A
while ago I was introduced to finite elemente's rather clever little
Ceraball equipment supports, a model of elegant and practical simplicity.
And cost effective too. lf I wanted crisper, cleaner, more focussed
and more detailed sound from a component, then the Ceraballs went straight
to the top of my accessories list, a position they've occupied ever
since. Essentially damped aluminium cup and cone assemblies, coupled
through a ceramic ball interface, the Ceraball feet are neat, discrete
and petite.
But finite elemente have a well kept secret. The Ceraball has a bigger
- no, make that a much bigger brother, the Cerabase. Whereas the Ceraball
has a 35mm diameter footprint and a height of just 25mm, the Cerabase
is 70mm in diameter and 50mm tall. That makes it visually eight times
the size! But the real story is in the weight. The Ceraball weighs a
measly 25g: the Cerabase tips the scales at a significant 750g - or
a little over a pound and a half in old money. That makes it an impressively
compact mass, if nothing else.
Conceptually speaking, the Cerabase and Ceraball are virtually identical.
The difference is that the Cerabase allows far greater loads and is
a much more sophisticated beast altogether. The wide base of the larger
model retains the central shaft and damping 0 ring of the Ceraball,
but 106the entire structure is turned from stainless steel rather than
aluminium. Three small dimples are equally disposed around the post
and these serve to locate the large diameter ceramic balls that support
the top cap. So far so good, but the really clever bit is saved for
the upper section. A full 45mm in diameter, it is based on a two part
turning.
The lower section is shaped like a top hat with a 22mm crown that locates
over the central shaft of the base. Its underside carries three identical
dimples that engage with the ceramic balls. The hat's crown carries
a close pitch thread onto which screws the cylindrical top section.
This has a profiled top that carries a circular rubber mat that compresses
under load, acting as a non-slip locator. But, remove the little mat
and you reveal an eightmillimeter hole. Counter sunk on its underside,
this enables the user to choose from the supplied M6, M8 or 50mm self-tapping
allen screws in order to firmly attach the top cap to an equipment rack
or other piece of furniture. Once fixed, the rest of the Cerabase simply
screws into place, while the close pitch and diameter of the thread
bestows incredibly stable height adjustment through a full 10 mm. There's
no locking systern, but the precision engineering and the mass expected
to be carried render it unnecessary. Mass? Oh yes, a set of four Cerabase
feet are specified to support a total of 500kg - or to put it another
way, half a metric tonne. With their bomb-proof stainless steel construction
I can believe it. Of course, as soon as you pick one up you just know
that these things are going to be expensive and the gulp-inducing price
won't disappoint you. Say it very quietly indeed -about a hundred pounds
each!
The Cerabase is designed to support either racks as discussed (including
finite elemente's own models) or individual power amps and speakers.
With but a single set to play with (well, would you have fancied lugging
two or three sets around?) I tried them under poweramps, starting with
the tube c-j Premier 140 and moving onto the solidstate Hovland RADIA.
They proved to operate equally effectively, without fear or favour,
regardless of the technology they were asked to support. Slipping a
trio of Cerabase feet under either of these power amps, two under the
transformer side, one under the other, produced an immediate and impressive
boost to their sonic performance and musical impact. It's one of those
changes that you need to ABAB simply because you don't credit what's
happened, given the fragility of aural memory. But with the feet in
place there's a significant improvement in instrumental focus and separation.
Kind of what you might expect, so no great surprises there. The surprise
comes in the form of added weight, stature and tonal richness. Now normally,
supports will give you one aspect or the other: clarity or weight, body
or separation. So far, of all the many I‘ve tried, only the Nordost
Pulsar Points in Titanium deliver both. Sure enough, a quick comparison
demonstrates that the Cerabase out performs, and certainly out engineers
the reigning champ. Impressive as the titanium foot is, the finite elemente
model offers a more organic and richer tonal palette without any harmonic
or spatial clogging. The result is that the dynamic benefits swell more
naturally, with better scaling and control.
Let's take a musical example, in this case the Barbirolli/RPO Sibelius
2 on Chesky. Its a fabulously atmospheric performance, but the pressing
is rather soft and murky. Sure enough, played with the Premier 140 sat
on the concrete floor the sound is exactly as expected. Separation of
instrumental choirs is vague and the tonal range is lightened and washed
out. A conventional amp stand does little to improve matters. But substitute
the three Cerabase feet and you can now clearly differentiate the orchestral
elements, spatially and tonally. The subtle bass that underpins the
Allegretto has more weight and texture, yet pulses and breathes in a
much more natural and convincing way. Indeed, the separation of the
pizzicato bass phrases in the second movement are superbly tactile,
their spacing and pitch adding real tension to the music. And this is
what makes the Cerabase benefit so impressive. They don't just separate
and define the instruments, but also the space between them. Likewise
they define both the leading edge and tail of notes, the shape of the
energy that makes them, and once again, the space between them. So,
much as I can admire the solidity and presence, the colour, energy and
dynamics that the Cerabase feet inject into the Sibelius, it's actually
the drama and palpable tension they reveal in the performance that knocks
you sideways. The hi-fi differences are impressive enough, but listen
past them and hear what these feet do for the music.
The new lucidity and the better definition of the relationship between
elements within the orchestra make the structure of the piece, its melodic
lines and themes gel into a single, coherent whole. Far from pulling
things apart, the Cerabases separation actually binds things together,
keeping instruments in their proper place and relationship to each other,
spatially but more importantly, musically. In the process, they reveal
the sheer majesty of Barbirollis vision. For what is the benefit of
a great conductor if his control and direction are diluted by the inadequacies
of the system. Now, you might well expect the Cerabases to perform better
than the floor or a basic platform, especially given their price. But
the really impressive thing is that with the Premier 140 returned to
its rightful (and very fortunate) owner, they migrated to a position
underneath the RADIA, between the amp and the RDC Aspect rack in which
it lives (the c-j was too tall). Whereupon they promptly made just as
big a difference - and that with a solid- statedevice which is already
rather well supported. And the benefits are not confined to classical
music either. Rock, pop and especially jazz all got a lift. Result:
far more records stayed on the system for far longer, and whilst it's
a cliché to say that I only meant to listen to one track and
ended up enjoying the whole album this was near to the truth. The fact
is that the new level of musical integrity compelled you to follow strands
to their conclusion. And if the Cerabases didn't actually stop you halting
proceedings mid-track, they certainly underlined the artistic affront
of doing so.
Oddly enough, results under the HP100 were nowhere near as impressive,
but even a quick experiment with an Aspect perched rather precariously
atop the Cerabase feet demonstrated even greater benefits than they
achieved under the RADIA alone. This is perhaps the only rack with which
the various fixings provided can't engineer a solid interface. What
is underlined by the experience is that it's just as well that the feet
are available in sets of four or three, meaning that you don't end up
with a very expensive spare on your hands.
This level of design and engineering doesn't come cheap, but the benefits
are impressive to say the least. Hear them in the context of a serious
systern, especially one with genuinely wide bandwidth, and you'll find
their charms extremely persuasive. Inevitably, proliferation under individual
components will take a heavy toll on your wallet, especially in the
context of mono-block amplifiers. However, for me, the real home of
the Cerabase will be under your equipment rack where its financial burden
(and sonic benefits) will be spread across several components. Suddenly
it doesn't seem so bad. With my new finite elemente racks due any day
I can't wait to try it. More on that latter, but for the moment the
Cerabases will be staying put beneath the RADIA.
lf you must have the best, these are it - and what else in hi-fi can
claim that at £100 a throw?
|
infos
Component interface
Finite Elemente Cerabase |
| Load capacity: |
125 kg each |
| Height adjustment: |
+10 mm |
| Diameter bottom: |
70 mm |
| Diameter top: |
50 mm |
| Height: |
50 mm |
| Weight: |
0,7 kg |
| Warranty period: |
60 months |
|
