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Recommended Component 2024 – Stereophile
Upgrade A/V Gear Performance with Cloud 11
Audio and video gear gets an extra notch of performance enhancement cloud nine with the award-winning Cloud 11 Vibration Control Platform from Gingko Audio.
Cloud 11 is based on the critically acclaimed Cloud Ten, but adds important upgrades. Its bottom plate is designed with deeper wells to provide an additional level of component stability, while the top plate features a thicker skirt that makes the platform more rigid. The standard size of the top plate is 19 x 16 to accommodate components with larger footprints, while the extra thickness of the bottom plate and the top plate skirt improve vibration reduction performance to an average of 99% of the vibration from 5 Hz to 500 Hz, with a resonance frequency of around 13 Hz.
The Cloud 11 comes standard with five black balls to match the black acrylic finish in an elegant package. Since each ball has an optimal weight load of 10 lbs, a standard Cloud 11 with 5 balls is matched perfectly with components up to 50-60 lbs.
"Recommended Component" Honors
Stereophile honored the NRG-X3 by awarding it the magazine's coveted Recommend Component status for 2024.
According to Stereophile, "The Cloud 11 uses up to ten rubber-like balls strategically placed between two slabs of acrylic. Mikey's sample was configured for use with the VPI Scoutmaster turntable. MF: 'Putting the Cloud under the Scoutmaster resulted in a dramatic lowering of the noisefloor and an improvement in the "blackness" of the background. Images stood out in clarified relief, bass tightened, transients sounded sharper and more natural. The differences were not at all subtle.'"
A Tunable Vibration Control System
Cloud 11 is a tunable vibration control system offering complete flexibility in getting the most out of your audio system. Cloud Ten consists of an acrylic isolation platform and rubber support balls. Its elegant design belies its functional effectiveness. Cloud 11 works well because of the correct choice of material coupled with a flexible design that lets you experiment with different balls in different positions for the best overall performance.
We highly recommend Cloud 11 for turntables, CD/DVD transports, preamps, and other gear that is especially susceptible to the types of vibration problems that Cloud 11 vanquishes. Laboratory tests prove that Cloud 11 dramatically lessens vibration. But your eyes and ears are the best judges, and Cloud 11 will reward them with its superb performance.
How Cloud 11 Works
Acrylic does an excellent job in dissipating any vibrating energy it receives because of its complex, dense, and irregular molecular structure. In addition to the acrylic platform, Cloud 11 also uses rubber balls to further isolate the equipment from vibration. The rubber balls serve two critical functions. They provide four degrees of freedom in the movement of the top platform relative to the bottom base. The top platform sitting on the rubber balls can freely move up and down, front to back, side to side, and rotationally without causing undulating, repeating motion that continues long after the original vibration.
The rubber balls are also used to balance the uneven load of some equipment such as amplifiers or turntables. By placing the rubber balls in the different positions in the base, you can level the equipment to even the load.
