Giant Steps usage tips and operating principle

Dear esteemed clients,

Here I will answer some frequently asked questions about the new Giant Steps equipment feet, prior to Early Bird launch.

Placement specifics

The feet are 17mm tall and 50mm in diameter. On top of the feet, there is a 30mm slightly recessed area where you do not want to rest anything directly. If your equipment is flat on the bottom surface, no worries, since the 30mm ring in the center of the feet is recessed anyway.

Looking at the foot in cross section, the foot's active components are located in the middle vertically. The recessed part on top is equal in distance to the distance the core elements are located from the bottom of the foot. The bottom of the foot is a flat, even surface.

For this reason, there's nothing stopping you from simply turning the feet over, and placing them on your shelf top down. They will look and behave the same way regardless of whether you place them top up or top down on your rack or platform. Turning them over, you now have the entirety of the foot's 50mm diameter to work with. You can now place anything on them, even if it is a spike. You can place the spike in the center.

Whether you put Giant Steps with the top upwards or downwards onto your shelf, the performance is the same, since the active portion in the core of the feet will be equidistant to your gear in both cases.

Do I have to remove existing feet?

You can also simply rest your existing feet onto the Giant Steps feet. This will result in raising your gear by 17mm. If you have ample room above your gear, and you like your existing feet, you can do this.

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. I can assure you that no stock feet will come even close to the performance of Giant Steps.

How many feet should I use per component?

You can use 4, and you will get better sonics if you do use 4 than 3, but there is a caveat. Using three units has a physical logic behind it. When you consider it purely geometrically, a setup with three points determines a perfect plane, regardless of whether there are tiny misalignments in the exact height of each point.

There will never be micro-vibrations between gear and three points of contact, provided you distribute the weight of the gear evenly. However if you use four feet, simple geometry dictates that in order for there to be absolutely no micro-vibrations, you need all four to be of exactly equal height, and the gear's bottom has to also be 100% flat. If we get specific, this is not feasible in the real world. Of course, you can adjust for that using pieces of paper on the lowest of the four points. Once the lowest foot is locked in height-wise, everything will be rock solid. Four feet, placed without teetering, will always sound better than using only three feet in a triangular configuration.

No equipment is 100% ideally flat. No shelf either. Even if you calibrate it once, realities of the physical world will introduce some error, simply due to humidity, temperature, and other material science reasons such as internal tensions. Here I am talking about super tiny amounts. These can easily be adjusted for by using thin paper.

Early Bird benefits

The Early Bird launch, as you know, will take place in two Phases. In Phase 1, when you lock in your place in line for when we begin shipping, everyone will order merely three feet. Then, in Phase 2, you can order as many additional feet as you wish. Those who do, will enjoy not only the more aggressive Phase 2 discount on the additional feet; they will also enjoy a retroactive discount on the first three feet they ordered in Phase 1. This will apply even if you only order one additional foot in Phase 2! So really all the incentives are there to plan for four feet at best Early Bird price. Sound-wise, and discount-wise. And especially to those who opt for 8 or more feet. In that case, additional quantity discounts will apply even to the very best Early Bird price!

Can I use these under speakers? What's the weight limit? I have a gigantic amp!

You can put these under a full size concert grand piano! There is no weight limit.

Giant Steps operating principles

There are three types of magnetism:

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.

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.

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. You can see this in the video.

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.

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 the energy from a speeding bullet.

The strong and more beautifully sounding acoustic damping properties of the sealed high pressure Kraft paper enclosure, paired with unique diamagnetic damping features built into its resin locked multilayer core, together create next level performance. This brings Giant Steps well beyond today's State-of-the-Art and presents true progress! Must be heard to be believed.

Early Bird Phase 1 still open!

Please visit the Giant Steps web page. You can see how you can participate in the launch by anonymously answering the two simple questions there at the bottom. Better prices in numbers!

Thank you.