The first thing you notice with the ARCHs is a big improvement to overall transparency and clarity. That alone is worth the price of admission. I also heard an expanded soundstage, improved imaging, incredible separation/layering, and a blacker background.
On a fundamental level where judiciously employed, the Acoustic Resonance Clarifiers could make marked enhancements in the enunciation of information in the critical lower mid through upper octaves of an electronic component or loudspeaker. Such results require patience and come with a proviso.
The first impression was an increase in clarity and low level information. The proverbial lifting of veils happened producing images more three dimensional and lifelike.
Further sonic improvements were gained by placing the Mini-ARCHs under my Chord DAVE, sMS-200, tX-USBultra, and BRIX media server. This is quite nice given the form-factor, ease of use, and price of the ARCHs. I was also able to tune my system using various amounts of Mini-ARCHs under my source equipment. This worked especially well for the SOtM sMS-200. Having 8 Mini-ARCHs was a tad bright while using 4 struck a perfect balance. Tuning your system with vibration isolators sounds ridiculous but I think adjustability makes these ARCHs quite attractive.
I used the Lite-ARCHs on the Omega SUPER 3i monitors and the deepOMEGA 8 subwoofer. The results were instantaneous and obvious. The music opens up in limitless fashion and the bass tightens up beautifully. Guitar plucks have more tactility, piano notes have a more natural decay, and vocals have an eerie sense of realism. Resonances are much larger with lower frequencies but having the Lite-ARCHs on the subwoofer provided an amazing amount of control, detail, and authority.
All told, the Gingko is an incredible value for $600, offering an upgrade in performance that’s more commensurate with a component change than an accessory. In addition to the specific improvements noted above, Cloud 11 added a degree of refine-ment to Super Scoutmaster. This is an essential accessory that performed so well in this application that I may seek out some other Gingko products for use with my own components.
Better channel separation, smoother sound with less pitch variance, quieter background. All of those things possible with the cloud system. No matter what setup you have, be it entry level (we all had to start somewhere!) or HIGH END, this cloud system is a worthwhile investment.
Here’s the take-away: If you’re tired of the anemic, over-resolving sound that so many speakers seem to favor, and you‘d like to get back to the pleasure of thoroughly enjoying your music, the Gingko Audio ClaraVu 7 Modular Speaker system coupled with DanaCable speaker wires and interconnects is the way to go.
With the VPI Traveler and Cloud 9T you can get even closer to the music on that vinyl collection you’ve spent years cultivating. Not only that, you’ll have more money left for new music! I’m planning on moving my VPI Traveler and Cloud 9T into the big reference system next. That’s how much I love it. I’m also over the moon regarding Gingko’s table-top dust-cover! It’s beveled at the bottom enabling its lock onto the platform.
So there you have it, short, sweet and to the point. Gingko Audio scores once again with vibration control devices that work very good, are very affordable and easy to use. They are smartly engineered and their performance can be backed up by measurements. Not to mention Mr. Vinh Vu and Mr. Norm Ginsburg have some pretty impressive credentials in the engineering and marketing worlds respectively. And besides, all that plexi-glass looks cool.
I’ve been completely blown away by Gingko Audio’s ClaraVu 7 MkII. My listening room is a difficult space for many conventional speakers, but the Gingkos excelled in this tough environment. While tolerant of less-than-ideal placement, they really sang when I took the trouble to get their positions just right. This was when the ClaraVu 7 MkII became not merely a very good loudspeaker, but one of the most interesting I’ve heard in a long time. It combines many of the best qualities of some of my favorite speakers, while avoiding many, potentially troubling issues of room interaction. Top that with the fact that it’s consummately tube-friendly, and I can’t recommend this one highly enough.
The ClaraVu 7s, in contrast, are designed to mainly please those with ears, equipment, and musical recordings commensurate with high-end audio. You don’t miss any detail, and there are sparks aplenty, but these newest Gingko Audio speakers really shine when given a chance to show off… Anyone can appreciate stellar sound, of course, and excellent speakers always appeal to a wide audience, but for those who live for high-end performance these speakers deliver an audiophile experience at a price that’s hard to beat.
Is it worth adding a Gingko to a turntable like the MMF, which more than doubles the cost of the setup? It seems an absurd proposition, I grant, yet the improvements are more audible than what you will hear most accessory products, including cables, interconnects, line conditioners, cones, pods, pucks, mats, clamps, weights, yak, yak, yak. But, hey, you can answer the question yourself, thanks to Gingko’s 30 day money back guarantee, to which I’ll add a guarantee of my own: put on Kind of Blue at a healthy level and listen for thirty seconds – the difference will be loud and clear in all senses of those words. The pun is as unavoidable as it may be egregious, but the ball’s now in your court.
All in all the Gingko Cloud 11 is a great product at a reasonable price. It is simple to set up and use and it does what it claims to do. It looks good under even the most well manufactured components and larger sizes are also available, (the largest is 26″ x 20″) for oversized turntables and components.
The Cloud 9 provided me with all the perks I noticed on the Cloud 11: Lower noise floor, deeper vision into the recording, more audible details, etchy highs tamed, more clearly defined bass, smoother midrange, improved dynamics, and more precise attack.
If you own a turntable you owe it to yourself to try this superb product at an honest price. The music emerges from a cleaner background, the overall presentation is livelier, the soundstage larger and more detailed. Individual instruments and voices now contain missing detail.
Once again, my recordings became even smoother, more organic, and just downright more fun.
What else did I hear during my time with the Mini Clouds? Bass definition, detail, air, and space were all enhanced. Complex music was more clearly defined. It was like a component upgrade.
Strictly on the merits of sound, the Ginko Cloud 10 isolation platform is a complete success. Even those who believe that their turntables are well isolated may be surprised by the enhanced detail and cohesion that the Cloud 10 can reveal.
Rather than expanding the soundstage, the Gingko cleans things up without changing the size of the performance. This allows the background to seem blacker, images to float a little more, and dynamic nuances to be more easily conveyed.
…it is a well-made product and is nice to look at.
The idea, which you’ve probably envisioned by now, is that the balls allow the Cloud 10 to shrug off airborne and structural vibrations in virtually any direction—vertical, lateral, rotational—whereas spikes, squishy feet, and springs are much more limited in the ways they can move. That the low-mass Cloud 10 also tends not to store energy puts it at an even greater advantage over its comparatively ox-like competitors.
The Could 10 should be recognized for its novel technology, affordability, and range of applications.”