" Bad electricity ? " Has this journalist lost his mind ? Surely, as is the case with digital where numbers are just numbers, electricity is just electricity ? Would that it were so in either case, for as CD proves, the sound of numbers down a wire can change with different cabling and clocking arrangements. What you plug your hi-fi into is usually anything but clean power thanks to contributions from domestic appliances, lighting, telecommunications et al, and household wiring isn't what you'd normally call audio-grade.

There's a range of treatments which can improve the mains to a certain extent-cables like those from Kimber, an earth spike in the garden or even a specialist power supply which generates a clean, stable 50Hz wave. Of course, if you have sensitive loudspeakers, you could simply take the easy route and opt for battery power, as Final do in the Music-5 pre and Music-6 power amps.

THE TECHNOLOGY

Remove the base-plate of the power amplifier and you'll be greeted by an intriguing sight. In spite of it being solid-state, tag strips fill the Music-6's innards. The only time this is a practical construction method for silicon is when the circuitry is very, very simple ( as it is here ).

There are just two powered devices in the circuit, one in each channel. After some initial head-scratching and a number of fruitless calls to component suppliers, we finally managed to track down the elusive identity of this device, and extremely surprising it was too - it's a power op-amp, available from the likes of Farnell for less than £5 ! Given the price of the Music-6, everyone at World Towers had been wondering what exotic mystery device was hidden within the confines of that five-pin package.

This Pentawatt IC has a maximum dissipation of 30 watts, which explains Final's claimed output figure. What endows it with the sort of clarity normally heard in mortgage-money gear are some very pricey parts. The main resistors ( which are named Skelton and often feature in DIY amps in Japanese magazines like MJ ) are apparently pure, uncoated carbon, their value dictated by a track cut into their surface. Brass end-caps bear the lead outs for soldering to the outside world. The 0.1uF box caps are by Rhoederstein.

Another area where the Final goes its own way is the Damping Control; " This is to adapt to the character of various speaker system " according to the minimal but occasionally amusing manual. The potentiometer in question is fitted in the IC's feedback loop. Although Final say their application is the first in the world, it doesn't appear to differ vastly from similar controls espoused in old valve designs.

On the outside the Music-6 appears slightly ( " slightly " being the operative word ) more mundane. Next to the gold-plated phono inputs you'll find two parts of beautifully-made loudspeaker terminals separated by 3A 'speaker-protection fuses. Power flows from the battery box to the IC via a five-pin XLR socket.

On top are the Power switch, Muting ( which prevents on/off thumps getting to the ' speakers ) and the battery test button with matching voltage meter. This last also does a good job as a power meter, the needle flicking in time to basslines.

Judging from the socket labels printed on the Music-5 pre-amp, Final's sonic allegiances seem to lie with vinyl-the three pairs of gold-plated RCA inputs are labelled From Phono Amp, Aux 1 and Aux 2. On top are the Voltage Check, Power and Muting switches which also crop up on the power amp, as well as source selectors and volume. This and the output level attenuators aren't the typical Alps but come from a Tokyo-based company called Cosmos.

The Music-5's circuitry isn't soldered to tag strips, but it's not far off. Prototyping board with unlinked solder pads is used, the parts connected by runs of multi-strand cable and solder bridges. The active devices hidden away on the other side of the board amount to a pair of op-amps and a transistor in each channel.

There is a vocal group of audiophiles which backs the idea that the only place for an op-amp is either in a CD player or the rubbish bin. They rate discrete components over anything the world of the integrated Circuit can muster. However, amplifiers from companies like Audio Analogue, LFD and Final prove that, if used in the right way and in the right places, op-amps can sound superb.

BOXING CLEVER

Getting the Finals ready for audio action was a strange experience. Not having to hook electronics, especially a power amp, up to a mains socket goes against the grain when so much equipment reproduces the sound of silence if it isn't plugged into the wall. After connecting up the battery boxes with their locking XLR plugs and quickly checking that the cells within weren't doing an electrical impression of a pancake, I decided on the sort of load battery amps dread - the BKS 107 MkIIs.

With the harsh 1 ohm impedance at high frequencies of their ribbon midrange/tweeter and a lowish overall sensitivity for a floor stander of 85dB, the 107s demand a fair dose of power and current. Driven by the Finals, the ribbon and mid/bass cone both lost out at extremes, the bottom-end lacking oomph and grip, the top-end rolling off early. What shone out in road-to-Damascus style, however, was the gorgeous, crystalline clarity and wholly natural tonal colour provided by the Musics.

SWEET CLARITY

On sparse acoustic recordings, there was a startling transparency and three-dimensionality to imaging and sound staging. With large-scale Classical works this meant an orchestral spread and depth well beyond what you'd find in mains-powered equipment at the money. These amps lived up to their names too - the emotion in whatever signals they were handling blossomed forth. Where Classical can be uninvolving and solely cerebral through a lot of amplification, the Music-5 and 6 could make converts out of all bar the heaviest of Rockers and deafest of Dance music fans. Dipping back into the world of AC, comparisons between more mundane gear and the Finals were revealing to say the least. Mains components which had sounded balanced and uncoloured thus far began to look surprisingly uneven next to the four-box battery outfit. A host of minor tonal aberrations popped out of the woodwork - a touch of chesty boom to upper bass, a fine layer of grit to treble, a certain quackiness on the midrange.

Becoming acclimatised to the Music-5 and 6 takes an album or two. Next to anything with a transformer inside it, they can appear dry and lean on first acquaintance. Give their presentation an hour or so to sink in, however, and you'll wonder where all those colorations daubed onto music by your previously-preferred pre/power were hidden.

EASY RIDER

Beguiling clarity and delicacy are but two of the ingredients that go into great hi-fi, Scale, pace and meaty lower octaves also make for a tasty recipe. Into the 107s, these last three were in short supply. More sensitive partners were obviously called for. Out went the granite Danes and in came some native talent, with our own KLS9 floor standers.

With their smooth 8 ohm load and 90dB sensitivity the 9s allowed the Music-6's bass more of an opportunity to show what it could do. With just 10 watts on tap, to be frank even into a friendly loudspeaker I hadn't been expecting any real pyrotechnics from the power amp below 100Hz. Well, it just goes to show how wrong hi-fi pre-conceptions can be. With a mix of sly and Robbie, DJ Cher, Blues Union and Skunk Hour that classy little box put out some monster bass.

To make sure I wasn't imagining what I was hearing, I employed the services of some respected mains power amps at around £1000. Linked to a Kimber distribution block and leads, both were slipped into the same system as the Final.

DEPTH CHARGE

In a nutshell, next to the Music-6 the AC alternatives sounded thin, bass-light, coloured, compressed and shut-in. 10 watts doesn't tend to go very far in a set-up whose main aim is to blast out Reggae tunes, but into 90dB+ loudspeakers this Japanese duo is capable of flapping trouser legs like the best of high-end gear. With Sly and Robbie's The Punishers, the speed, insight and sheer depth to basslines came as quite a shock, especially in view of the clean, unflustered midrange and treble that went with it. Playing a small but important role here was the damping control. Its influence on mid/bass drivers was subtle but certainly audible. The choice boiled down to greater overall grip and a marginally more even tonal balance against more spacious sound staging, bigger dynamic swings and extra slam.

Unlike some expensive components the Music-5 and Music-6 are relatively unfussy in operation - you don't need to spend long evenings tweaking them to obtain a half-decent sound. Caveats amount to keeping short the pre-to-power interconnects ( two-metre lengths suffered a slight loss of sparkle ) and loudspeaker cable, and boosting the output potentiometers on the Music-5 to maximum if possible. This can make volume adjustment a precision business, but the sonic degradation introduced by these controls was easily noticeable.

AURAL ASSAULT AND BATTERY

If your living room already enjoys the company of efficient loudspeakers, Final's Music-5 and Music-6 should be right at the top of your list. They  have a natural musically, delicacy and impact which leave plug-in-the-wall competitors for dead. Their idiosyncratic but effective circuitry and bomb-proof build make a persuasive argument against conventional amplifiers. If you can afford to keep the Finals in batteries ( they use UM2 dry cells instead of rechargeables on sonic grounds ), your ears will thank you for it.

MUSIC-4 reviewed by Peter Russell  " Hi-Fi plus "

Hi-Fi plus - issue 17 May/June 2002

reviewed by Peter Russel

Final Music-4 Battery Powered Phono Stage

Why is it that I always get the weird, the whacky and the wonderful to review ? I guess that by the end of this review you will find out. it was on one of those days that RG and I arrange to meet at a pub that is supposed to be 'equidistant between his and my places of residence'. One of these days I will challenge the accuracy of that statement. Anyway we meet there on an occasional basis to talk Hi-Fi, eat, and exchange large boxes of equipment. Heaven knows what the landlord thinks we are up to. Up 'til now no flashing blue lights have greeted our departure. On this particular occasion, as we were finalising the exchange of boxes, RG mentioned that he had something that I might like to 'play with'. I always dread it when he tries to tempt me into saying yes without actually understanding what I am committing to. He handed me a black plastic box the size of a shirt box with a metre of umbilical chord. Ah, yes a power amp, er no, there's no cable terminators or inputs. Another box is then placed in the boot of the car that looks for all the world like a control device from a 1960's sci-fi B movie. You know, with large VU meters, toggle switches and flashing lights. Oh dear, which garden shed did this come out of ? It's a phonostage he said, testing my credulity. Oh sure, of course it is I replied with confidence; it seemed that one should humor him, after all he is the editor. No but it is; it's the Final phonostage he declaimed. He assured me that he had mentioned it in a previous  edition of the magazine. At this point I gave in and reflected  that at this stage of my reviewing career it probably would be the final phonostage that I would review ! yes it really was and is a phonostage. The large aluminium and perspex shirt box is a battery power supply, containing twenty-eight batteries. Yes you read correctly, 28 manganese batteries, not alkaline. Just replace them when they run not. These are not rechargeable and will probably give you about three months average play time. So at GBP 17.50 a set you can calculate the annual cost ! I understand that there is an alternative vacuum tube outboard power supply available but I did not have it to hand to do a comparison. Fortunately the accompanying box, also plastic, enables you to determine the charge left in the batteries by flicking a switch that activates the vu metre to tell you whether you have sufficient charge. There are a couple of left and right attenuators which satisfies my need to have control over each channel independently, as well as a mute switch, phono in, a grounding post and two RCA outputs. That's really it. Simple. Not quite. There a couple of design parameters which one needs to understand if one is to get anywhere near the best out of this unit. For a start you do need a cartridge with a reasonable output to make this retro box sing. I understand that it is virtually unloaded and with 40db of gain, careful cartridge matching is essential; a good MM or high output MC is required, probably at least 0.5mV. And remember, the harder it works the quicker it goes through batteries. Normally you'd plug the Final's output into a line stage, but I happened to have my Radford STA15 on hand, with sufficient sensitivity to be able to link the phono stage diectly to it using the attenuators as volume controls. I also put it through my Croft Vitale unity gain preamp just to see what it would do.

I chose my Clearaudio insider for most of the listening. It's 0.6mV output is towards the lower limit of the Final's comfort zone and should reveal clearly whether the Japanese phono-stage is a serious proposition for moving-coil use or not. I also had an LFD three box phonostage. For those of you with short memories, this was, and I think still is, their ultimate statement of the phono art. It is a dual mono chassis with two twenty-eight positioned attenuators and a battery power supply. In this case the power supply is charged from the mains and then isolated when in use. I was looking forward to comparing two different approaches embracing the same principle.

It was time to hook up, throw some switches and spin some vinyl. Well what a surprise. I'm not sure what I was expecting; perhaps it was the total absence of grain that threw me. The music just floated out and hovered with a fluid articulation that astonished me. Sometimes, when I listen to equipment the music begs to be dissected. You know: timbre, transparency, spatial imaging, immediacy, frequency extension etc. With the Final you have exactly the opposite tendency. I was utterly beguiled by Ella Fitzgerald's ability to span the range of vocal emotion, by the presentaion of her performance as a living, breathing thing. Timbre, vocal projection, imaging and spatial cues were all there, but seamlessly integrated into a captivating whole.

A couple of other vocal recordings confirmed that the Final excelled in this area. Jennifer Warnes' The Hunter is one of my favourite albums; in some ways better than the more well known and over used Famous Blue Raincoat.

I was fascinated by the way the final allowed her to express fer phrasing and vary the tempo, to control the emotional expression in the vocal line as she explored the subtleties of the melodies. I happen to enjoy forceful women, and you cannot get more forceful than Joan Armatrading, especially in Me Myself I. I have a Japanese pressing on 140gm vinyl that captures her power and the accompanying bass riffs in 'Ma Me oh Beach' and 'Is It Tomorrow Yet'. Whilst the Final was not the last word in bass control and timing, it certainly allowed her vocal power to come through. Who said Quad ESL57's can't rock ?

Moving on to something completely different, I played Reference Recordings' Helicon, a collection of works by Vivaldi and Bach played on original instruments. This record can sound a little lacking in emotional expression, the strings brittle and the whole performance two dimensional. With the Final, whilst the strings still sounded slightly shrill, there was body to the mid frequencies and a finely worked appreciation of the quartet's interplay with the harpsichord.

Just when I had decided that I had captured the distinctive qualities of the Final, I thought that I would put it through the Croft Vitale with its unity gain attenuator. Er... what's happening here ? The strings in the RR album were fuller with much more body and energy. The harpsichord became integrated into the ensemble rather than as an emasculated solo instrument. On replaying the other albums mentioned above, there was the same ability to capture the performance's dynamic profile and presence, whilst losing none of the ability to engage and beguile the listener.

This all begs the question as to whethere to use the phonostage and its attenuators directly into your power amp or feed it into a line stage ? Sonically speaking, there's little doubt that the extra drive provided by the Croft was a positive thing, especially in terms of presence and dynamic clout. However, the Final Music-4 does give the listener the option to pursue the last word in delicacy with the single-source hair-shirt approach. Either way, if you can live with its quirky nature, and take the time and trouble to match it with your system, then the effort will be well worth while. Definitely one for those who favour the organic over the analytical, after the Final, everything else sounds somehow mechanical.

OPUS 100 reviewed by Don Nice  " Listener "

"Nicest speakers at the [2001 Stereophile] show? The horn-loaded OPUS-100 from Final Laboratory sounded very dynamic on classical piano - and made interesting use of Final Lab's own DARUMA 3-II  isolation bearings. (Spikes are out? Color me glad! Hooray!)" - Don Nice, Listener, USA

DARUMA 3-II reviewed by Simon Groome  " Hi-Fi plus "

Hi Fi plus - issue 10

reviewed by Simon Groome

FINAL Daruma- 3 II Ball Bearing Isolators

It is well known that all hi-fi produces unwanted vibrations, which inherently affect sound quality. Conventional wisdom has therefore dictated that equipment should be mounted on a secure, rigid stand or rack designed to damp or modify these unwanted vibrations. But, this causes the support itself to vibrate and excite the surrounding air, passing vibrations back into the equipment, and so distorting the signal. Bespoke, Japanese, hi-fi builders, Final, have come to the conclusion that it is better to live with the internal vibration and isolate the units from the outside world.

When at the Novotel Show, I visited Final's demo-room I found all their equipment, from CD player to speakers, placed on their Daruma-3 II Ball bearing isolation units. To demonstrate their effectiveness they had arranged an open CD transport playing an eccentric disc atop three isolators. Sure enough, despite the extreme vibration experienced in the transport, you could feel nothing in the support, the Darumas establishing an effective barrier ( in both directions ).

The Daruma-3 IIs come in a set of three, with each unit consisting of two steel vessels - the base being the one with the product's name on it - and a ball bearing, which sits between, in the cups of the two receptacles. the equipment then sits on the three units. While not new in their basic application - Yamamura Churchill's Millennium Anti-Vibration Supports have been around for a few years - this is the first chance I have had to experiment with such a concept.

I was advised that my CD player or turntable would benefit most from their use, and so that is where I started. Listening to these devices under either source component was a revelation, but I was not entirely happy with the way my highly sprung turntable wobbled about. Things were more stable with the CD player, but it is still amazing how much unwanted energy can be produced. There was far more detail, with previously unheard sounds on Roger Water's Amused To Death ( Columbia 468761 2 ) appearing as if from nowhere. While there was a little more extension at both frequency extremes, it was the bass that really impressed, with the drumming on the soundtrack of Dances With Wolves ( Epic ZK 66817 ) exhibiting more detail and extension. When listening to Madonna's foremost album, Ray Of Light ( Maverick / Warner Bros. 9362-46847-2 ), everything sounded more controlled to the extent that when the Darumas were removed, the music seemed to " shout ". I also found I was listening at lower levels due to the increase in life and dynamic range, and consequently Kendra Shank's voice on Afterglow ( Mapleshade 02132 ) sounded much more natural, the system working well within itself rather than relying on the slight edge that creeps in at the edge of the performance envelope to provide a false sense of " life ". The soundstage on Zinman's wonderful performance of Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 3  ( Telarc CD-80331 ) was more coherent and much deeper, with a quieter, " blacker ", background. Trying the units under my much modified Audio Innovations 500 amplifier produced gains in similar areas, but to a lesser degree.

DARUMA 3-II reviewed by Bill Gaw  " Enjoy the Music.com "

Enjoy the Music.com

reviewed by Bill Gaw

Enter Daruma-3II

Way back in Chapter XI I had discussed the Daruma 3-II feet, which are two metal cups, one with a depression, separated by a steel ball bearing, which work very well under mechanical equipment ,like CD transports and turntables, for isolation.

I have come up with a new use for them though. Under your smaller speakers. At the Stereophile show, I saw a similar but larger product called Aurios Speaker Feet, which sell for 6 for $1000. These are much more elaborate than the Daruma's, and support significantly more weight, and are made specifically for loud speakers. It seems counterintuitive that feet that are made to allow speakers to move, and decouple from the floor, should work better than spikes, but at the Show, this room had the best sound, with especially tight deep bass, so I don't think the Aurios degraded it.

Not being able to use the Darumas with my bass horns, I decided to experiment by using them under my mid-tweeter round horns, and guess what. They didn't tighten the bass, which was intuitive, but they certainly did tighten up somewhat the mid range. Roy Orbison's voice could now be heard to come from a mike separate from all of the background, which, while probably more accurate that the diffuse sound I had heard previously, somewhat distracted from the illusion. But on single mic'ed, Blumlein, etc., recording, there was a definite improvement in tightness of the soundstage, especially in the center where sounds of individual instruments are normally diffuse. If you can find some Aurios for larger speakers, or the Daruma's for bookshelf types, try them. How do they work at tightening up the imaging when they theoretically should be allowing the speakers to move and thus cause Doppler aberrations, I don't know. Like so much in audio, this finding's cause is still unknown. But I do hear it.

DARUMA 3-II reviewed by Dave Clark, Francisco Duran and Larry Cox " audioMusings "

audioMusings Review - issue 14 2001

reviewed by Dave Clark, Francisco Duran and Larry Cox

The Daruma 3-IIs came on the heels of the Aurios MIBs. Similar in design, both products address the issue of component isolation via bearings sandwiched between metal discs. The differences are in materials and execution. the Aurios are hardened steel, and use three balls, with the assembly held together through an ingenious design. The Darumas, which use a single ball with aluminum discs at top and bottom, are three separate pieces. There are couple of downsides to the Daruma design. One, you can easily lose a bearing, and two, with the softer aluminum, if you use a heavy component, grooves will form on the surface of the bottom disc. The first is merely an annoyance, but the second is more critical. Will impressions in the base reduce the Darumas' ability to function as designed ?

I liked the MIBs at $300 per set, so how did the Darumas? To me, comparing them is like comparing a Mercedes CL500 to a Volkswagen Passat. While both are excellent cars, they have been designed to different price points and are not really in the same league. or are they ? I own a Passat, and it gets me from point A to point B rather nicely, though without the luxurious style of the CL500. The Darumas work quite well at their intended application. The sound opens up, with greater clarity and pace than with stock feet or other popular cones. Compared to the MIBs, they offer less clarity and detail, though the MIBs may be too brutal in this respect. The Darumas may not be as " good "as the MIBs. But this may not be a bad thing.

Much of the difference can be seen in how easily components on the two products can be set in motion. The MIBs not only allow greater movement, but that movement is freer, with less sense of friction. Components on the Darumas travel less, and do so with a greater sense of effort, perhaps because the Darumas are made of a softer material. This may relate directly to the fact that the Darumas have a " softer " effect than the MIBs. the Aurios' steeliness is not heard from with the Darumas. Music has only about 75% of the pace and clarity that it does with the Aurios, but with little of the perceived coloration. A tradeoff to be sure, but not a bad one. Music just sounds better. For the money, these are highly recommended. The Aurios may get you down the road in greater comfort and style, but I did enjoy my time with the Darumas.     reviewed by Dave Clark    

With all of the tweaks and accessories that are written about in the audio press, it's a wonder a music lover ( okay, gearhead ) can decide what will work best in their system. How many times have we read how the latest gizmo affects the soundstage, tightens the bass, and is a big improvement over the last tweak that hit the market ? It7s enough to make me want to chuck all of my gear, go back to a good old rack system, and concentrate on the music again. Well, maybe a nice tube rack system.

It seems like the latest trend is things to put under equipment that incorporate bearings in their construction. The Darumas are finely crafted devices that fit neatly under your components. It is said that greater benefits are gained using them under your source components and tube equipment. Why use such devices ? To drain or " ground " excess vibrations that plague our gear.

I tried the Darumas under all of my equipment except my speakers, and heard positive effects in each case. the musical benefits were more easily heard when they were placed under my sources, but I also liked what they did under my Monarchy monoblocks.

With three Darumas under my CD player, the improvements were obvious. The Darumas cleaned and polished dynamic peaks and transients, making for a cleaner, clearer musical presentation. the improvements were across the board with respect to types of music - rock, acoustic, you name it. These little guys made it easier to hear small musical queues, as if a little more air and space filled each recording. It also sounded as if I had gotten a few more decibels of gain. My system was certainly more dynamic.

I did the old switcharoo a few times to see if I was crazy or had developed that old reviewer's disease, better-itis! You know, that sickness that makes you think that just because something is new and in your system for the first time that it is an improvement. I'm happy to report that I'm not crazy, because when I took out the Darumas, music sounded flatter. Cymbals lost a bit of their sweetness and smoothness. Music now sounded a tad less dynamic and lost a bit of detail. The sound was less musical and involving. These weren't just a few audiophile tricks that went missing when the Darumas were out of my system.

They try the patience of normal people, but the rewards are great. With a little care and practice you can operate your equipment without everything sliding around. This is the only down side I found with the Darumas.

before the Darumas, I used a combination of the Black Diamond boards and the Vibrapods, but this combo doesn't seem to be as musical. There have been reports that using bearing-type devices under your gear causes brightness and hardening. I did not experience this, just better music. This is one tweak that I really liked. Highly recommended.     reviewed by Francisco Duran

Final Labs Darumas are ball bearing damping things for placing under your aduio gear. Although the Aurios reviewed here an issue or two ago have gotten more press, the Darumas appear to have been the first on the block with this technology.

They worked quite nicely under my soon-to-be-replaced Pioneer 525 DVD player, as well as my not-soon-to-be-replaced E.A.R. 802 preamp. Like most damping devices, they didn't change Madonna into a throaty, deep voiced singer, but added a measure of clarity to the listening experience. They gave greater precision to instruments and vocals. I also noticed that the vertical height of instruments and singers became more clearly fixed in space. On Quarteto Gelato's debut, without Darumas in place, the sound of the accordion was relatively familiar, a sort of mini-organ. With the Darumas, the sound was of a more textured instrument. While many vibration-damping devices add clarity, some give a hostile, bright, and beamy sound. With the Darumas, these qualities weren't immediately apparent.

When the Darumas were here for review I also had the Theta Carmen DVD/CD player and their Pro Basic III DAC, a far more resolving setup than my lowly Pioneer. When placed under the Theta gear, the Darumas added resolution to an already high-resolution sound. Images became clearer, more effortlessly distinguished. All was wonderful. Only when I inserted the Black Diamond Whatchamacallits under the Carmen did I notice that there was a slight metallic ring to the Carmen with the Darumas. This ringing quality is very low in level in a system that is pretty darn resolving.

Damping devices often turn a rough, denim texture into twill or gabardine. What I got with the Darumas was more like wide-wale corduroy, a clearer presentation of texture on texture. That amounts to an improvement for me. The texture-on-texture differences weren't as easily discerned with the black Diamond goodies. The Whatchamacallits seemed a little slower and softer-sounding. Which is correct ? Heck if I know. This is a system matching thing. I Liked both, and think my preference might come down differently with a different set of interconnects.

you could have Darumas under three components for the cost of one set of Aurios. Unfortunately, I didn't hear Aurios, so I can't comment on their relative merits. you could do more with the Final Labs iteration. try - You may buy.     reviewed by Larry Cox

DARUMA 3-II reviewed by Martin G. De Wulf  " Bound for Sound "

Bound for Sound - issue 147

reviewed by Martin G. De Wulf

With all the interest in tweaks, I thought I’d tell you about an interesting one from Final.  Made in Japan, and imported to the United States by Venus Hi-Fi (<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = SKYPE /> 812-320-4004 ), these three-piece footers utilize a ball bearing within a metal cup (of sorts) so as to allow motion as well as coupling.  Putting three (or four if you so desire) of these little gizmos under a components will result in the component being able to move in a 360-degree circle laterally.

The product is called the DARUMA-3ii, and is alleged to “…overcome vibration by earthing it out…”  I think they have a somewhat loose definition of what “earthing” is, but the gist of what they are saying is that component vibrations are run off through the DARUMA, freeing the component from the music-robbing effects of unwanted movement.  A totally different approach from the standard isolation tactic which attempts to prevent vibrations in the first place.

The Audio Cable reviewed by Susumu Oishi  " MJ "

MJ - New product scramble report NO. 705

reviewed by Susumu Oishi

Astonishingly Transparent Sound Fields and Low-Level Resolving Performance.

A new cable has appeared worthy of the New year. No matter how the manufacturers trumpet new cable materials and structures, the changes for the batter are always accompanied by doubts, and in fact the relationship between cable performance, material and structure is far from clear.

Even when the reply is a vague " This type of cable should work pretty well...", it is still impossible to tell without actually trying it out. Cable are remarkably difficult to get along with, but at the same time there seem to be few cables on the market based on half-baked ideas.

There are literally an infinite number of cable structures offered by the plethora of cable manufacturers, and every time a new material or insulator is developed a new series of cables with a new structure is released.

The Final cable I want to talk about here, though, offers the ultimately simple structure: a cotton thread. While none of the details have been announced, it uses no new materials, and has a very simple structure: pin cables are 2-core coaxial, and speaker cables are handled with multiple lines. The OD is 3 to 4 mm, so you can't use that many lines at once. You may wonder if such a weak cable is really up to the job, but let me warn you: this is a new breed.

Astonishment at Instrument's 3D Sound Field

First I listened to a 4-m speaker cable. All of their cables, not just speaker cables, suggest aging for about two hours before use, and during aging you can hear the quality of the sound change. When I first began the sound was "sleepy". To my ear, it finished aging in about an hour.

The sound was incredibly transparent, and of a level I have never encountered with any other cable. It was flat from the very low to the very high frequencies, with no exaggeration anywhere, and brilliant throughout. I wondered how in the world they make this cable ! (Maybe a little exaggeration there, but I was pretty impressed, at any rate...) It was totally different from anything else.

I was not 100% satisfied with the Final speaker cable, but boy ! What an experience ! Let me just say that it is totally unlike any other cable around.

The pin cable is the real killer. I connected a 50-cm cable to the output of my CD player (Philips LHH300), and the sound changed dramatically. The change was even more obvious than with the speaker cables. Each instrument was discriminated clearly, and I could almost feel the atmospheric vibration in my hand. Most cables just sound like flat sounding boards. The range was, again, astonishingly wide, and I could hear the characteristics of the hall or stage where the recording was made, and even the post-processing.

There are other cables offering this level of sound clarity, but I think it is pretty uncommon to find this clarity combined with instrument separation.

Perhaps I am praising them too highly, but I think that is clearly the finest cable on the market. Their approach was to bypass the continuing competition in materials and structure and solve the problem of sound from a new approach entirely. I hope that the major manufacturers in the field will listen to Final cables, too. Concentrating solely on material properties and numerical data is the same as the wow and flutter competition we experienced in cassette decks.

I think that with a new perspective, a totally new dimension in audio will appear. These Final cables gave me this new dimension, and let me listen new a new world of music embedded in the source.