December 4, 2016

  • Simaudio 820S, Part 2

    During my sophomore year at UCSC's Crown College, I lived in a single dorm room. On the other side of the wall by my bed was a triple room. There, my friend Andrea ("ANN-jree-uh"), the petite curly blonde, roomed with Lumberjack Girl and Haley. The latter two were sexually active. No, not with each other, LOL! LG's dopey boyfriend was like a poor man's David Schwimmer, while Haley's lover looked like Motley Crue's Tommy Lee. Consequently, Andrea was frequently sexiled. She would go around, asking to stay at other kids' dorm rooms, but she often ended up right next door, in my room.

    I had a Sony D-10 Discman, and AR Powered Partners loudspeakers. The fragile D-10 was highly sensitive to vibrations. Thus, it could not be placed on the same shelf as the Powered Partners. To isolate the D-10 further, I placed it atop four AudioQuest Sorbothane CD Feet.

    During the Fall 1990 quarter, the two albums Andrea listened to the most in my room were A-ha's melancholy East Of Sun, West Of The Moon, and Prefab Sprout's Jordan: The Comeback. Maybe Simaudio (then known as Celeste?) heard "Moon Dog," and were inspired to launch the MOON name. While music was playing, Andrea would lean back, and look up at the ceiling. She stated that she preferred sleeping belly up. Without any prompting from me, she explained that, at night, she would be sitting up in bed, and reading a book. She'd fall asleep, slide down, and end up on her back.

    In the Crown College dorms, the coeds were overwhelmingly of the wannabe hippie variety. Unlike city girls, they were not into shoes and fashion. Many wore Birkenstock sandals, or went barefoot. Thus, many of their feet were rough, dirty, and calloused.

    But Andrea was not a wannabe hippie. Her feet were clean, smooth, straight, supple, and free of cuts, cracks, marks, blemishes, and roughness. Moreover, her unpainted toenails were healthy and clean.
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    Before you setup the Simaudio 820S, you will have to lay it on its back, belly up.
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    Each of the four corners has a countersunk hole, for the screw-in feet.
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    In these pages, I've already reviewed these Simaudio Evolution models: Andromeda, Supernova, 750D, P-8, 600i, W-7, I-7, and 600i. ALL of them came with super-sharp screw-in spikes + cone cup (above, belonging to the 750D).
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    Well, well, well; after all these years, Simaudio have modified the footer. They have cut off or blunted the tip. And they no longer supply a cone cup.
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    The new blunted cone kind of reminds me of Andrea's feet. Despite the weight of the 820S, its new feet do not provide as firm anchoring, as the older spike-&-cone-cup combination. The old cone cup's bottom had a sticky rubberized foam, which adhered to any surface. However, the new blunted cones should have less of a chance to scratch or puncture you or your shelf.