Daedalus Audio Isolation Devices Review

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At the end of your meal the waitress would usually bring a small plate with a few cookies or some other treat on it: “The chef made these earlier, please enjoy.” Cooking was their thing. The staff went into the kitchen and food started flying out. I’m sure the chef went to bed at night and woke up in the morning all while thinking about new culinary experiments. No doubt there was some dreaming along the same lines in between. After years of stereo listening, isolating from vibration has become my thing. Yes, while I’m waiting to nod off, I do sometimes think about how to get more squishy stuff under components. Besides thinking about what squishy stuff would work best, I have to think about what it’s going to look like, I’m still trying to maintain the appearance of a sane person, for now.

For Lou Hinkley, founder of Daedalus Audio, wood working is the thing. The crazy-good speakers don’t exactly fly out of his shop north of Seattle but if you get in line, you can get a pair. These hand-made beauties using only solid hardwoods don’t come cheap but to my ears they are easily the better of far more expensive competition. Still, the shop has enough bandwidth and bandsaws and dream time to produce some component isolation devices that can be brought to your door, not by a waitress, and not for free, but at a very reasonable price.

The DiDs are a lovely marriage of solid Cherry, polished aluminum, steel bearings, brass and highly compressed felt.

The Cherry and aluminum are what you see. The aluminum is polished to the point where it looks a little shinier than brushed nickel, a little less shiny than chrome. A black anodized finish is also available. The cherry wood has a light oil finish. You can lift the top right out to see the bearings sitting on the felt. The brass is in the form of a little plug in the middle of the wooden top and similarly in the cherry wood that comprises the bottom. In my own experiments with vibration isolation, I found that combining different materials is the way to go but even if I’d thought of it, I would have lacked the ambition to combine the brass and wood pieces like this.

Felt is something I’ve used off and on, but not like this. The Daedalus Audio speaker manufacturing facility is best described as a ‘wood shop’. Next door is a machine shop, with an 80-ton press. The DiD felt is thus pressed. I would have guessed that there would be no felt left after such treatment – maybe a diamond in its place – but the felt survives, and it’s in these DiDs.

I had settled in on my Parasound CD-1 as my preferred digital source. Not using it as a source for a DAC, just using it. You know, as a CD player. The CD-1 uses AKM DAC chips that border on digital-brightness, smartly coming in on the right side of that line and I much prefer that to the digital-darkness of the reigning marketplace champs ESS Technology. SimAudio is one of the many manufactures who use their chips. My 430HA headphone amp has the DAC option – using ES9018K2M SABRE32 DAC chips which were the top of the ESS line at one point. Well, you know where this is going – I put the DiDs under the DAC and now using the CD-1 as a digital source only, feeding the DAC by SPDIF, I had a new favorite. The Sim/ESS solution always had more intrigue – a richness to the timbre and deeper bass. With the DiDs, the darkness was lifted, and the best qualities of this DAC shone through. The bass was not only deeper, but it also had texture.

My CD-1 is crammed onto a shelf with no possibility of adding the 1 and 3/8 inches that the DiDs add when placed underfoot so I couldn’t try them there. I did try a home-brew solution of some cork coasters. A little bit better, for a while. This is what I find with all my DIY attempts at component isolation – whatever squishy stuff I think of to try, it gets squished down over time. With the Daedalus DiDs, the felt is pre-compressed so that part is done, and the ball bearings work on a different principle – sliding, not squishing.

The height of the DiDs is something to consider not only for shelf space but for appearances. I found the jacked-up look of my DAC on top of DiD’s a little off-putting at first. Sort of a monster truck vibe. But I now prefer it. Without the DiDs it looks sad, not properly displayed.

It’s a little bit of a chore jacking and un-jacking my DAC (yes, I said it). But I had to do it for some A/B comparisons.

As you might have guessed if you didn’t know, Bomb the Bass records have plenty of bass. With the DiDs supporting the bass-champion ESS DACs I was addicted to this record. On the US version the song following “Empire” is “Sandcastles” which I had always found a little bit syrupy and too commercial for me. With the DiDs helping to keep the instruments and vocals sorted, I get the appeal.

With every CD I tried the A/B testing became A/Beeeeee as I much preferred the sound with the DiD’s in place. I’m really wanting to try them in the analog path, but the afore-mentioned shelf space and height issues are preventing that for now. If you have the room, or can make the room, I highly recommend giving the DiDs a try.

The DiDs can also be had with a flat black finish. Other isolation devices by Daedalus: The DiD-SPK, a heavy brass puck for under speakers, specifically speakers with spikes. I am very much in the firm, not squishy, foundation for speakers. To go with the DiD-SPK’s, some very nice, heavy stainless steel and brass spikes, much more substantial than any others I’ve seen. And finally, the “Daedalus Stability Base” – an outrigger type of platform sized for Daedalus speakers with 8″ woofers.