Mecado's
All appliances produce internal vibrations that settle into the structure of the appliance and cause the internal componentry such as circuit boards and transformers to vibrate and thus add mechanical distortion, and eventually signal degradation, to the audio signal. Most susceptible are the music and video sources such as CD, DVD, SACD and turntables. Followed by standard electronic appliances’ componentry such as transistors and valves and not to mention the vibrations induced by transformers into an appliances’ chassis. Lastly Loudspeakers also benefit immensely from being isolated properly in the listening room. Using coupling devices such as spikes and cones, the vibration not only drains out but also travels back into the appliance you are trying to isolate. Cones, feet, and similar devices do not completely isolate an appliance. What they do is couple the appliance to the surface it is sitting on and allow vibrational energy to go in both directions. Only when you fully isolate your appliance will you begin to hear what it sounds like. By incorporating a 'shoe' at the base of the isolation assembly a more complete de-coupling of the appliance from its environment is achievable. Ideally All environmental and appliance vibrations are dissipated at the cone/shoe junction as heat. In the real-world one can only say that most of these are dissipated so.
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What also helps is the choice of materials. MecadoTM’s, designed and manufactured by Bocchino Technologies, are essentially Mechanical Diodes that channel mechanical vibrational energy to the cone/shoe interface for dissipation as heat. The design minimises transmission of mechanical vibrational energy from the environment where the appliance is located and maximises the removal of the same from the appliance to the cone/shoe interface for dissipation and removal. It does this by having a perfectly flat surface on top of the cone to maximise area contact to the base of the appliance thus enabling as much microvibrational hash to be transmitted to the diode interface as rapidly as possible ( more than 16,400 feet per second ) and an equally flat surface on the base of the shoe with a larger diameter than the cone to deliver exceptional stability to the device. The shoe acting to isolate external noise and acts as a diode interface at the cone point junction to ensure that sound only travels one way and that is out of the appliance to the diode junction for dissipation as heat.
A MecadoTM will dissipate microvibrational hash from its serviced appliance in less than 46 microseconds that's: 0.000046 seconds.The Standard MecadoTM’s are made from high Chromium stainless steel ( 316L ) with the balance being Nickel, Iron with traces of Molybdenum and Titanium and is also non-magnetic.
Mecados are also available in Titanium and Tungsten.
Benefits
The benefits are audible immediately on installation and improve dramatically as more MecadoTM’s are placed under more of the appliances; Nominally the most you need to use on most appliances is 3, on very heavy loudspeakers and behemouth amplifiers then 4 may be required .Music displays less smearing and appears more distinct. Transients are sharper and possess more bite while being more refined. Instruments have more solidity, and their focus or location in the stereo field is better defined with the space around them cleaned and free of vibrational artefacts. There is a cleaner air to music and especially vocals. A more natural reproduction of an instruments’ timbre becomes evident with greater accuracy in the mapping of each notes' transient and harmonic space. Resolution of low-level information is greatly enhanced as it would normally be lost in the micro-vibrational artefacts that persist in a system that is not properly de-coupled. There is better translation of the time between notes and greater clarity in tracking the subtle gradations of dynamic range. This enables a more accurate identification of individual instruments, and coherency of their acoustic venue. The listener is better able to garner a more marked understanding of the intent and artistry of the musicians, and the artistic message intended. Lyrics become more intelligible with sharpness of diction the most immediate improvement. With DVD / Blu/Ray Video players ( and to some extent a video tape player ) placement of the MecadoTM’s to isolate these appliances results in sharper colours, better distinct boundaries at colour transition points and better colour saturation.Installation.
Digital Source:
The first appliance that will benefit the most from the installation of the MecadoTM’s is your digital source. CD, DVD, SACD, DVD-A, BluRay etc.
Place the first MecadoTM directly under the centreline of the spindle of the appliance. Place 2 or 3 other MecadoTM’s distributed around the base of the appliance to give balance and sturdiness.
The reason the MecadoTM improves the output is because your laser is tracking pits that are over 100 times smaller than the diameter of a single strand of your hair. Consequently any vertical or horizontal vibrations will cause inaccurate reading of the micropits on the surface of the rotating disc. The elimination of most of these micro-vibrational artefacts enables for a cleaner, distortion free output. This results in sharper colours, better distinct boundaries at colour transition points and better colour saturation.Analogue Source:
The second appliance is your turntable for vinyl records. This can be complicated as many turntables come in separate pieces it is generally necessary to place the turntable on a platform and then place the MecadoTM’s under the platform. The needle of your cartridge tracks indentations almost as tiny as pits on a digital source. By utilising MecadoTM’s, unnecessary undulations at any vector consequent to micro-vibrational interference affecting the cartridge needle and cartridge needle cantilever are greatly minimised. Once again the listener hears a cleaner sound with better definition of detail and more accurate placement of instruments and voices in the stereo-holographic sound-field.
Amplification:
Pre-amplifiers coupled with the MecadoTM’s deliver a clearer signal free from vibrational artefacts. Place one MecadoTM under the transformer assembly and the balance distributed around the base of the appliance to give balance and sturdiness. Amplifiers benefit greatly and especially tubed amplifiers. The sensitive filaments in a valve are very susceptible to environmental vibration. Installing the MecadoTM’s directly under the chassis ( or under a supporting platform ) reduces microphonic distortion common from many valve appliances that are susceptible to environmental mechanical vibrations. Place one MecadoTM under the transformer assembly and the balance distributed around the base of the appliance to give balance and sturdiness. With valve amplifiers, where you can place the MecadoTM directly in contact to the chassis base, try to place the MecadoTM’s directly under the centerline of the valves; this works especially well. Solid State amplifiers equally benefit from the installation of MecadoTM’s. Starting by placing the first under the centreline of the main transformer and then distribute the balance around the base of the appliance, concentrating on having the balance directly under the heat-sinks to maximise efficiency of grounding micro-vibrations from the transistor/heat sink interface.Grounding vibrational energy from any appliance via the MecadoTM’s will result in improved musical fidelity and less listening fatigue.
Loudspeakers:
If you only place your MecadoTM’s under your source ( cd,dvd or turntable etc ) the second place you should place them is under your loudspeakers. The improvement is stunning with both source and end de-coupled. Music comes alive and you are able to enjoy fatigue free listening for hours. Place one MecadoTM at the front centre of the speaker and the other two at the extreme ends at the rear. Do not bleed out of the perimeter line of the boundaries of the speaker. You can place 4 MecadoTM’s under your loudspeaker enclosures by placing them at the extreme ends of the base of the loudspeaker; but generally only 3 are required; 4 may deliver more stability with the larger floor standing loudspeaker boxes. Tall and heavy loudspeakers benefit the most from the use of MecadoTM’s; In particular the giant Duntech's, Nova's, Dunlavy, Egglston Works and many others of similar size and weight. If these loudspeakers are placed in direct contact with the floor of their emplaced room, they will try to drive the floor! The high mass of large loudspeakers should be de-coupled from the floor on which they stand. MecadoTM’s will take up to 100Kg each and hence are ideal for de-coupling such massive speakers. Spikes only couple the loudspeakers to their floor, MecadoTM’s de-couple. The result is more precise and stable stereo holographic imaging and tremendous reduction in acoustic phase smearing as well as dramatic improvements in correct mapping of bass articulation and accuracy.
Finally video projectors:
Your Video Projector will benefit immensely from placement of the MecadoTM’s under to isolate the fine filaments and chip components ( especially for DLP projectors with millions of micro mirrors ) delivering amazingly sharp and clearly defined boundaries in images on your video screen. Colour saturation and fidelity improves and the range of colours and distinction between colours also improves.
Grounding:
The MecadoTM works by grounding, i.e. channelling the vibrational artefacts to a mechanical earth for dissipation and removal. To further enhance the efficiency of this, utilising the Bocchino Audio Vesicluar Basalt Isolation Platform will give a subtle but significant order of efficiency in the removal of unwanted vibrational distortions further improving the delivery of clean and undistorted music and image.
Other stones available for isolation are Slate and Soapstone.So how many do you need?
Nominally only 3 are needed per appliance; where loudspeakers are exceptionally large then 4 will do.Epilogue:
Well all this sounds excellent. You must remember that your appliance chassis is normally manufactured to a price. Tweaking it to perfection is what the after-market accessory components do. The quality of the final reproduction is dependent on the quality of the isolation devices and platforms you utilise.
Placement.
It is important to keep all appliances LEVEL and FLAT!
This cannot be emphasized strongly enough.
Locate the flat head of the cone of the individual MecadoTM against the flat of the base of the appliance body; Not the appliance feet!
Avoid screws and other componentry that is placed on the base of the appliance.
Place the base of the cone radius end into the scallop in the lid of the shoe. Voila!
Ensure the shoe is resting on the supporting platform, or other flat surface.Unless you are using Bocchino Audio Vesicluar Basalt Isolation Platform,
you should place the flat of the MecadoTM shoe on its supporting platform.
When coupling the MecadoTM to the platform do not use any intermediary barrier.Lubrication.
It is judicious to place the tiniest drop of machine oil ( clean ) or smidge of dry lube at the MecadoTM Cone / shoe interface. This further assists in dissipating micro-vibrational artefacts.
Enjoy
Dimensions:
Cone: 50mm diameter x 19.05mm high; ( 2ins x 0.75ins ).
Foot: 62mm diameter x 13mm high; ( 2&7/16ins x 0.5ins ).
Full height when coupled together: 28.05mm ( 1.11 ins ).
Weight: 415 grammes per assembly. ( 14 & 2/3 oz )Maximum recommended loading
100 Kg ( 220 LBS) per MecadoTMTestimonials.
The MecadoTM having been on the market since August 2003 and have been gaining accolades from its end users.
Here is a summary of their comments:Metallurgy
Bocchino Audio, having conducted extensive experimentation on different materials there is an interesting conclusion.
One can make an infinite variation of isolation devices from the same material and only a marginal improvement results from this.
To gain a better result with isolator designs a discovery that different materials deliver different results became evident.
Titanium delivers a much better result than any grade of stainless steel.
Tungsten delivers the absolute best.Each scaling of different materials does deliver better results but at a price.
In Short:
326L Stainless Steel MecadosTM are Superb.
Titanium MecadosTM are Sublime.
Tungsten MecadosTM are Divine!
The following loudspeaker manufacturers use and recommend MecadoTM’s
Goto MecadoTM Pricing
Return to Bocchino Audio index page
SS316L
TITANIUM
TUNGSTEN
