IsoAcoustics Gaia Series Isolation Feet for Speakers & Subwoofers (Gaia II, 120 lb max) – Set of 4

I have to admit that adding a Furman power conditioner made a noticeable difference in the sound of my system, and I am convinced that better speaker wires made a significant difference in the sound of my system. However, I do not believe that the IsoAcoustics Gaia III feet make my Revel F226Be speakers sound any better than they did before they were installed, and to make matters worse, the feet were unnecessarily difficult to install. Let's begin with the flaws in the design. The feet are secured against the speaker bottom with a thin knurled ring nut that screws into the bottoms of your speakers. Because you want to screw the feet in as far as possible for stability, the nuts are thin. This leaves very little space between the bottom of the speaker and the top of the foot for the nut (and thus for the tool that tightens the nut). You're supposed to use needle-nose pliers, according to the instructions. To tighten the nuts, I used a pair of needle-nosed pliers wrapped in a cloth, but if you can get those ring nuts securely tightened in that small space with that tool, you're a better person than me. IsoAcoustics could make installation much easier by using thin hex nuts instead of ring nuts and including a thin wrench to tighten those hex nuts. This is a better design because, unlike pliers on a ring nut, a wrench will grip a hex nut securely without slipping. br>br>Another odd design feature is that the feet are supposed to be installed with the writing on them facing forward, which means they should only be screwed in an integral number of turns, making it nearly impossible to level and stabilize the speaker. As a result, my speakers rock slightly instead of feeling solidly anchored to the ground. Now, I definitely want my speakers to "rock," but not to the point where the speaker-to-floor connection is compromised. I expected to hear a difference in performance after sweating and wrestling for about an hour to get the feet installed so that the speakers wobbled as little as possible. Nothing. There's no "tighter bass" or "better sound clarity. " " It's true that getting an A- is difficult. Unless, of course, you have two sets of speakers that are identical except for the feet, which one pair has and the other does not. Even so, I'm willing to bet that, with my system in particular, most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference between speakers with Gaia IIIs and otherwise identical speakers without them in a blind listening test. br>br>The Gaia IIIs came highly recommended by people with impressive audio credentials, and it was because of this positive press that I decided to give them a try. I purchased them in the hopes of getting a noticeable sound improvement as well as a simple way to level my speakers. They did neither of these things. After several months of ownership, I believe they are the worst $400 I have ever spent on audio equipment. I had the option to return them but chose not to, and I accept responsibility for that. However, I believe they are poorly designed and do not perform as well as they are advertised, and I wish I had recognized this sooner. If you insist on trying them, I recommend purchasing them from a retailer with a generous return policy and focusing on what you actually hear (or don't hear) rather than what others tell you you should hear. Don't assume that just because the Gaia IIIs are expensive and have good reviews that they will improve your listening system. And, of course, give yourself plenty of time to set everything up.

Lila Beard

| Jan 19, 2021

For the past 60 years, I've been an audiophile and a do-it-yourselfer. This is one of the most difficult products I've ever tried to put together. To begin, you'll need to remove the footers from your speakers. Second, once you've removed yours, you'll need wood inserts and holes in which to screw these footers, which come in one of four sizes; if your original footers don't have inserts, you'll need to drill a hole that corresponds to the size screw you chose for the weight of your speakers. Third, don't expect to find the metric/SAE size you require at your local hardware store. Finally, if you've made it this far and are screwing in the new footers, the insert will most likely grind the walls of the hole you just drilled and turn with each turn of the supplied footer screws, implying that you won't be able to get all eight of them tightened to the base of your speakers. Fifth, you'll waste a lot of time attempting to figure out why you were given a box wrench instead of a round washer. Sixth, if you believe that adjusting the height of the footers is all you need to do to improve the sound in your room, you haven't fully grasped the number one rule of home stereo equipment- The final immutable determination of the sound in your room is the room where your system is installed. There's only so much you can do to make that sound more to your liking, especially when these footers may (or may not) alter your "sweet spot," e. g. where the tweeters have now caught your attention. However, if you really want to spend a lot of money to keep your hardwood floors from scratching, go ahead and do it.

Chase Bishop

| Nov 17, 2021

Excellent sound quality is achieved through the use of high-quality cables, power filtering, an audio-grade outlet, and room treatments. However, no matter how hard I tried, there was a layer of haze that would not go away. Especially in the lower price range. br>br> These lovely little feet removed that layer while also cleaning up the entire atmosphere to a greater extent than I could have imagined. The taming of bass bloating and the improvement of low-end clarity were the most noticeable effects right away. I'm embracing clarity in a way I've never done before. My speakers, like Clarity, have grown an extra transducer by themselves. br>br> My father, who lives directly below me, noticed the bass clean up as well. He claimed that the low-frequency vibrations and noise had almost vanished. That alone is a strong argument for the Gaia III effect. br>br>I won't go on and on about improved audio quality because you reading this don't have a real meter to compare these improvements to, nor do you know what the sound quality was before the Gaia III, but I will strongly recommend these feet for your tower speakers, regardless of their price point. br>br>If anything, these feet are better suited for typical consumer tower speakers than exotic tower speakers because a typical pair of towers has less attention paid to internal distortions, excess vibrations, bass bloating, midrange smearing, and so on. It is here that the Gaia III can really strut their stuff with plenty to chew on, if you know what I mean. br>br>I have these feet on my JBL Studio 190 towers, which cost just $100 more than the Gaia III feet and are still current (before everyone shunned them for their appearance without ever listening to them). br>br>The Gaia III feet were the best $400 I've ever spent on an audio system. If you don't want to replace your tower speakers but want clarity like you've never heard from them before, the Gaia III is the way to go. According to the literature, the Gaia III feet have a weight capacity of 60 pounds, not 70 pounds.

Julieta HOWARTH

| Jan 20, 2021