The Soundcare Superspikes
I was having a clear out last weekend sorting through a box of old cables, cones and audiophile accessories when I came across two sets of these.
I had completely forgotten that I had them. The last time I recall using them was under a pair of Living Voice OBX’s and I have owned a several pairs of speakers since these went to their new owner.
The spikes are manufactured by Soundcare a company based in Norway. The packaging boldly suggests that they provide the some of the best isolation that money can buy. Quite a claim if a little pointless in light of the subjective nature of audiophile opinion.
In any case I was curious to hear what they could bring to my system. What I can say is that before I inserted these into the base plates of the Custom Design Reference stands I was more than happy with the systems balance and sound quality. I hadn’t, since installing the system in the lounge, thought about adding anything to try and improve what I had. The musical balance was just right to my ears and needed no tweaking.
So, spikes installed, I put one of my favourite CD’s in the Mini-Droplet: The Dougie Maclean Collection on the Putamayo label. As you might have guessed from the title this is a compilation of some of Dougie’s best work from his first 5 or 6 solo albums.
One of the tracks I usually use for evaluating anything new in my system is called Broken Wings – a very simple track but easy for a system to get wrong. The song starts with an acoustic guitar and bodhran. So many systems gloss over the importance of the bodhran’s impact in moving the song forward.
Before I installed the spikes the deep thud of this musical instrument was clear and precise. What the spikes did was take things to a new level. The bass became even deeper and slightly more thunderous and insistent. Each bang upon the skin of the instrument was more defined and apparent. Very, very impressive.
The improvements continued with the greater vocal separation and projection and the timbre and tone of the acoustic guitar was more realistic.
I have alluded to the fact before that this not a system that is easy to sit and dissect. It sounds so right as to make specific, audiophile evaluation difficult as you are drawn into the music.
It says something then that the improvements wrought by the spikes were so apparent and positive that I could appreciate immediately the benefits of having them in under the Dulcets.
I have had them under the speaker stands for a few weeks now and feel that they are an essential and integral part of the system and highly recommended.
They can be bought here if anyone wants a set: http://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/Sub_Woofers/Accessories.htm
I am tempted to try some of their other products out. They all seem to be reasonably priced and worth a shot.
robmoores1 