Introduction
Although Svelte Shelf's most noticeable feature is its attractive, slim design (hence the name "Svelte," meaning slim or slender), the fact is, it's not just a shelf, but a sophisticated, anti-resonant platform for the support of high-quality audio and video components.

Placed under CD Players, DVD players, amps, preamps, speakers, and more, Symposium's Svelte Shelf will improve the performance of your system without changing its inherent tonal character.

Prior to its introduction, equivalent performance required much greater thickness and mass. Weighing in at a mere 5/8" (1.6 cm) thickness, Svelte Shelf's design is simple, but effective. Now, even the most vertically-space-challenged rack or stand can benefit from Symposium vibration control.

The Svelte Shelf works well on most surfaces; it can be placed flat on an existing shelf or floor or substituted for an existing shelf by ordering an exact size replacement.

Science and the Shelf
The Svelte Shelf is a tool for lessening the haze and imprecision which afflicts most "untreated" components. These artifacts are caused by vibration, and their severity can vary greatly from component to component as well as from installation to installation. The Svelte works by draining vibration out of the component, while at the same time providing a less resonant surface for it to rest upon. Its design is a special modification of time-tested "sandwich" diaphragm technology used to advance the state of the art in loudspeaker performance.

Available Sizes
8x10 $275., 10x12 $315., 10x14 $329., 12x14 $379., 14x19 $449., 19x14 $449, 12x22 $495., 19x18 $599., 19x21 $659., and 24x19 $769., other sizes are available.

Positive Feedback ISSUE 73 May/June 2014

Svelte and Segue (Pronounced Segway) Line of Platforms

as reviewed by Andre Marc

"The Thors placed on the Svelte Plus produced a clearly superior result in a few areas. First, imaging was more specific, and this, in turn, allowed for an even more defined soundstage, something these amps were already doing very well. Another area I noticed an immediate and clear improvement in was bass articulation. The Thors were producing superb, tight, and deep bass, but on the Svelte Shelf Plus, bass notes were more precise, with less, if any, overhang. The entire spectrum from mid-bass on down benefited from a tighter overall picture."

The Svelte Plus is an expanded version of the Svelte Shelf, with a center foam section twice as thick as the center foam section of the standard Svelte Shelf. In addition, the foam section of the Svelte Plus is protected by textured vinyl edgebanding, similar to that found on the Ultra Platform. Including its polished stainless steel top and bottom, total thickness is approximately 1.125 inches or 2.9 cm.

A more affordable alternative to the Super Plus and Ultra Platforms, the Svelte Plus is a synergistic combination with hard equipment footers and a perfect interface for Symposium Rollerblocks. Doubling the internal foam section increases damping power, isolation effectiveness, and rigidity, and allows further benefits in transient preservation, microdynamics, timber resolution, and top-to-bottom musicality.

Available Sizes
8x10 $375., 10x12 $415., 10x14 $429., 12x14 $479., 19x14 $549., 14x19 $549., 12x22 $595., 19x18 $699., 19x21 $759., and 24x19 $869., other sizes are available in the future!.

Reviews: 

Bruce Kinch Positive Feedback Jan/Feb 2015

"...the Segue ISO re-mapped the soundstage wider, higher, and deeper than ever before, be it the clang and rattle of the Wuorinen or the airy acoustic surrounding the Swedish choir and organ.

...an easy recommendation for a wide range of turntables."

Introduction
Popular demand for an affordable, entry-level addition to the established stable of Symposium platforms engendered the Segue, a new reference for affordable, effective isolation and damping for high-quality music and video systems.

Benefits
All music and video systems benefit from proper vibration control. The benefits of Symposium platforms are well known and have been documented, written, and raved about for two decades, and the Segue continues this tradition in an affordable, attractive package that is accessible by virtually any budget. The Segue will improve bass quality, timbral resolution, musical dynamics, imaging, focus, and virtually all aspects of the listening experience. Placed under video components, the picture quality is also affected for the better, with less noise, improved color saturation, etc.

Placed under CD Players, DVD players, servers, suspended turntables, amps, preamps, speakers, and more, the Segue will improve the performance of your system without adding new resonances, colorations, or unwanted artifacts.

Dimensions and Weight
The Segue is 1.625" (1 5/8") or approximately 4 cm thick; a standard 19x14 (48cm x 35.5cm) platform weighs approximately 7 lbs (approximately 3.2 kG). While our popular size roster for platforms (see below) is still in effect, the Segue can be ordered in virtually any size needed for special applications or to fit into specific areas.

Technology
The Segue is a streamlined version of our time-tested Super, Super Plus, and Ultra Platforms, and achieves its goals in like manner by using stepped-density layers carefully bonded together to form a resonance-free absorptive engine for the dissipation of vibratory energy. The top layer is anodized aluminum; the bottom layer is a special composite consisting of bonded wood elements. A heat-exchanging center section serves to convert mechanical energy into sonically harmless heat energy, and provide effective, resistive isolation between the support surface and the component in use. The Segue, like all Symposium products, reduces or eliminates vibration neutrally, and will not convert it into a different, more "euphonic" form that employ compliant polymers, Sorbothane, and similar materials.

Weight Capacity

On flat surfaces: The Segue shares the high weight capacity of all Symposium platforms and has moderate cantilever strength. Placed flat upon a uniform support surface (such as a shelf, table, floor, etc.), it has a theoretical weight limit of several hundred pounds (>150 kG) or more. When placed on top of cones, rack posts, etc: When only supported at three or four contact areas (such as couplers, cones, vertical rack legs, etc), very high weight loads (greater than 100 pounds or about 45 kG) should be avoided. With moderately heavy weight loads of more than about 40 pounds (18 kG), the support contacts should be placed or located directly beneath and inside the footprint of the load itself, and not outside the load's perimeter.

Available Sizes
up to 9x14 $199., 19x14., $229, 19x18 $329., 19x21 $449., and 24x19 $549.

Segue Stealth- Additional Silk Black anodized aluminum layer added to top of Segue Platform improves performance. Add following pricing to above platforms. 19x14 Adds $135., 19x18 Adds $165. 19x21 Adds $190., 19x24 adds $225.

A special edition of the Segue Platform, the Segue ISO, adds a new, vertical suspension footer system to the Segue's already excellent damping engine to provide an effective, resonance-free isolation system. Marked reduction of difficult-to-isolate, extremely low-frequency vertical waves caused by footfalls, low bass feedback, etc. is accomplished by the ISO without a sacrifice in sound quality. Developed especially with analog turntables in mind, the Segue ISO offers remarkable performance and true low-frequency isolation at a previously unheard-of low price.

Available Sizes
19x14 $449., 19x18 $569., 19x21 $659., 24x19 $779., other sizes are available.

Super Segue ISO

The Super Segue is a heavy duty, double thickness version of the Segue ISO, offering double the damping and isolation power of the normal Segue section, greater stiffness and weight capacity, and an expanded LDSS footer suspension. It offers the same superlative performance of the Segue ISO and more, with greater dynamic retrieval, bass authority, background quietness, and weight capacity. Also available in Stealth black top version.

Heavy Duty Turntable Isolation Platform with damped vertical wave isolation
3 7/8” no load; 3 3/4” thick max load

MD Version for up to 100 lbs load

Available Sizes
19x14 $799., 19x18 $899., 19x21 $999., 24x19 $1199., Stealth Version adds below Pricing

Additional Silk Black anodized aluminum layer added to top of Segue ISO improves performance. Add prices to pricing of platforms.

Available Sizes
19x14 $135., 19x18 $165., 19x21 $190., 24x19 $225., 

Introduction Symposium designed the Super Platform to satisfy the problems and requirements of equipment support from a perspective that takes into consideration not only isolation but also energy drainage out of equipment. The original Super Platform was the first dedicated equipment base to use symmetrical constrained layer damping with metal top and bottom layers.

#1 For Loudspeakers No "points," cones, or footers - even ours - can compete with a full platform for loudspeaker treatment. Why? It's a simple matter of physics - the operative function in loudspeaker vibration control is NOT isolation, but rather energy dissipation from the speaker's cabinet or frame. No footer at any price can match the sheer absorptive power of a correctly designed platform. Further, a platform does not form a cavity beneath the speaker, which, as the great speaker designer Paul W. Klipsch observed, can "ruin" bottom octave reproduction. When installed as directed, the Super Plus platform will significantly outperform even the most expensive points and footers, some of which can cost several times as much. For a further discussion of the technical aspects, please click here.

Foundations The Super Plus is the direct descendant of Symposium's first product, the Super Platform, which was developed in 1992 and first introduced as a retail product in 1993. Originally built as a practical sonic foundation for use beneath power amplifiers on floors, it has proven to be a versatile system accessory, benefiting virtually all components, including CD players and digital transports, analog turntables, preamps, amps, separate power supplies, power conditioners, active crossover networks, loudspeakers, and more. Further, its usefulness is not confined to audio, since it also improves performance with video equipment.

Available Sizes

9x14 $399., 19x14 $799., 19x18 $899., 19x21 $999., 24x19 $1149., 27x21.5 $1899., other sizes are available.

Ultra Platform - 3.5" Thick

Origins

The Symposium Ultra Platform evolved from our first product, the Super Platform, and was created in an attempt to push the performance limits for a solid equipment platform further than had previously been possible. Experiments and listening tests in many different types of systems indicated that those aspects of the Super which could directly benefit lay in the thickness of the foam center section (which serves as a "heat sink" that converts mechanical energy to heat) and in additional constrain layering of the critical top layer. Also, a new, larger coupler was made which would provide more surface area contact between the Ultra's top and the equipment chassis.

Characteristics

The Ultra retains the following features of Symposium energy absorption construction:

•  Ordered constrained-layer construction
•  Superior energy dissipation with a low reflection back to the component
•  Solid platform with no "bounce"
•  No leveling problems
•  No leakage problems
•  Virtually no weight limit
•  Performance independent of its support structure
•  Ideal interface for Rollerblocks, cones, and hard "footer devices."
•  Resonance-free isolation of upper 9 octaves of the audible range
•  Zero interaction problems with tuned suspensions of turntables

  NOT designed or intended for isolation of extremely low-frequency footfall problems - see "Ultra Analog" page

  Will further improve analog turntable sound quality when used with or without additional low-frequency isolation devices

Compared to the Super Plus Platform, the standard Ultra Platform has 2 major distinctions:  Double thickness center "heatsink"

Banded center foam section

Anatomy
The Ultra consists of a multi-layered design (right) of varying density materials. But what's different about Symposium constrained-layer construction is that we have arranged the density of these layers in a specific order, from dense (metal top) to less dense, and then back again. The idea here is to gradually change density in steps, in the same direction, so that energy may penetrate more easily through adjacent layers. This unique but essentially simple design achieves optimal energy drainage from both the component side AND the support (bottom) side at the same time. This "dual-direction" absorption provides effective isolation without eliminating the advantages of good energy drainage and does it without introducing any mechanical "reactances" which are caused by materials which store and release energy, such as Sorbothane and other rubber products. Instead of behaving like a reactive load, the design is more resistive, which means it is resonance-free, adding no colorations to the component's sonic "character" in attaining its goal of reducing noise and distortions in the components it treats.

Ultra Specifications:

• Total thickness: 3.5 inches (9 cm) 
• Finish: Brushed, clear anodized aluminum
• Options: "Stealth" blacktop available on special order  
• Couplers: 3 Precision Couplers; 4 Precision Couplers with 19x24
• Foam: 1.5 inches, banded  

Weight Limit: Virtually unlimited

Available Sizes
9x14 $399., 19x14 $799, 19x18 $899., 19x21 $999., and 24x19 $1149., 27x21.5 $1949., other sizes are available.

Stealth Edition Ultra Blacktop adds the below Additional Costs to the above size pricing:

Additional Silk Black anodized aluminum layer added to the top of Ultra Platform or Super Plus 

Add prices to the pricing of platforms. 

Retrofitting (to existing or damaged platforms) available 

9x14 $150.,19x14 $200, 19x18 $250., 19x21 $300., and 24x19 $350., 27x21.5 $450., 

Introduction:

The Quantum Signature is the logical next evolutionary development of the Symposium's Quantum Platform. Retaining the best features of the Quantum, the new Quantum Signature embodies an accumulation of technologies invented, developed, and utilized by Symposium Acoustics in the effective coupling and damping of electronic components in a dedicated platform, and spares nothing in the quest for true, state-of-the-art performance. Utilizing technology borrowed from the very successful Svelte Shelf and "expanding the envelope" to the limits of practicality and design, and now combining it with newly developed low-frequency LDSS (Linear Displacement Suspension System) damped isolation, the Quantum Signature delivers the last word in neutrality, nuance, timber resolution, dynamics and transient preservation. As one high-end audio industry insider who owns one said, "There is nothing else in the industry like it."

Technology:

Mechanical energy inside of electronic and electromechanical devices can cause increased noise levels due to spurious electrical energies induced by this vibration in conducting signal paths. The goal is to ensure that all signal paths are maintained neutrally. All equipment must be supported by some kind of foot device, whether it be individual members or a large flat plane. The Quantum's top is split into four separate, independent platforms, each of which is designed to absorb and dissipate energy from the component. Because of the separation, energy drained from each of a maximum of 4 feet cannot combine and be reflected back into the component. Thus, draining/damping of the component chassis is achieved more effectively, further lowering intermodulation distortion which may be caused by subtle mechanical energy, whose object is to lower the noise floor. Lower noise levels in the component allow faster transients across the entire spectrum. In addition, extreme low bass preservation has been improved, even over the vaunted Ultra, which was our previous reference in this area. The Quantum Signature takes the bass benefits of the Ultra and extends them a full octave lower, to the foundations of audible sound.

Quadrant Isolation:

By splitting the top surface of the platform into 4 quadrants, the Quantum divides the work of energy drainage into four isolated sectors. These independent sections in effect separate components into four parts, achieving superior overall drainage but also reducing mechanical intermodulation of these unwanted mechanical energies in the component. Each of the four iso-quadrants is constructed of dual layers of heavy-gauge, constrain-layer damped stainless steel. Each rectangle of stainless steel is precision laser cut to tolerances of 1/1000 inch or less, and each of the four resulting top sections is hand-assembled and carefully finished.

LDSS Vertical Isolation:

The Quantum Signature features an all-new suspension system utilizing a custom damped, spring-assisted suspension damped by AirCell foam. Thousands of tiny air bubbles provide superior damping at bass frequencies without overhang or bass "bloat," while the custom, damped spring suspension ensures high weight capacity, predictable behavior under load, and reliability for the owner's lifetime. Each Quantum Signature is "tuned" for the desired weight range in order to provide effective, damped extreme low-frequency isolation. Combined with its unique and unequaled high-frequency quadrant resonance damping, the Quantum Signature represents a new reference standard of isolation and vibration control treatment for virtually all active components, including analog turntables, digital sources, and more.

Precision Supercouplers

Four special equipment:

" Precision SuperCouplers" borrow from Rollerblock technology. Made of 7075 aircraft aluminum and coated with a harder-than-steel skin of black "hard coat" anodizing, the black SuperCoupler has a precision-machined matrix of honeycombed cavities which significantly improve the conduction of mechanical energy, improving energy transmission between the component and Quantum quadrants. Each SuperCoupler is placed on one of the four quadrants to contact the bare chassis of the supported component.

Turntable Motor Cutout Versions:

The Quantum Signature is also available in a special edition specially made for turntables with separate motors. This Motor Cutout version has a fifth section isolated from the normal 4 quadrants in order to further isolate motor noise from the turntable plinth structure.

Available Sizes

19x14 $4,495., 19x18 $4,995., 19x21 $5,495., 24x19 $5,595., 27x21.5 $6995., 27x21.5 Motor Cutout Version $7,995., other sizes are available. Pro Ampstand Option Adds $800.