Today I watched Skunkie’s video „DIY 2.2A Speaker Build: Testing and Review!“. Close to the end she talks about IsoAcoustics pucks and what a difference they make, and I thought: Now this is interesting! The IsoAcoustics pucks she discusses made me curious and so I payed a visit to their website to learn more. As far as I do understand, the pucks reduce, or shield from, horizontal and vertical vibrations. Now, some years ago, looking for new ways of improving my HiFi system, I happened to stumble upon an article written by a man name of Barry Diament on exactly the same topic: cancelling vibrations. Well, you may think, he is in good company, an immense number of other people have done the very same and claimed to have t h e perfect solution – mostly some sort of superduper schock-absorbing thingies … and mostly to super duper money-absorbing prices and questionable results. You see, the thing is that Barry’s approach is very pragmatic and low cost … and it does actually really work. It's total genius! And it’ll just cost you just a couple of bucks to buy the required materials and hardly any skills at all to build this „shockingly“ good shock-absorbers and try it for yourself. Intrigued by now? Good. This is my version of Mr Diament’s Enjoyyourshelf©: I suggest you start with dampening your speakers. Required materials: two bicycle tire tubes (size depending on your speaker’s base), two boards of plywood, 6 roller ball transfer bearings (3 per board). Make the boards somewhat wider than the base of your speakers, choose some tubes which will fit under the boards, inflate the tubes to about two thirds of their capacity and place them under the respective boards, now place three of the roller ball bearings on top each board (setting up a stable triangle for the speakers). Done. Now get those speakers on the platforms, sit down and be prepared to be amazed. Since about four years now my speakers rest on tires and bearings. And I am as happy as a dog with two tails! There is only one caveat to this system: it’s not the most stable thing you can come across. If you have cats or little children (especially cats …) you might want to consider a different solution. Here’s a link to Mr Diament's site: https://www.barrydiamentaudio.com Go to articles and look for "improving your system". All credits go to Barry Diament – I am just happy I stumbled upon his article some years ago.

Are you too still wondering how these things work? You watched Skunkie's videos several times but still feel not really comfortable with the subject – I did (completely my fault, not hers – tube and electronics noob). Well, I just happened to find a YouTube channel with some very interesting videos on how tube amps work. At least I find them rather informative and enlightening. This two videos helped me a lot to better understand what happens in these circuits filled with "transmorfers", tubes, capacitators and so on. So if you are interested in these very well presented videos go and check them out. Oh, I nearly forgot … the nice person running the channel calls himself "Uncle Doug" and is actually talking about guitar amps, but that is still the same principle. Here's a link to the first video on how tube amps work – the power supply: https://youtu.be/x5SSKX74DKg?si=dDI7qxC65hiXXX2Z And here comes part two – pre-amp and power supply https://youtu.be/901iaPVVzY0?si=8oEAFDtX7rDhxF2T I hope some of you may find this as informative as I did. My head-scratching frequency dropped significantly.

Hello everyone from Germany. Years ago I thought about building a tube amp of some sort on my own but, to be honest, I got intimidated rather quickly by schematics, data sheets and that stuff which looks like some weird outta space knitting patterns and so I abandoned the idea. But, not long ago, I discovered Skunkie's channel and now – not afraid anymore and definitely less confused – I am willing to take the challenge. I will start with a humble kit which I ordered just the other day with Ali. Just to warn you, there may be some questions coming …