We now have the flagship Stillpoint, the Ultra 6, on demonstration. Priced at £800 each the Ultra 6 is the first Stillpoint to feature the technology pockets on the outside of the Stillpoint so the part of the Stillpoint that does the magic is in direct contact with whatever component you want to put on top of them.
The Ultra 5 is a magical upgrade, whenever it is demonstrated it always raises eyebrows and drops jaws at how effective it is. It adds real texture to bass notes and unlocks more transparency as unwanted mechanical energy is drawn to the Stillpoint and converted to low level heat (you can’t get rid of energy you just have to manage it). In an A/B comparison on a Vitus amplifier we removed 3 Ultra 5’s and replaced them with 3 Ultra 6’s (with Ultra Bases fitted) and the difference in performance was instantly audible.
The benefit was just like the Ultra 5, but there was so much more of everything. It was like a veil had been lifted from in front of the speakers. If you have a good system and you want to make it better the Ultra 6 would be a great place to start!
Please note – with the Ultra 6 the Ultra Base is a bit of prerequiste to get the best from it. It keeps the technology pocket on the underside of the Stillpoint correctly decoupled from whatever surface it is sitting on.
Although I’m championing the benefits of the Ultra 6 I’m not all against the Ultra 5 now, far from it!
Please don’t assume that both Ultra 5 and Ultra 6 are designed to work on only really heavy equipment, even on more modestly weighted components they can utterly transform the performance, even coming from Ultra SS. I recently did a demonstration for a customer where we swapped 4 Ultra SS for 3 Ultra 5 (under a Melco N1ZH/1) and the difference in performance was quite frankly off the scale.
Now, most people would assume that Ultra 5 would be complete overkill on a 10kg product, clearly not! The Ultra 5 opened up the system even more than the Ultra SS had done originally, but the level of information and flow of music was magnificient. It was more natural, more detailed but not forward in any way. The customer didn’t want me to play the Ultra 6 and I can see where he is coming from!!!
If you have a more modest system but would like to improve the performance the Stillpoints range starts with the Ultra-Mini which are £360 for a 3 pack or £460 for a 4 pack. If you place 3 or 4 of these under a Melco N1A, or a Naim Nait 5 or CD5, a Rega Brio or Apollo or your DAC prepare for a rather nice upgrade! 3 Ultra Mini under a Mac Mini is a great little upgrade, even if the Mac has an SSD fitted.
