Hello.
I am considering buying a pair of Mana Sound Bases to my NBLs, but I have not been able to listen to the combination my self (and I am not likely to be able to do so either). If any of you have had the opportunity to listen to this (or a closely related) configuration I would greatly appreciate to know what you think about it.
--Peter

Hi Peter,

I use a pair of #1 Soundbases beneath Neat Elites.
What they have done in my system,I now consider mandatory.
Dynamics become more distinct with additional clarity and tunefulness.Instrumental lines are easier to follow.Staging increased in every dimension with no clumping or confusion. Focus as well as bass tautness and the ability of the music to escape the enclosures are also positively affected.
It's my belief that some of those gains can be attributed to the decoupling of the speaker from the flooring and thus reducing the impact of floorbourne vibrations into the rest of your kit.
The remainder is typical Mana magic.
Highly recommended.I think you will be very pleased.
Best,
Ken

Peter, i use two pairs under my sbls, and they work a treat.

Do you intend only using Mana for your NBLs ?

Its usually a good/bad idea to do this first, good in the sense of the musical improvement, but bad in terms of you may not like what you hear because everything else is'nt on Mana and the soundbases will highlight this...

naheed...

Hi Peter,

I have used Soundbases under IBLs, Neat Petites and Neat Gravitas. In every case they worked extremely well. I would however agree with Naheed that you should consider Mana under the rest of your system first.

Ian

I used them under my SBL's, we (Embrace) used them during recording and mixing of our second album under NS10's and Alesis monitor ones, Ken Nelson who produced the top sounding Coldplay album as well as Gomez "Liquid Skin" uses them in the studio, and he told me the other day that he has a naim system. It's good to find record producers who have decent systems, believe me, you don't come across them too often!
Try the bases, they always worked a treat for me.

Many thanks for all your comments. You've helped me make up my mind - I will order the Sound Bases on Monday. At the same time I am ordering a Sound Frame to place under my CD player.
Best,
Peter

Peter,
The standard Mana SoundBase (a.k.a. Mana SBL stand) can hold speakers upto similar dimensions. The NBL is deeper and IMO cannot be supported by this SoundBase. You may want to consider
either a Mana SoundStage or a (smaller than SoundStage) Mana SoundFrame (with glass replaced by their laminate board).

I was receommended a "Sound Base Size 2" which should fit the NBL (size: 45 times 36 cm and 7,5 cm high).
-- Peter

In the last couple of days I've just taken my first dip into Mana. I've bought a couple of Sound Bases from John Clark (as he is in the process of changing speakers) for use under my IBL's. I have no other Mana in the system so I understand that this isn't really the accepted way to start, but the opportunity came up and I have an amp-stand on back order anyway so I thought I would give it a go.

Rather than try and re-write my thoughts, this is the correspondence with John describing my first impressions:

quote:

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I managed to get the SoundBases set up last night. It took about an hour and a half altogether. First time I'd set up any Mana and it was a bit fiddlier than I'd expected to get it *just* right (cutting carpet, leveling the frame, the boards and the speakers).

Anyway, by the time I'd finished it was 11:00pm and my parents are stopping over at the moment and were just about going to bed at that time. So I gave it a quick listen through on a couple of tracks before leaving it for the morning. First impressions were that the bass sounded a bit cleaner, extended and tighter. The system also seemed to be more 'toe-tapping' at relatively low volumes. But I did notice a slight glare or harshness at the upper-mid frequencies. For now I'm prepared to accept that this is revealing something that was there previously, perhaps in the NAP250. When I get the Amp stand this might be more fully explained.

I've been off work today and had another listen for a few hours this morning. The glare doesn't seem so obvious now. Either the stands and speakers have bedded-in together or I've aclimatised to it. I can certainly hear how the stands have put life and tunefullness into the bass and vocals seem more intelligable than previously. So from a HiFi aspect the stands are doing their thing. I'm not sure though that the tangibility of listening to a real musical instrument (for example the resonance and decay of strings on a guitar or the communication of emotion in the way a piano is played) has been enhanced. The improvements seem to be more to the benefit of the hifi aspects rather than the music, but at least the musical aspects don't appear to have been diminished any.

I'll keep the stands in place for a week or so to get adjusted to them and then try taking them out and see how I feel then. Also, I will have had chance by then to hear them working in conjunction with the amp stand.

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Since then (I've had them in place for nearly three days now) things do seem to have bedded in more, either that or I'm just 'tuning-in' to what they are doing. I really quite like the stands now, they add a sense of 'openness' and dynamics to the music that just seems to make the system more enjoyable to listen to. I keep thinking, Hmm I havn't listened to so-and-so CD for ages, I'll just listen to one more.

Allan.

Hi there.Nothing negative to say other than I have 8 beneath my ATC 100,s.They are capable of turning a boring speaker in to something special and resale value is high

Just remember it can take up to 2 weeks before they finally settle down.

I,ve got 32 of the dam things under my system and it took 6 weeks before they finally settled in.

Enjoy hooch