THIS MONTH: SOUND BOOSTING HI FI ACCESSORIES
TRANSFORM YOUR TURNTABLE Orea Graphite £45 each
Many years ago, I remember my dad placing half a squash ball under each of BEST BUY his turntable’s feet to help improve its sound quality. Fast forward three decades and I’ve just added four Orea Graphite isolator feet – the audiophile’s modern squash ball – to my Rega turntable. The results have been a good deal better than I expected.
The Oreas are designed to fit under any audio component, and with a choice of four weight classes from 1.8 to 14.5kg depending on your set-up, they’re designed to eliminate ‘parasitic vibrations’. In other words, the rubber feet help unwanted noise escape and so help your music sound better.
But is £180 to upgrade a £300 turntable worth the money? Some people spend astronomical sums on minuscule sound improvements, but here the impact was very noticeable, with my music’s performance, brightness and bass response completely re-energised.
I spent an age removing and replacing the feet to check I wasn’t going mad, but no, the improvements are real and the Oreas are significantly better value than buying a whole new hi-fi. Isoacoustics.com