SEISMION REACTIO 51- REVIEW
SEISMION REACTIO 51- ACTIVE STAND
As I have mentioned in several recent reviews, I am at the point where both my reference systems—two-channel stereo and headphone—are pretty much dialled in. This leaves me in a very good place to review all manner of equipment with regard to these reference systems to determine their relative “placement” or award status or their return-to-sender designation. That said, I am now at the stage of fine-tuning said systems toward, if possible, ever greater transparency, resolution, detail resurrection, quiet—vanishing low noise floor—and musicality. And this has led to an ongoing discovery of “tweaks.” Tweaks?
“Tweaks are things that can ostensibly improve the fidelity—the overall sound—of your audio system for relatively little money. Tweaks can be wires or cables or risers that keep cables above the floor. Tweaks can be isolation platforms or stands or isolation feet or pucks or cones, etc…”
Indeed, I have found buried treasures during this phase of reviews in all manner of tweaks, some of which have been long forgotten, though they remain incredibly relevant; some, born of brand-spanking-new technology, that have been eye-opening; and some that took the proverbial mousetrap and brought things into the 21st century.
The “tweak” that I’m reviewing today is of the latter variety—a mousetrap or, better said, a long existing product whose inventors conducted intensive research and development based on the preservation of, well, life (see below).
The product currently under review is the SEISMION REACTIO 51 “electrified” isolation platform. And if you thought your big buck, non-electrified isolation platform or amp stand was, well, “all that,” a recalibration is definitely in order.
REFRAIN: Unlike most reviews, this review will be non-sequential, as it will start with how the equipment actually sounds and not the process of physically “undressing” it and/or laying out its various accoutrements, specifications, etc. Think of this review, then, as a non-linear movie—Memento, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Queen’s Gambit, In the Shadow of the Moon, etc.—that likewise starts at the end and winds its way to the beginning.
THE SYSTEM
Two-Channel Reference System
Grimm Audio MU1 Streamer
Silent Angel Bonn NX Network Switch
Silent Angel Genesis GX Clock
Bricasti Design M1 Special Edition DAC
Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC
Audionet PRE G2 Preamplifier
Audionet AMP Monoblock Amplifiers
LYRIC Ti 100 Single-Ended Integrated
SEISMION REACTIO 51 Isolation Platform
Vivid Audio Kaya 45 Speakers
Kubala Sosna (KS) Elation/Emotion Cable Loom*
TORUS AUDIO AVR ELITE power conditioner
THE SOUND
I would again keep things simple in analyzing and reviewing the SEISMION REACTIO 51. This meant very familiar music that was well recorded and represented a mix of genres. I utilized:
Andy Bey’s American Song (Savoy)
Dave Brubeck’s Time Out (Columbia)
Eiji Oue’s Stravinsky (Reference Recordings)
Elina Duni’s Partir (ECM)
Joan Shelly’s Joan Shelly (No Quarter)
MORIMUR album (MORIMUR, ECM)
Ólafur Arnalds’ Island Songs (ECM)
Sophie Hunger’s Rules of Fire (Two Gentlemen)
Vangelis’ Blade Runner Soundtrack (East West UK)
Voces8’s LUX (Decca Music Group)
Once the music began, the REACTIO 51 ran roughshod over the various vibrations/reverberations, which had moments before run amok across my highly touted two-channel reference system, that I did not imagine were even there. How was this possible, you ask?
The first thing I witnessed across the bass section part of the review was that with the SEISMION REACTIO 51 in place, the bass was now easily the tightest, most effortless, and deepest that I had heard to date from my reference setup. There was greater transparency and resolution, and timbral shadings were much easier to discern. And given the Vivid Audio Kaya 45’s outstanding way with bass reproduction, especially given their size, this was very unexpected.
As I continued listening, it became apparent that the entire bass range was now more explicit and easily able to render every plucked, twanged, slapped bass string, with greater detail, differentiation of tone/timbre, and further, it was more natural, more real, more present. “So,” I thought to myself, “this is how the remaining vibration and resonance had been hindering my reference system.” I imagine that the replaced amp stand stood by in stark embarrassment at what it had been charged to do but failed to do. Its failure had been corrupting the music.
The pieces, however, quickly came together. The REACTIO 51 did in fact eliminate vibration and resonance to a far better degree than had the previous “unelectrified” isolation platform. And in doing so, the REACTIO 51 had replaced a “quiet” background or low noise floor with an immaculately black-quiet background or a vanishingly low noise floor. This resulted in the freeing of copious detail and insight previously below the noise floor, which allowed my reference system to excel to a level that I had not imagined or thought possible from an isolation stand. Amazing!
With the SEISMION REACTIO 51 in place, timbral shadings, subtle and otherwise, were fully fleshed out, as was bass weight and impact. The low bass rumble apparent on Eiji Oue’s Stravinsky (Reference Recordings), Magdalena Kožená’s French Arias (Deutsche Grammophon), and Eiji Oue’s Rachmaninoff (Reference Recordings) was not only more apparent, its dynamic punch was more immediate and visceral and potent via the Kaya 45’s bass drivers. Also apparent with the various tympani (Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff) was their internal and external reverberations: there was greater distinction between the tympani, and the contact between mallet and drum was greatly pronounced via all the now relevant information. A wealth of detail that had been previously hidden beneath a reverberant noise floor was free.
When laying out comparative gains, due to the service of the REACTIO 51, the “midrange” section may well have been best served, as there was undeniable magic here. Perhaps the finest micro-details and the fine details responsible for articulative nuance, exacting timbre/tonality necessary to evoke in-room palpability had all been affected by the vibration. The SEISMION REACTIO 51 did away with the various detail-smothering vibrations, micro and otherwise, and the results were astonishing!
If you, like me, are a fan of vocals then, like me, you may well listen to 9, 10, 11 vocal albums in a row and shake your head at the natural, lifelike tone, timbre, and palpable immediacy of the voice. I do not believe theres been a time when I’ve listened to more vocal recordings than I am now. And I have a witness.
Dick Diamond of GTT Audio was in for a listen, prior to helping a new retailer with a speaker install and a fellow reviewer and friend for an equipment setup. Suffice to say that he sat and listened for quite a while, as I had done, to voice after voice after voice recording. When Dick was ready to leave for said appointments, reluctantly it seemed, he said, “Wow, the vocals are incredible.” And the majority of the equipment he was very familiar with. He was not familiar with the SEISMION REACTIO 51.
In a prior review, I used the analogy of a young man who takes a ride at the carnival on a machine that literally shakes you up and keeps you shaking, though mildly so, after the ride has ended. As the young man leaves the ride, the carny asks him to repeat a phrase that he was asked to say before he boarded the ride. The young man, still shaking imperceptibly from the ride, repeats the phrase. The carny smiles and hands the young man a recording of his voice before and after the ride. What becomes immediately clear to the young man is that his voice is quite different after the ride, as he is still apparently shaking, however minutely (see your current “isolation’”platforms).
The “treble” section via the placement of the SEISMION REACTIO 51 witnessed its own rise and benefits, with greatly diminished vibration that was likewise very uncanny. The treble highs were in fact heard to float, now unencumbered by artifice—noise, vibration, unwanted resonance, etc.
There was now a sweetness of high treble notes that carried a heady disdain for stridency, harnesses, breakup, etc. If you can imagine yourself in a relatively small space listening to a very accomplished string quartet, perhaps the violinists have on loan a Stradivarius or a Guarneri, and the space is naturally treated for sound.
Now imagine that recording—Akiko Suwania, J.S. Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (Universal Music) and the tone/timbre of the “Charles Reade” Guarneri del Gesú, violin via Akiko’s exceptional skill. Yes, the detritus that would normally “inhibit” its natural rendering is now not there. Perhaps this provides an idea of what, via a well curated reference system, a SEISMION REACTIO 51 in place, and a superb recording, you are most likely to hear.
I have heard that exact recording before and after the SEISMION REACTIO 51 and, again, the sweetness, the profound clarity, the ethereal nature of the notes that rise from that violin and Akiko’s playing is truly sublime.
Perhaps it is the vastly lowered noise floor, the incredible diminishment of vibration to 3Hz(!) that ushers in the intense quiet, the transparency and resolution, the detail, the expanded soundstage, once all buried comfortably beneath the preexisting noise floor.
The SEISMION’s distant cousins—other isolation platforms of any and all makes, not electrified—should be very worried. They should be worried because their like has never, in my experience, having owned some of the most renowned equipment, ever provided such a substantial lowering of the noise floor.
FUNCTIONALITY
So incredibly easy is the implementation of the SEISMION REACTIO 51 that within literally a minute, perhaps two, it will be tucked neatly beneath your component of choice, in my case the LYRIC Ti 100 MkII integrated. Then simply:
Plug the wall-wart power supply into the REACTIO 51 and then said power supply into the wall or power conditioner.
Turn it on.
Bingo, you’re up and running.
It is no doubt the additional amplification that sets the SEISMION REACTIO 51 isolation platform apart from its competition, and it is this same step that differentiates its ability to move far beyond the abilities of non-electrified isolation platforms.
SPECIFICATIONS
SEISMION REACTIO 51 - ISOLATION PLATFORM
Dimensions: 500(w) x 400(l) x 85(h)mm/80 kg | 19.7(w) x 15.7(l) x 3.3(h)mm
Load capacity: 80 kg | 176 lbs
SEISMION REACTIO 64 - ISOLATION PLATFORM
Dimensions: 600(w) x 500(l) x 85(h)mm/160 kg | 23.6(w) x 19.7(l) x 3.3(h)mm
Load capacity: 160 kg | 353 lbs
CONCLUSION
Game changer! If you are wedded or bonded to your “reference level” isolation platforms via long-standing ownership or relationship/loyalty to a manufacturer, then do not try the SEISMION REACTIO isolation platform. It will, at the very least, hurt your feelings, as you’ve not had what you’d thought you had, but something less.
The SEISMION REACTIO 51 isolation platforms are NOT your un-electrified, passive isolation platforms, not even close. What they represent is the next “quantum shelf,” if you will, that will undeniably give you more of your music, regardless of how “reference” your current system is believed to be. It’s not. There is vibration and resonance even now coursing through and haunting your music to various degrees as I write (that is not coursing through mine).
What the cumulative result of using a SEISMION under several components in a given system is, I do not know. I can only guess at the resulting effects. And that, dare I say, is a daunting realization—If one SEISMION can so free the music from all bounds while virtually eliminating vibration/resonance, then a series would be mind-boggling!
Since when do tweaks receive DIAMOND AWARDS? When they absolutely deserve them, for lifting the aforementioned reference system to an entirely new “reference’”level. We happily award the SEISMION REACTIO 51 component our DIAMOND AWARD for excellence.
Pros: A supposed “tweak” that will lift your reference system, regardless of price, to the next “quantum shelf” or “reference level,” which will free your music no end.
Cons:…
THE COMPANY
SEISMION
SEISMION REACTIO 51 $5,199
DISTRIBUTOR
Jonathan Badov
Sonic Artistry, Toronto/Aurora
By Appointment Only
www.SonicArtistry.ca
sales@sonicartistry.ca
(416) 254-3887