˻ PREMIERE ˼

⌈ DIVINE ACOUSTICS is a Polish company, founded in 2003 by PIOTR GAŁKOWSKI. Until now, the center of its interest has been loudspeakers, but an increasingly strong position in its lineup is occupied by anti-vibration products, which are in-house developments, and significantly different from the rest of the offerings on the market. We PREMIERE test its CASSINI anti-vibration platform. ⌋

PI HAVE TO ADMIT, THAT WHEN I SAW Divine Acoustics' MARS rack at Munich High End Show, I felt jealous. A feeling that is nasty, but how familiar to us. That is - familiar to me, I bet you are certainly free from it. Anyway, I saw the new rack and loved it! So much so that I thought that if only I had a place next to my Finite Elemente Pagode Edition Mk II, I would like MARS to stand there. And it would be a perfect cohabitation.

What captured me about its design was both the thoughtful concept, and the simple yet evocative design, and most of all how beautifully everything was put together. And also that it's a modular product, composed of several layers. And among them, the most important, seem to be the Galileo feet and the Cassini platform. The former have been part of the "High Fidelity" reference system since their test last September.

▌ Cassini

DIVINE ACOUSTICS IS A COMPANY whose main business, since its inception, has been loudspeakers. Very cool indeed, with the excellent Bellatrix model crowning its range; test → HERE. Anti-vibration products were for a long time an extra, emerging as one of the solutions used in speakers.

The first were anti-vibration feet → KEPLER. They were based on artificial rubies in the role of decoupling elements, arranged in a pyramid shape on a ceramic backing. They could be adjusted in height and were intended mainly for loudspeakers, although their impact on electronics was equally significant. The creation of the Keplers is linked to the Piotr’s, the company's owner and designer, idea to decouple the tweeter from the rest of the structure. When this solution yielded the expected results, he moved it also to the feet on which these speakers could be placed.

Today, so it seems, it is this, initially side development that seems to have taken priority for Divine Acoustics. Let's be honest: there are thousands of speakers on the market, maybe not as perfectly made as Bellatrix, but still. On the other hand, products for vibration reduction at this level, where Galileo (feet), Cassini (platform) and MARS (complete rack) are, there are few, in fact very few.

It took Divine Acoustics' owner five years to design and put into production the Galileo feet. It took only a year from the feet to the platform, but that's because its concept had already been developed and because its main idea was already known - it's a development of the Gravity platform using the aforementioned feet. Since Piotr Gałkowski brought it to the editorial office in person, I took advantage of it and asked him a few questions.

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| A few simple words…

PIOTR GAŁKOWSKI
owner, designer

At the MUNICH HIGH END SHOW 2024, I premiered the largest of my projects to date - the modular anti-vibration rack named MARS. I worked on this project for more than two years. The first of its three parts were the Galileo anti-vibration feet, which I introduced last year. I am very pleased that they are gaining more and more buyers around the world. The second part of the project is the Cassini anti-vibration platform, which uses Galileo in its design.

The MARS (Modular Anti-vibration Rack System) is essentially a solid wood frame on which are placed not shelves, but Cassini anti-vibration platforms equipped with Galileo feet. MARS is a combination of three designs into a whole, while at the same time each of these designs is a separate full-fledged anti-vibration product in the Divine Acoustics portfolio.

⸜ Piotr Gałkowski with Cassini at „High Fidelity”

Cassini's anti-vibration platform is a complex mechanical system. Its task is to quench and dissipate vibrations in the 20-200 Hz band as efficiently as possible, with particular emphasis on the 50 Hz and 60 Hz frequencies, i.e. the vibrations coming from mains-powered transformers. In addition, the platform also protects the equipment standing on it from interference at much higher frequencies. Its individual layers form something like a Faraday cage. Grounding the platform helps remove interference "captured" in this way. Located on the back of Cassini, two banana sockets make it possible to connect a grounding wire and, when you have more than one platform (or an entire MARS table), to pin the platforms together.

⸜ The Galileo feet on the Cassini platform differ slightly from the regular ones by the presence of a pin and nut, as well as a hole on the underside

Cassini consists of five modules, for simplicity of description let's assume that the vibration will follow one by one through each module.

˻ 1 ˺ The top is of sandwich construction - composed of eight layers of different densities and thicknesses. The top is finished with carbon fiber with minimal resin content and is protected with lacquer. The other layers of the tabletop are made of MDF, HDF and exotic wood. One of them is also a metal mesh to be grounded.

The layers are glued together in the appropriate configuration, in two stages using two different types of glue. All holes in the individual layers are laser-cut before they are glued together. During the gluing process, the reverse deflection arrow is introduced - this prevents future distortion of the tabletop under the load of the device standing on it. The achieved stiffness of the tabletop was confirmed by load tests - with a load of 60 kg (which is already quite a heavy power amplifier) the deflection was only 1.5 mm for the largest of the Cassini XL sizes.

Creating the tabletop configuration was the most time-consuming process during the design of the Cassini platform. Over several months, I tested dozens of different layouts.

⸜ Holes drilled at the rear were prepared for optional anti-vibration elements to support heavy cables - in development

˻ 2 ˺ The vibrations from the top go to the Kepler EVOLUTION, which I don't think I need to introduce. Their first version appeared in our lineup already six years ago! The Keplers are arranged under the top in a well-defined triangle. For each size of platform - there are eight in total to choose from - the triangle was selected experimentally with the help of vibration generators. Measurements with accelerometers made it possible to create a vibration distribution map for each platform size and to distribute the support in the triangle that gives the best anti-vibration effects.

˻ 3 ˺ Keplers rest on a bottom top with a similar sandwich construction to the top. One of its layers also requires grounding. Additional elements have been planned in the lower tabletop to lift the upper tabletop - protecting the rubies in the EVOLUTION Keplers during transport.

˻ 4 ˺ The bottom tabletop is suspended under steel booms, which lead off the vibrations outside of it. This makes the whole structure lower (with a lower center of gravity) and at the same time lowers the platform's own resonances.

˻ 5 ˺ The last module is the Galileo feet, which, thanks to their design and vibration-dampening properties, enable precise "tuning" of the platform to the device standing on it.

The multi-step manual process of manufacturing Cassini's components is aided by lasers. It takes about five weeks to glue, machine, paint and assemble a complete platform. For the premiere test in "High Fidelity", Cassini arrived in "S" size - the most popular and fitting for most audio equipment. For larger devices and large power amplifiers, larger sizes M, L, XL are available. The Cassini platform can be loaded with devices of up to about 80 kg. PG

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CASSINI IS THE MOST mechanically complex anti-vibration platform that I have had in my hands and, truth be told, that I have ever heard of. Galileo's feet alone are built of more than a hundred components, and the platform adds dozens more. And each of them is well thought out, at least that's how I see and understand it, and has an important role. That’s the design. The workmanship is also perfect. From the carbon braid, which Piotr didn't varnish because, he says, it changes the sound for the worse, to the special material on the sides, and the copper strips in the middle, it all works well together and makes you want to have it in your system.

At the same time, it's a cool idea to build a product "from the bottom up". The complete anti-vibration system, after all, is the MARS rack (we spell its name in capitals because it's an abbreviation, which is how the manufacturer cleverly came up with it). It consists of a frame and Cassini platforms. And the platform consists of the actual platform and Galileo feet. Simple, and yet it took a lot of time to figure out how it should all be put together so that it would work in optimal conditions and be as easy to transport as possible.

The only thing I see that could be changed in the future, or maybe offered as an option, is the grounding cable. It has a banana plug on one side and a Schuko plug on the other, which you plug into any socket. Only the grounding wires are connected in it, dissipating charges from the metal shielding nets in the platform. A similar procedure is also used by other manufacturers, such as Thunder Melody. This Polish company uses a high-end power cable for this. Perhaps in the future Divine Acoustics will offer an optional grounding cable of its own manufacture, with a high-end plug.

▌ SOUND

HOW WE LISTENED • The Cassini anti-vibration platform was tested in the "High Fidelity" reference system. During the test it stood on the top shelf of the Finite Elemente Master Reference Pagode Edition Mk II rack. The test consisted of listening to the player standing on Galileo feet and on a full platform, and took the form of comparative listening AA/BB/A, with the familiar A and B. I listened to both short excerpts, about 1 minute long, and whole tracks.

The spacing of the platform feet is quite large, so Cassini occupies a width of 68 cm. For this reason, it could not be placed on the single top of the Finite rack, it had to stand on two. What's more, its left feet didn't stand fully on it - Piotr Gałkowski looked it over and said it should be OK, so I wasn't worried about that. But the Ayon player also had to be moved heavily to the right side, extending beyond the outline of the rack; its feet, however, were fully on the top.

I leveled the platform using a Bosch PLR 50 C. The test consisted of listening to Ayon Audio CD-35 HF Edition SACD player, which stood once on the platform under test and once directly on the Finite Elemente top shelf. I also spent some time comparing grounding using the cable in the kit and the Nordost QKore 6 artificial ground system.

» RECORDINGS USED FOR THE TEST ⸜ a selection

⸜ JOHN COLTRANE, Blue Train. The Complete Masters, Blue Note/Universal Music Company (Japan) UCGQ-9030, SHM-SACD (1957/2022).
⸜ TADEUSZ NALEPA, Flamenco i Blues w: tegoż, 1982-2002, Metal Mind Productions MMP 13 CD BOX 001, 13 x CD (2006).
⸜ MARVIN GAYE, Let's Get It On, Tamla B0000935-36/Universal Music, Test Press SACD (1973/2003).
⸜ TSUYOSHI YAMAMOTO TRIO, Autumn In Seattle, First Impression Music FIM XRCD 043, XRCD2 (2001).
⸜ TOTO, Toto IV, Columbia/Sony Music Labels SICP 10139~40, „Deluxe Edition. 40th Anniversary”, SACD/CD (1982/2022).

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THE CHANGE IN THE SOUND OF THE Ayon Audio RECORDER placed on the Galileo feet and the platform was quite obvious. Despite the fact that, after all, the feet themselves really give a lot and unequivocally improve the sound of the devices they work with.

The change was audible in all aspects of the sound. The first one I heard was the opening up of the sound. Lee Morgan's trumpet from JOHN COLTRANE's Blue Train album in the SHM-SACD stereo version was showed a little farther, with more air. It also sounded somehow freer. Before that, I wasn't missing anything. I moved the player back and forth, so that it wouldn't be suggested that I did, and the changes were constant and repeatable.

The same, by the way, was true of Curtis Fuller's trombone, and the leader's saxophone. But the most change I'm talking about made itself known with the drums. With the feet alone strong, clear, quite "forward", with the platform under the player and it had more freedom, slack. It was a bit far away, and yet it was clearer. And when in the seventh minute ˻ 1 ˺ of the title track Blue Train the piano enters and Rudy Van Gelder turns down the piano potentiometer, the shift of the soundstage to the right - the piano's microphones can "hear" the other instruments as well - was much stronger.

However, it doesn't take as sophisticated recording as the one in question for the impact of the platform to be clear, even emphatic. Let's listen to ˻ 1 ˺ Rosanna, the opening track of the TOTO’s IV album, released on SACD in a magnificent 7" mini LP edition. It was amazing. With the platform David Hungate's bass was much lower and clearer. Earlier I had heard that the sound with Cassini was filling in, but only now did I understand what was going on.

And what happens is that the sound becomes more accurate and selective. And at the same time it does not lose its fill. Perhaps that's why I had the impression before that the sound was freer - because the whole is more open and more dynamic. There was also no doubt in my mind that music with the Divine Acoustics platform was more interesting, even more fun - in the sense that it brought "fun" and not just plain pleasure.

This opening of the sound I'm talking about is connected - so it seems - with higher resolution. Because how else to explain that a hitherto great-sounding Toto album, and this is a very good release indeed, turned out to be slightly muffled and kind of stifled after comparison? After some time everything returned to normal, but the memory of what I had heard remained.

Which was confirmed by listening to the album's last track, the title track of Tadeusz Nalepa’s ˻ 10 ˺ Flamenco i Blues. The player placed on the platform acted as if it was catching focus. We all take pictures with our cell phones, so I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. A slight blur, and in a moment everything is clear and the shutter fires.

The Nalepa album I listened to came from a box set released in 2006 by Metal Mind Productions. Their albums are unpredictable when it comes to sound quality, sometimes good, sometimes poor. This one is quite nice, except that the bass here is noticeably overblown, and the compression means that the upper midrange can be quite hard. With the platform these problems were less problematic, so to speak. I could hear what was going on, and yet putting the player on the Cassini didn't somehow noticeably change the timbre.

And yet, entering a minute and a half after the beginning of ˻ 1 ˺ Co jest co electric guitar, played from a player without a platform, was more jazzy and more strongly crafted out of the mix. And that's interesting, because it turns out that the Cassini "melds" the instruments better with each other. First, it opens up the sound, cleans it up, improves the dynamics, but also the sounds seem to "click" with each other, as if we finally found the right alignment of LEGOs.

This experience of comparing the platform and the feet themselves made me change the plan and I also listened to how the impact of the platform is heard when I compare it to the Ayon feet it was sold with. And, let me remind you, these are not the usual manufacturer's feet, but the very cool Ceramic Disc Classic from Franc Audio Accessories. I said something about "amazing" earlier. Now the change seemed even greater to me. And that's even taking into account the need to exaggerate the description of the changes, emphasizing their impact - good and bad - on the sound that modern readers expect.

Without the platform, the sound „died” at the top of the band, and at the same time became more jazzy. Again - the player I play music from is not like that, absolutely not. Yet the change causes us to sharpen the differences. After accommodation, everything goes back into place and the differences are not as severe. But all it takes is a brief change for the better and we immediately know that this is IT. That's how comparison works in audio. This is also how I heard the changes mentioned when comparing Cassini and the player standing on its own feet.

And the difference in question boils down to one thing: more of everything. The Cassini made MARVIN GAYE's rather dark Let's Get On album, played by me from the SACD test press, open up while retaining a specific softness, velvety vocals and gently thumping bass. But both vocals and bass and everything else were also better imaged. In a larger space, and a nicer space at that.

And TSUYOSHI YAMAMOTO's piano, from his Autumn in Seattle album recorded for First Impression Music, was larger, yet placed a bit further away. This Japanese musician is known for his heavily accented playing of the instrument, sometimes even attacking. Here he sounds in a slightly softer manner, but we still know it is him. Indeed, Cassini gave the whole piece a panache. The double bass solo in the second minute of Burt Bacharach's ˻ 2 ˺ Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head, originally written for the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid western (dir. George Roy Hill, 1969), was heavier in meaning, clearer, better articulated with the platform. And at the same time it "sat" better in the mix.

I think it's about something like this - Cassini "embeds" the sounds in their sockets where they fit. It's as if they were slightly shifted without it. Maybe it's a matter of micro-phase shifts - I don't know. The effect is that we hear more, better and in greater comfort. The stage is much more spacious, but not bloated. It grows not in size, but in the amount of information within what we heard before.

Finally, two words about grounding. Pulling the plug from the socket in the platform causes what I would describe as a slight glazing. Seemingly not much, but after the big change that occurs when we switch from regular feet to the platform we hear it right away. And again - if we simply unplugged the ground and listened to music with the platform, we would be completely satisfied. But a brief comparison of "with" and "without" and we don't want to listen to "without" any more.

This made it all the more interesting for me, the last in this test, comparison of the grounding by means of charge discharge to the power strip and thus "brand’s grounding", and one by means of artificial ground. And the differences, surprise surprise, are there. Artificial ground leads the sound in the directions of greater softness. slightly distances the foreground and calms it down. Grounding with a power outlet gives the presentation a livelier, more "here and now" character. The difference may not be very big, but it is clear.

▌ Summary

CASSINI ANTI-VIBRATION PLATFORM is the best product of its kind I have heard. And not just in the sense that it is the most technically advanced, the best made and the prettiest, but simply - the best. The changes it makes to the sound are important in every way.

Although it doesn't change the timbre, it changes the way we look at instruments. They have more freedom, are clearer, but also better arranged in the presentation (mix). The bass is significantly better controlled, selective, but also lower. The highs seem stronger, yet are silkier and better differentiated. The foreground is a bit further away, but it's still clearer.

Therefore, the Cassini will be one of the best additions to your audio system that you can afford. I think it is underpriced, as are the feet, and that if it cost twice as much, I would write the same thing. It's also very functional, because you can tune it (tune its own resonances) to the equipment you have, try different ways of grounding, which also changes the sound.

In my system there is no room for it, it is too large for me to freely test other devices Therefore, I already talked with its designer about him preparing a special version, which would be a simple replacement of the shelves in the Finite Elemente rack. Probably with Keplers, slightly smaller, but - it will be prepared. And all this leads to a clear conclusion and our most important award: ˻ GOLD FINGERPRINT ˺. Congratulations! ●

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THIS TEST HAS BEEN DESIGNED ACCORDING TO THE GUIDELINES adopted by the Association of International Audiophile Publications, an international audio press association concerned with ethical and professional standards in our industry, of which HIGH FIDELITY is a founding member. More about the association and its constituent titles → HERE.

→ www.AIAP-online.org