Super Plus

Introduction
Symposium designed the Super Platform to satisfy the problems and requirements of equipment support from a perspective which takes into consideration not only isolation, but also energy drainage out of equipment. The original Super Platform was the first dedicated equipment base to use symmetrical constrained layer damping with metal top and bottom layers.

Pricing
U.S. Pricing is available by clicking on the "US Pricing" link in the Specifications box at the bottom of this page.

Foundations
The Super Plus is the direct descendant of Symposium's first product, the Super Platform, which was developed in 1992 and first introduced as a retail product in 1993. Originally built as a practical sonic foundation for use beneath power amplifiers on floors, it has proven to be a versatile system accessory, benefitting virtually all components, including CD players and digital transports, analog turntables, preamps, amps, separate power supplies, power conditioners, active crossover networks, loudspeakers, and more. Further, its usefulness is not confined to audio, since it also improves performance with video equipment.

Evolution
The original Super presented unique problems in manufacturing. Initially, the various layers were carefully assembled to each other, one by one, in 4 foot by 8 foot sheets, until one very large Super Platform weighing over 300 pounds was made. Each board was then cut from this master "planchette." Beyond the difficulties encountered in the handling, cutting and finishing of these early boards, theory suggested that better performance could be realized if the foam layer were indented from the top and bottom sections, and if a suitable, non-resonant damping were applied to the perimeter of the board. Accordingly, new manufacturing techniques were developed in order to realize these goals. Painting was abandoned in favor of textured vinyl edging, and the foam was indented from the edges. The result refined the performance of the original Super, and added greater neutrality as well as superior isolation and absorption at higher frequencies. This was the second generation of Super Platform.

Later, a third generation arose when the 1/2" foam section was upgraded to 3/4" for additional "heat sinking," further improving performance. Finally, the Super Plus echoed its new, bigger brother, the Ultra Platform, borrowing an additional top layer of anodized aluminum. These constrained aluminum top layers improve high frequency neutrality. With active components, this is perceived as better resolution, with faster, more precise highs with reduced overhang, "glare," and distortion. These hallmarks of the Ultra's design are now realized in a platform with less thickness (overall 2.75"), the Super Plus of today.

The Super Plus, when installed as recommended, will make significant, across-the-board improvements, including more "punch," greater overall purity, a lowered noise floor, more bass impact with better control, wider soundstaging and better dynamics.

The Concept of Vibration Control
Vibration control is a necessary and significant part of any modern, high-performance audio or video system, since mechanical vibration, by moving the relative positions of electric circuit paths, creates distortion by inducing additional electrical, electromagnetic, and electrostatic fields in these signal paths. These additional fields, created when electric fields intersect a conductive pathway or wire, "get in" to the circuitry, adding to the original signal and thus creating distortion. Theoretically, there should be NO additional signal fields added to the signal pathway - as is "assumed" by electrical engineering in the design and execution of electrical schematic diagrams and electrical and electronic theory. To wit, there is no schematic diagram symbol for vibration. In reality, however, "real" world conditions prevail, and vibration adds subtle distortion to the signal chain, an unwanted visitor which "comes along for the ride."

Sources of Vibration
Vibration is introduced to circuitry from a variety of sources- from the floor, from acoustic sound waves traveling through the air, and also from internal mechanical and electronic devices which are themselves part of the component itself. These latter examples include, but are not limited to, devices such as internally mounted power transformers (nearly all of which vibrate at the AC mains frequency of 60 Hz in the United States and 50 Hz in Europe and elsewhere), spinning CD disc motors, turntable motors, etc. In addition, many electronic components such as certain varieties of transistors, capacitors and resistors can also vibrate as current passes through them. While usually much lower in intensity, these normally unsuspected vibration sources are real and must also be taken into consideration. In other words, turning on a component creates more vibration, and thus, every component must be considered not only as a target for but also a generator of vibratory energy.

The Conventional Solution
Most remedies for vibration seek to "isolate" the component - when in reality, most of the most damaging vibration is emanating from inside the component itself. If the component were to be perfectly isolated, the pre-existing and universal vibration present in the component is effectively trapped within it, and in the worst possible place - where the most sensitive circuitry resides. The difference one hears when a component is "isolated" without mechanical grounding is caused by two factors: first, and most obviously, because the vibratory source of the support surface has been eliminated or reduced, and 2) because the vibration inside the component has now been intensified, due to the fact that any escape route or "grounding" path for internal vibration has been eliminated.

Illusional "Benefits" of Intensifying Internal Vibration
When devices which cut off mechanical ground - such as rubber feet, sorbothane bumpers, rubber air bags, etc. - are used to cut off connection between mechanical ground and the component, vibration is trapped inside the component. Symposium has demonstrated in scientifically conducted experiments at trade shows and elsewhere that when a vibrating element is placed upon a rubber isolation pad, the amount of vibration in the element is actually intensified compared to when the element is allowed to contact a ground or floor surface. Now, if a component relies upon an internal resonance for euphonic influence upon its timbral balance either through deliberate or accidental design (that is, for its "voicing"), putting the component upon such compliant footer devices will intensify the euphonic coloration by ensuring that maximum internal vibration exists to excite these internal resonances. This is analogous to hitting a gong or vibrating element harder, to make it resonate louder. While it is true that musical instruments' sole character and raison d'etre is created by and due to their inborn resonant character, this is not a desired characteristic of audio and video components, whose job it is to process a signal as neutrally and transparently as possible, and without adding any character of its own!

The Symposium Difference
Symposium "Energy Absorption Platforms" are so named for a reason - because that's how they work. While the term "isolation" is used almost universally to describe them, devices such as platforms, cones, Rollerblocks, etc. etc. more correctly fall into the general heading of "Vibration control." Vibration control is not merely isolation - because this assumes that there is NO vibration present in or generated by electronic and electro-acoustical components to begin with - which, in nearly 100% of real world cases, is a mistaken assumption. We have designed our platforms not only to isolate components from the resonant condition of the support surface, but also to absorb and diminish vibration which emanates from the component. This two-pronged attack on vibration is extremely effective in revealing the true nature of electronic components and so enabling them to perform closer to their theoretical potential. In most cases, and in revealing, transparent modern audio and video systems, the difference - and the improvements in sound and picture - can be shocking.

The Importance of Coupling or Mechanically Grounding Components
When effectively "coupled" to high performance audio components by footer devices with efficient mechanical transmission characteristics (that is, hard, metallic devices like the included* Precision Couplers, shown below), the Super Plus acts as a "sink" for the internal vibratory energy which would otherwise be trapped inside the component. This effects across-the-board improvements, but among the most noticeable and significant are those of improved dynamics (the contrast between soft and loud sounds), bass timber, background quietness, overall clarity and soundstaging, due to a reduction in noise intermodulation. Three Precision Couplers contact the bare metal bottom of the component chassis, enabling an efficient mechanical grounding or "coupling" to the top layer of the Platform. By thus efficiently coupling to the Platform, the Super Platform becomes, in effect, a mechanical extension of the component chassis, damping resonances and dissipating spurious mechanical vibration which is present in the chassis and active circuitry. At the same time, because of its symmetrical construction, the Super also damps the support structure (the rack, stand, shelf, floor, etc. that it rests upon). By damping energy (and converting it to innocuous heat energy) from both directions at once, equipment isolation is achieved which is 1) non-resonant (that is, neither adding nor subtracting to timbral balance) and 2) resistive (that is, converting energy to heat energy as opposed to reactive solutions which change one resonant frequency to a different one) in nature.
* Precision Couplers are supplied with all Super Plus platforms.

The Super Plus, when installed as recommended, will make significant, across-the-board improvements, including more "punch," greater overall purity, a lowered noise floor, more bass impact with better control, wider soundstaging and better dynamics.

Couplers

The Super Plus under Loudspeakers: Is the Tail Wagging the Dog?