Giant Steps Isolation Footer (Ea)

The Giant Steps advanced equipment foot features a ferrous meta-material core potted in a high pressure resin infused sealed Kraft Paper housing with a recessed polished brass accent ring. Its noise reducing effects reach far beyond the mere materials contacting it. It operates in both the physical acoustic vibrational domain as well as in the magnetic vibrational domain. 

 These feet are unique. The dual functionality of them is what makes them so, working both in the sonic vibrational realm as well as in the magnetic component of the electromagnetic realm. Think of it this way: when a transformer vibrates (buzzes or hums), it does so completely in tandem with the electromagnetic cycle, because it is the very 50Hz cycle which creates the physical motive forces leading to the humming. When you aim to attack only the physical realm of these vibrations, you have to rely on damping which is also physical. This means you will always be somewhat late. Any typical foot's solution has to receive the swings, has to itself start swinging, and then has to itself dampen the swings in the various designs' ways. This was the state-of-the-art up until now. 

But Giant Steps is far different. It receives the magnetic swings actually more quickly than the physical swings, and dampens them in real time magnetically, so the acoustical resulting swings have no chance of catching up since sound travels far slower than electro-magnetic waves. But this holds true not only for transformer inefficiencies. Speaker signals do the same thing inside speakers and amps, but across the whole audio spectrum of frequencies. Giant Steps under amps and speakers really do the 'impossible.' It has to be experienced to be believed. This is by far the most advanced product LessLoss has ever made, and that says a lot given their other award-winning technologies. 

Giant Steps replaces the Bindbreaker Vibration Control Equipment Foot

Features, materials and operating theory
4 years of work in R&D led to this product, with over 40 working prototype iterations leading the way to the advanced product offered today. Giant Steps feature a high pressure resin infused Kraft Paper housing with a recessed polished brass accent ring. There are no moving parts: no rubber, ball bearings, pins, points nor magnets.

Using Entropic Process ferrous metal exhibiting no memory and a highly controlled crystalline structure, and a series of flat laser cut spiral shapes, we form the constituent parts into a ferrous meta-material, with noise reducing effects reaching far beyond the material involved. All this is embedded in rock solid, crystal clear epoxy resin at the core of the foot, which allows a direct window into the inner workings from above.

This foot does not work like a shock absorber, whose purpose it is to dampen already existing vibrations. We are beyond such "all-too-late" reactive solutions with this design.

If you enjoy the giant leaps of performance made possible through all prior LessLoss innovations, you'll absolutely love our new Giant Steps!

The problem:
Really what we want from an equipment foot is both maximum "air" and maximum "density" at the same time. Typically, these two come at a disappointing compromise. So many solutions lean on one of those two extremes. Either the sound becomes dense but mucky (because no air), or it becomes airy but thin (because no meat on the bones).

Giant Steps masters them both faithfully and serves them to you in the most exquisite manner. The depth, density, and detailed air of the sound all draw you in like never before. The best way to put it is hypnotic, mesmerising, and entrancing. When it draws you in, you're completely transported to the time and place of recording. Hi-fi sound is replaced with natural, organic, expressive sonic beauty. Cheapness falls to the wayside, being replaced with a precious, detailed richness. Instead of addressing nagging sonic suspicions, you find that doubts and questions no longer even arise. You're left with pure appreciation, and it feels just right.

How this is achieved:

There are three types of magnetism:
(1) Ferromagnetism
Iron displays this form of magnetism. An unmagnetized piece of iron becomes a magnet in the presence of a magnetic field. The effect is strong, and lasts even after the magnetic field is removed. As for how long, this depends on the specific alloy, the temperature, and strength of the field.

(2) Paramagnetism
This effect is much weaker, and temporary. Aluminum is a good example. It is drawn to a magnetic field ever so slightly. Many materials display this form of magnetism to varying degrees.

(3) Diamagnetism
Diamagnetism is the opposite of Paramagnetism. Substances displaying diamagnetism are always repulsed from a magnetic field, whether North or South. Strongly diamagnetic materials can levitate above strong magnets. An example is a thin sheet of pyrolytic graphite. The most powerful diamagnetic material is Bismuth, famous for its intricate crystal structure and ability to split light into beautiful rainbow effects.

Giant Steps special diamagnetic layering
At the core of Giant Steps equipment feet are fine layers of strongly diamagnetic and ferromagnetic material. These are stacked one upon another rather like the ribs of accordion bellows. When presented with an external magnetic field, the force exerted upon each layer of diamagnetic material pushes the layers away. They oppose the external magnetic field in real time.

Now, you might think that all layers would tend to move in the same direction. However, in our special solution, diamagnetism and ferromagnetism interplay uniquely. Each layer is configured to be sandwiched to one another. What happens is that they all bloat away from one another much like accordion bellows.

Stray noise is a fluctuating electromagnetic field. We are interested in the magnetic component. Confronted with such, the layered ribs bellow out and crunch in on one another in tandem with the fluctuating external magnetic field.

However, the individual layers core to Giant Steps are strongly constrained physically within a rock solid hardened pot of crystal clear epoxy resin. They literally have nowhere to go, so the forces applied there are released as heat.

Think of Giant Steps as super sensitive diamagnetic accordion bellows, whereby applied magnetic field fluctuations cause them to vibrate back and forth. But through tight containment of the bellow forces, instead the induced forces are lost to heat. Heat, being itself infrared spectrum electromagnetic fluctuations, must again cause the bellows to attempt further fluctuation. The constrained movement again forces conversion to heat, continuing the cycle. All this occurs in real time, fast as light, without relying on physical resonance, thus damping said magnetic field fluctuations just as quickly as they persist.

This provides damping which is for all practical purposes as real time as is possible to achieve, with practically no physical lag.

High pressure Kraft paper housing
The housing, made of many layers of natural course fiber cellulose, is created under extremely high pressure while drenched in ink resin. Our listening tests confirm that, at least for sonic results in the realm of critical high end audio applications, damping properties of this material even outperform Panzerholz, which itself is famous for exhibiting physical damping so strong it instantly absorbs and dissipates all kinetic energy from a speeding bullet.

(Q) Is there any weight limit for equipment placed upon Giant Steps?
(A) No. You can place equipment of any weight on these!

(Q) Are there any threads for bolts?
(A) No.

(Q) Can Giant Steps accept Spikes?
(A) Yes. There is a dimple in the middle on one side which is meant to accept Spikes.

(Q) Do I place them up or down? Does it matter?
(A) Whether you put Giant Steps with the visible spiral upwards or downwards, the performance is the same. Place the spiral downwards if you intend to use Spikes.

(Q) Do I have to remove existing feet?
(A) No. You will sometimes get better performance if you remove your existing feet and place the gear directly on the Giant Steps feet. This is specific to your setup and gear. Tweak it until you find the best setup. No stock feet will come even close to the performance of Giant Steps.

(Q) How many feet should I use per component?
(A) You will get better sonics if you do use 4 than 3.

(Q) Where to start?
(A) We recommend you use them first on source devices (digital source as well as on your external DAC).

(Q) Can I stack these two high?
(A) Yes. In this way you can also gain higher height. For example, if you want your existing stock feet to dangle from the bottom of your gear and not touch the rack's surface, stack Giant Steps next to them until they do so. In fact very often you will get better results if your stock feet are left dangling (not touching the rack).

(Q) Is there a burn-in period?
(A) For the first 2-3 days the sound will improve. If you want to do quick A/B comparisons, it is recommended when doing the 'without' comparison to remove the Giant Steps not only from underneath the gear, but also at least 3m away from the entire system. Better yet, remove them from the listening room altogether. Giant Steps have a ferrous reactive component so EM field interactions may influence your comparisons.

Height:  17mm (0.67 inches)
Diameter:  50mm (2 inches)