The following are reviewer/customer comments regarding the performance of our pandafeet sorbothane footers:

Posted by zybar at audiocircle:

I received Gary's Panda feet on Monday and wanted to share with everybody my inital impressions.

I ordered a set of each type; using the light (actually 3 light and 1 med) under my preamp (AVA transendence 7 w/ NOS Mullards), the medium under my dac (Electrocompaniet ECD-1), and the heavy under my transport (Sonic Frontiers SFT-1).

I added the Panda Feet one component at a time (preamp, transport, dac) and used the same four cd's for test material:

Tori Amos - Boys For Pele
Rusted Root - When I Woke
Sam Cooke - Night Beat
Uncle Tupelo - March 16-20, 1992 (re-mastered)

So what did I think? I think these little squishy feet are quite good.

The changes I heard were not only per component, but were also cumulative.

My soundstage opened up and became deeper and wider. Images became moe lifelike. Imaging also became more precise. In addition, the bass tightened up. When this happned, it not only improved the music in that area, but it cleared up the midrange and highs. This produced better clarity and gave them system some additional sparkle and air.

The Panda Feet replaced Mapleshade Ultimate Triplepoints under the preamp, Polycrystal cones under the transport, and Stillpoints under the dac.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that this was $60 well spent!

Gary, thanks for making not only a great product, but keeping it reasonably priced. All of the cones your feet replaced were 5x, 10x, and more! So I get to improve my system and put some cash in my pocket - that's always a wining combination in my book.

Posted by audiojerry at audiocircle:

This is not so much a review as it is an endorsement for a really inexpensive product that has produced wonderful results for me.
It is Pandafeet Sorbothane Footers. I got interested in them recently when I was prowling around the Circle looking in on various topics. Byteme started a thread called
Vibration elimination vs. Coupling / Tuning, http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/viewtopic.php?t=5098&start=10&postdays=0& ...

which turned out to be pretty entertaining. Unfortunately some heated arguments ensued, and some uncalled for name calling and accusations followed. I was impressed by the way Gary, who is the designer of Pandafeet, handled the situation with class and a sincere attempt to present his view without trying to impose them as God's will.

Because of this, it gave me impetus to look at Gary's website and contact him about giving them a try. He was perfectly willing to send me a set to try out after discussing my system and how I planned on using them. We decided that the best place to start would be with my P-1A/P-3A dac. I figured I've got nothing to lose and it should be fairly easy to sit down and compare the Pandafeet to my current method of resting my dac on a pad of Coustasheet damping material made of .083" loaded vinyl, which has a dense rubbery feel to it. I also place Coustasheet(s) on top of various pieces of my equipment for damping. Gary sent me four of the Gray Pandafeet designed for use with the lightest pieces of equipment, and four little 3/8" squares of Sorbothane to place between the P1 and P3.

Gary has had his Pandafeet molded to his specifications, so the density and shape of his Sorbothane is unique to his brand.

Again, I figured I have nothing to lose, and it was easy to compare since I didn't have to disconnect any wires or turn off equipment. It made a/b comparisons fast and simple.

The results were remarkable. I'm not sure of the biggest reason why Pandafeet improved the sound so much, but I think it must be reduced distortion. Specifically, I heard better focus, tighter bass, less smearing of musical notes, and less harshness. The overall result was a significantly more musical experience. This was a shock to me because I felt I already had a great sounding system. It takes me about 20 seconds to switch over from my current damping method to the Pandafeet, and it is ridiculously easy to hear the difference.

I can only tell you how they worked with my P1A/P3A, but after seeing how effective they are, I'm eager to find out how they work elsewhere.

Some folks reading this might be thinking "yah, right", or this guy must be friends with Gary, or that I'm writing this just get some free samples. Not for 20 bucks!, and I don't even know Gary, except from his AC posts.

Posted by KevinW (from Solar Hifi) at audiocircle:

Yes, I whole heartedly second Jerry's endorsement of the Panda Feet. I'll write a more detailed review sometime in the near future, but the improvement with PF is dramatic. Highs became less shrill, bass was tighter, imaging was more focused, and soundstage was deepened. This was compared to a set of Stillpoints which I am considering using as an add-on for my amps. I would much rather figure out a way to use PF instead, for both cost and performance.

Posted by Response Audio at audiocircle:

I am running a pair of the medium footers under my RAM Signature CD player. The RAM is a modified Music Hall/Usher unit that incorperates the ModWright Truth tube stage using the 5687 tube running in Class A. The reason for mentioning this is because I feel a tube product will benefit more from these products than solid state. Or at least it is more noticable. (Also, I don't own any solid state gear).

I spent some time doing with and without comparisons. During all the switching around, I developed a small hum in the transformer for the tube stage power supply or at least what I thought was a hum. I then installed the footers under the player and the hum was less apparent but still there. Hmmm... take the footers out, yep it came back louder again. The footers actually damped the transformer vibration to the point where there was an audibly difference. (the hum was actually being transmitted through the speakers but could be felt by placing your hand on the chassis of the player).

Okay, now to see what is going on with the transformer. Upon opening the player up, I found that I had somehow knocked the damping material from between the transformer and the chassis. It was not a hum but rather a mechanical vibration. By the way, for all you owners of the RAM player, my unit is the first prototype that used a different transformer and I have moved things around internally. You have nothing to worry about.

I was impressed. I am actually glad this happened as it allowed me to truly experience what Gary's footers are capable of. If they can help damp a mechanical vibration, imagine what they could do for tube microphonics or that humming transformer.

Now that I wasn't listening to my player's chassis, I could listen to music. There was an audible different with and without the footers. I think what I noticed the most was the fact that the presentation was a bit smoother with them in place. With the stock feet that comes with most gear these days, I feel the sound is a bit "harder".

All-in-all, for 20 something bucks, they have made more of a difference than other "tweaks" costing much more. It was like I ws installing a different player in my system.

Posted by byteme at audiocircle:

I'll add my $.02 to this as well. Gary sent me 4 black thumbs which are able to support 20-30lb components. My preamp is nearly 20 with a majority of the weight on the left side where the power transformers are and as such those two Thumbs appear appropriately stressed (squished) with the other two on the right side not squished enough. Prior to this I've used Vibrapods, BDR #4 cones, Myrtle wood blocks and brass Mapleshade cones. One last thing to mention - my preamp uses 396a tubes (I've got both WE and Tung Sol NOS tubes) which are supposedly some of the most microphonic tubes out there. I don't have enough experience with tubes to validate this, however, both sets were checked for low microphony and remain, very microphonic.

Anyway, to this point the mix I've liked best has been BDR Cones #3 under the transport directly to the MDF shelf and #4 cones under the preamp. Sound was good this way, but tapping the preamp shelf yeilded a thump (slight thump) coming through the speakers. In go the panda thumbs. No more noise when tapping the shelf, or the rack! No sound of my fingers when I would tap on the volume knob either! I've got Herbie's Halo's as well on the tubes and the combo is just fantastic! Much better than the halo's with anything else. As for the sound, well, suffice to say my new favorite setup is #3's under the transport and Thumbs under the preamp. I'm sure it would be even better if I were using lighter grade thumbs on the right side of the preamp which happens to be under the tubes. With them, things sound more natural and musical.

I will definitely be in touch with Gary once I get done dinking around with all the combinations of equipment isloation I'm trying. I'm going to need some more of these babies!

more to come in the near future...