⌈ The Japanese company TiGLON was founded in 2008. Initially called Kryna Pro, it changed its name to TiGLON in 2010, and its founder and main designer is Mr. KENTARO OKINO. We are testing its new anti-vibration platform/artificial ground, the TMB-DR20E model. ⌋

OR AN AUDIO COMPANY TO BE RECOGNIZED, it must find something "for itself" – something unique that would distinguish it from other similar companies. Experience teaches that brands that first found something like this, and then built their offer around this technique, technology or development, achieve the best outcomes in this way. This is because it guarantees honesty and reliability, and, above all, repeatable results.

For TiGLON, such a reference point is a material – MAGNESIUM. The company uses it primarily in its cables, by infusing foil screens with it. Let me remind you that in an interview accompanying a test of the TPL-2000A AC power cable, the CEO of TiGLON said that he had become interested in the "sound" of various materials through tuning a luxurious 1959 vintage Les Paul electric guitar. As for the potential of magnesium, he discovered it by studying sounds produced by different types of metal and wood interacting with each other; more → HERE.

The first products in which he used the element, however, were not cables, but the MGT-60S speaker stands. They appeared in TiGLON's product range as early as in 2005, and it wasn't until 2008 that the company patented the use of this material for cable shielding. This is because, in addition to its electrical properties, it also has special mechanical properties which make it a good vibration-reducing material.

We can read the following in company materials: "Unlike aluminum and copper, magnesium has high internal damping, so there is no metallic 'ringing' that accompanies other metals." This is supported by measurements supplied by the Japan Electric Cable Technology Center (JECTEC)./p>

▌ TMB-DR20E

The TMB-DR20E PLATFORM WAS launched in February this year and is based on the older TMB-10E model. Mr. KENTARO OKINO, the CEO and designer of TiGLON, has applied magnesium in two ways in it. So, it is an anti-vibration platform, but also artificial ground. It measures 470 × 425 × 20 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 3.3 kg. Compared to other platforms, it is an almost compact product. It will be useful wherever the height of the base plays a role, e.g. in low shelves.

However, its hybrid three-layerdesign is advanced enough to treat it like other high-end products. . The top board is made of Russian birch wood and is 12 mm thick. In the middle there is a 2-mm pure magnesium plate, and at the bottom – a 6-mm layer of MDF. A small plate with a gold-plated company logo is attached at the front.

At the back of the platform, on its upper top, a small screw is placed, whose socket is connected to the magnesium plate inside. This screw fastens an eyelet attached to a 40-cm long cable, connected to a device standing on the TMB-DR20E. This is not just any cable, but the "Magnesium grounding cable D-REN Earth". The name says that this is a ground cable that makes use of the same techniques and materials as the company's connectors.

DF-OFC copper is the conductor, and the insulator is a material described in company materials as the "Super Clear Isolator." At the same time, it is not about optical transparency, because the outer jacket of the cable is purple, but about "transparency" to signal. TiGLON uses both materials in its flagship TPL-2000RX interconnect. In between the two is a material called D-REN Pro by TiGLON, which is supposed to reduce vibrations.

DF-OFC is oxygen-free copper (OFC) obtained in the process called DIP FORMING . This method of production was patented by the American company General Electric. In the mid-1970s, its license was sold to the Japanese SHOWA Electric Wire And Cable Co., Ltd. company, which is a separate division of the Tokyo Electric Company (today: Toshiba Corporation).

The process involves producing a thin wire and passing it through a trough of molten copper. Once the thick core is formed, it is then hot-rolled. This type of material formally has a purity of 99.99%, but it is more conductive than comparable OFC cables; more about copper types currently used in audio → HERE and → HERE.

On the other side of the cable, a spade plug from Furutech has been added, the contact of which has been rhodium plated. In theory, it should be screwed into the terminal of a given device. Many Japanese companies equip their electronics with such terminals. They can also be found, for example, in Lumn products. The problem is that such sockets can be found in few products from Europe and the USA. Therefore, a useful addition to this system would be the same plug that another Japanese specialist, the Acoustic Revive company, uses in its RGC-24K artificial ground; test → HERE. It can be plugged into an unused RCA socket.

▌ THE LISTENING SESSION

⸜ THE WAY WE LISTENED The TiGLON TMB-DR20E anti-vibration platform was tested in the "High Fidelity" reference system. During the test it was placed on the upper shelf of the Finite Elemente Master Reference Pagode Edition Mk II rack. The test consisted in listening to the Ayon Audio CD-35 HF Edition SACD player which stood either on the tested platform, or directly on the Finite Elemente top shelf.

I also tried the platform out with the AUDIO PHONIQUE PCM/DSD DAC. The D-REN Pro's ground cable was plugged into the Ayon Audio player's analog input via Acoustic Revive's IP-2Q plug, and was attached to the DAC via a screw that secured the XLR socket to the chassis. It was a multiple A/B/A and B/A/B comparison, with known A and B.

Albums used in the test | a selection

⸜ LAURIE ANDERSON, Homeland,Nonesuch Records 524055-, CD + DVD (2009).
⸜ JOHN SCOFIELD, Swallow Tales ECM Records ECM 2679, CD (2020).
⸜ KING CRIMSON, In The Court Of The Crimson King (An Observation By King Crimson), Discipline Global Mobile/WOWOW Entertainment IEZP-128, „50th Anniversary Box Set”, 3 x K2HD UHQCD + Blu-ray (1969/2019).
⸜ CHARLIE HADEN & PAT METHENY, Beyond The Missouri Sky (Short Stories), Verve Records 5371302, UHQCD (1997/2022).

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AT THE FIRST MOMENT, THE DIFFERENCES between the sound of the player standing directly on the top shelf of the Finite Elemente rack and placed additionally on the TiGLON platform seemed really small to me. They were audible, and I had no doubt that it was better with the platform. However, it was not a "leap", a "massacre", or anything of the sort. That's how I started. And I ended with the feeling that the TMB-DR20E is an important element of a system, even as complex as mine, and that with its help you can improve the performance of even the best anti-vibration rack.

The most important difference, nicely presented in JOHN SCOFIELD’S She Was Young, the opening track of the album Swallow Tales, was better sound focus with the platform (review → HERE). I could immediately say "much better", were it not for what I started with. We recognize "better" immediately because of the "kick". However, after some time it will become clear to us that it is "much better".

The recording in question was mixed by the producer, Manfred Eichert, in such a way that all three of the trio's instruments are on an axis - the leader's electric guitar is closest, followed by the bass guitar, and then the drums. For a large part of the song in question, it almost seems to be a monophonic recording. And it's only when Bill Steward hits the ride and then the hi-hat (the drum plates visible to the right and left), which are set quite wide at about 40º off the axis, that we hear it is a stereo recording.

When the player was placed on the platform and the artificial ground cable was connected to it, all the three elements were clearer and bigger. For a moment I thought the sound was brought closer to me. But no, because while the volume had increased indeed, the instruments had a more three-dimensional "body", and everything was even moved slightly back in space. It was as if larger sizes of the instruments had now merged with more dynamics and breath.

And the dynamics was higher indeed. And again – the differences are not outstandingly large. However, after some time they become important components of the "new" sound. Thus, after placing the player without a platform we start to miss them. The breath in question results not only from the larger size of sound and simultaneous withdrawal of rear planes, but also from bandwidth extension. It is larger with the Japanese platform than without it.

I listened to several discs from this perspective and each time I got the same result: the sound with the TiGLON platform opens both from the top and bottom. The thing, however, is that it doesn't seem to make sound brighter or the bass go lower. This is really interesting, because it turns out that the perception of bandwidth extension depends on several factors, not just one. With the platform, the amount of treble was the same as before, just like the amount of bass. However, there seemed to be more of both.

Listening to Falling attentively, a track from LAURIE ANDERSON’S Homeland, showed that this is about energy. With TiGLON there is more of it. The sound of the bass and bells was therefore stronger. However, since the instruments on the axis were better differentiated, the message, as a whole, was less obtrusive . Anderson's vocal, recorded somewhat sharply, was still kind of sharp. The platform does not change recordings. But the vocal was now better differentiated and thus less imposing and more nuanced.

The same was true of the synthesizer sound behind the vocal. It is clearly behind in both versions – with and without the platform. In the version with the platform, however, it had more to "say". It was not monotonous background music, but was the vocal’s partner played with varying intensity and volume. It followed the vocal in emotions. When Anderson "pressed down" a bit, it also pressed down, and when she "let go", as at the end of a phrase – it would also let go.

I said that the bandwidth with the platform subjectively widens. This is true and I experienced this with each successive disc. On the other hand, however, the exact opposite phenomenon occurred, because the sound with Tiglon seemed darker and less sharpened. Not that I had complained about it before. Nonetheless, I could clearly hear that the platform darkened the sound, and also slightly cleared the treble and attack throughout the whole bandwidth, from some nervousness that I hadn't heard before.

It was like that, for example, with I Talk To the Wind, the second track on KING CRIMSON’S album In The Court Of The Crimson King (An Observation By King Crimson). I'm playing it now in the 2019 version, the new Steven Wilson mix, because it's dynamic and resolving, especially in the Japanese K2HD UHQCD release. And it was with it that I could hear that both the brass and sibilants in the vocals – both that in the middle (lower) and that to the right (higher) – are better controlled with the Japanese platform. They are more pleasant. They are more silky. Despite this, they seem clearer – such an audio paradox.

▌ Conclusions

ALL THOSE ELEMENTS OF SOUND that I mentioned, i.e. sound focus, its volume, better bandwidth extension, more breath and lower sound, add up to what could be briefly described as greater enjoyment of listening to music. At first, the changes may not seem big. And yet, after a while, putting the player back on the shelf without the platform was uncomfortable for me.

It is because with the platform PATA METHENY’S guitar from the album Beyond The Missouri Sky (Short Stories), in the new Japanese UHQCD release, was bigger, stronger and more saturated, but at the same time was shown a little further away from me. And this allowed me to listen to it in greater comfort. As I say, I didn't complain about anything before, nothing was missing. After placing the player on the platform, however, it was clear that it was better sound.

There are better anti-vibration platforms on the market, e.g. the MONUMENT by Thunder Melody or the ADVANCED by Stacore. However, they are much more expensive and much larger. Equally significant differences in sound, although producing slightly different effects, are provided by the comparably priced Polish platform WK Audio PURE PIANO BLACK.

However, the TiGLON TMB-DR20E is really low, doesn't cost much, and will fit into any system, both sonically and in terms of design. It's a cool, very cool addition to audio systems, regardless of their price. ■