Andante Largo’s New Spikes
By Roy Gregory
Every High-End show seems to throw up at least one unexpectedly impactful and affordable item, often of the most surprising kind. Last year it was the range of high-quality Q-tips in different sizes (including one small enough to clean XLR sockets) that Andante Largo supply with their Super TMD contact cleaner/enhancer – a discovery that left Suzuki-san of Andante Largo bemused by my obvious excitement and scrabble to find a source for these mini, Japanese marvels.
This year, Andante Largo again came up trumps, but this time with a product of their own. For many audiophiles, the pointed feet or spikes fitted to the base of their rack(s) or speakers represent something between an (in)convenience and an afterthought. But to those of us sad or anal enough to have listened to such things, those spikes can make a profound difference to the performance of the component(s) they support and the system as a whole. Material, shape, thread pitch and locking arrangements all impact performance.
Andante Largo has long offered a range of different spike sizes, carefully profiled and exactingly machined in a selected stainless-steel alloy. Originally solid, they soon gained a hollow shaft, with a subsequent gain in musical performance. How much difference can four spikes make to a rack? You might be surprised: but in the case of the Andante Largo racks, a four-tier stand uses 20 spikes, which helps explain the company’s fascination with the tiny component.
Suzuki-san arrived in Vienna with a bag stuffed with new spikes that he duly fitted to the three racks and three amp-stands in the Peak Consult/CH Precision room/system. That’s a grand total of 80 spikes – and a lot of work, especially on a system that was already up and running and which was already using the highly regarded hollow spikes! But, with typically quiet assurance, he insisted on conducting a comparison for selected members of the press, first installing four of the original hollow spikes beneath the shelf supporting the DAC, before then replacing them with the new version. The difference was shocking, the new spikes delivering more dynamic range, immediacy, dimensionality and instrumental colour – and this from a single set of spikes in a system that contained 20 quartets. Having heard the difference, even those involved in the laborious job of replacing all those spikes were suddenly enthusiastic about the new version version.
What’s the difference and why should it matter to you? The new spikes have now adopted the same bi-metallic thinking that makes the company’s SM3ti and SM5-ti footers such remarkable performers. A tiny brass tube is bonded into the hollow shaft of each spike, the close contact and dissimilar metals killing resonance. Those in the picture are the shorter, fixed height spikes that support the shelves in the andante Largo racks, but conventional spikes, with longer threaded shafts and locking nuts are also available. The spikes that Suzuki-san brought to Vienna were hand-made prototypes, but they are already in production. What makes them so significant is that the range of sizes available means that there’s an Andante Largo spike to fit almost all but the largest/heaviest racks and speakers on the market, while past experience has shown just how big an impact first the rack Audio and later, Andante Largo’s own hollow spikes have in these situations. This is one affordable and worthwhile upgrade every serious listener should investigate. www.andante-largo.com/products_category/en/
