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The following equipment review appeared in The March 3, 1997 issue of Bound for Sound magazine. The Arcici Air Head is a pneumatic isolation device consisting of three heavy duty air bladders (inner tubes) situated in a wooden case with a high density wood plinth on top. Short of the Vibraplane, an active air cushion device which is very expensive, I think the Air Head to be the best overall pneumatic isolation device presently available to sit electronics upon. I prefer it in every way to the Seismic Sink, and in terms of convenience, I prefer it to the Bright Star Air Mass. Let me explain. The Air Head uses three heavy duty air bladders in a wooden box with a suspended plinth on top of the bladders. Unlike the Seismic Sink that uses a single relatively lightweight air tube for suspension, the inflatable tubes that come with the Arcici are heavy and thick walled. Unless one goes absolutely bonzo putting air into them, they will hold their shape, and it is extremely unlikely that they are going to explode. The tube in the Sink is not nearly so rugged and is prone to coming loose when "too" much air is inserted into it. It can also develop bulges which is a serious problem as it turns out. To obtain maximum performance from these air devices it is essential that one first be able to inflate the bladder with a decent internal pressure, and then one must be able to load the bladder down with some substantial weight. For example, I have been using the Air Head under my digital transport for evaluation purposes. At all times I have at least 35-40 lbs. of weight sitting on the air platform. This is done by using the high density Bright Star Little Rock II's on the Air Head in addition to the transport itself. |
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If the transport is lightweight, then I may add a few of the Bartha Chassis Weights just to get the mass up. Trust me when I say that too little air pressure with too little weight on the supporting platform will lead to dead dynamics. It's guaranteed, and it's something that I went through several times with the Sink before I figured out what was going on. Arcici is fully aware of the need to fill the bladders and then load them down with a substantial weight. They have recently marketed an audio equipment rack where four full sized shelves are suspended from a single Air Head. The more equipment that is suspended on the shelves the greater the weight will be upon the Air Head and the better it will do its job. Of course, it's incumbent upon you to use your common sense in not putting too much air in the bladders: Don't be a fool by going to extremes. The other aspect of the Air Head that I like and the thing that puts it ahead of the Bright Star Air Mass is its three bladder setup. With three bladders, each having its own air inflation nozzle, one can level any load you put upon it. In most cases, due to internal power supplies and the transformer that goes with it, few audio components are weighted equally on all sides. On a single bladder they will tend to list to one side or another. With the three independent bladders of the Air Head, all one does is put a level on the supporting plinth and adjust the bladders with different amounts of air pressure in them so they balance out. You cannot do that with a single bladder device. And the leveling is made all the easier because Arcici has brought the filler tubes up to the front panel of the box where they have been mounted and capped off with shiny new metal nozzle caps. It looks very nice, and it is convenient to have all three nozzles right there together on the outside of the box. A number of years back in a 'Tweak of the Week' article, I described placing riding lawn mower inner tubes under a Bright Star Audio Big Rock upon which I sat my power amplifies. I used four inner tubes which were difficult to inflate and very difficult to adjust for balancing due to the where the air nozzles were located. It worked, but it didn't look all that great. The Arcici Air Head takes that same idea and makes it workable in a high-end system. The box that the air bladders sit in is well finished and good looking. And unlike my homemade unit, the Arcici has a finished, polished appearance that adds to the overall look of any system. ie..it doesn't look like electronics sitting on a balloon. I use it, I recommend it, and it's worth every nickel of the investment, and then some. - Bound for Sound, March 3, 1997 PO Box 272, New York, NY 10024 Phone: (631) 922-8479 |