Audiocrast Tri-Ball Absorbers

Following my positive experience with the Chinese-made Aucharm acoustic absorbers on our Thorens TD320 turntable earlier this year, I felt encouraged to explore an alternative tri-ball absorber design for our Dual CS-721 turntable. Three months had passed since my original purchase, during which I had further experimented with the Aucharm absorbers. And, although I was generally happy with how they worked, I had also detected a slight wobble that appeared to stem from the three liner holes of the top-liner being asymetrical to the holes in the base. It was difficult to say if this was an error on the side of the producer or simply a part of the design philosophy. Instead of standing stable on the three metal balls, the top section would wobble, until a Hi-Fi unit was placed on top.

The Aucharm absorbers had two interesting features that made them ideal for the TD320. The diameter of the upper support was smaller than that of the base underneath and perfectly complemented the Thorens' round chassis indentations. And they were height-adjustable to level an uneven surface. These features did make them intersting to keep, despite the slight wobble, but they also made me curious as to what else the market had to offer. The Audiocrast absorbers perfectly filled that niche for me, as they looked to be more sturdy. In addition, I found it interesting that the Audiocrast absorbers came in different colours to better match their equipment. The choices were solid silver, black, and gold. The colour presented here is obviously silver, even if we ultimatley decided to go with black for our Dual CS-721 turntable, because it looked more accomplished in combination with the original black top half of the plinth.

The Audiocrast absorbers were not height adjustable. This was important to keep in mind, if one was to be fussy about the turntable being absolutely level. They also featured a centre prong with a rubber seal around it. The rubber seal held the top half of each absorber in place over the base. A welcome feature, if the unit on top was to be pushed across a shelf or the floor, however, this design would also compromise the insulation characteristics of the absorber, simply because there was an additional acoustic bridge in addition to the ball coupling. Furthermore, the Audiocrast absorbers had 1mm plastic cushions on the top and bottom surfaces that might affect the overall purity of sound. My expectations therefore were not all too great, and I ordered a spring-based absorber system in addition to the tri-ball absorber to have more choice when comparing the affect on sound.

To my surprise, the Audiocrast absorbers surpassed the Aucharms in combination with our Dual turntable with American walnut plinth at an instance. Bass frequencies sounded cleaner and had slightly greater punch. Both the Audiocrast and the Aucharm absorbers surpassed the spring-loaded absorbers, as their impact on sound was still comparable. It seemed that the sping-loaded absorbers, while being superior isolators, did not offer enough stability to quiet the inherent vibrations of the turntable motor. Alternating between the three absorber designs, I found that the black Aucharm look worked far better with our Dual than the silver ones did. As the Audiocrast absorbers sounded superior in combination with our CS-721, however, I would need to order them in black as well. The spring absorbers, on the other hand, were so special that, at the time of writing this, I was not sure if there was a scenario in which their lack of support might ever come in handy.

Specifications

• Manufacturer: Audiocrast
• Type: tri-ball acoustic absorber
• Application: vibration dampening and insulation
• Base material: aluminum alloy
• Ball material: stainless steel (ceramic optional)
• Available colours: silver, black, gold
• Load capacity (set of four): 200 kg (max.)
• Dimensions: (W) 39mm; (D) 39mm; (H) 23-24mm(*)
• Centre screw (optional): 8mm
• Weight: 264-272g per set; (66-68g, each(*)
• Country of origin: China

(*) Note: differences in weight and dimension are due to variations in ball diameter

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