SERENE TURNTABLE PUCK BY STACK AUDIO

The aim of the Serene is to remove vibration and thus noise from your turntable and the record itself. Paul Rigby checks out a familiar technology, in a wholly new place 

When you play a record, it and the turntable are full of vibration, on a micro level. Vibration, to an extent is a good thing, music itself is full of it, after all. Too much is a problem, though. That excess vibration turns into microphony and then high-frequency noise which then masks fine detail in your music. There’s lots of things you can do to get rid of this stuff including isolation feet, platter mats and more. One of the most ignored areas is the turntable clamp or stabiliser or puck. Different names for basically the same thing. 

All of these accessories sit over the top of the turntable’s spindle and they arrive in different flavours. Clamps tend to couple directly with the bearing to reduce vibration there, stabilisers tend to rely on their inherent weight to damp the platter and record but damping pucks – for the want of a better term – damping pucks do neither. They use built-in tech to remove unwanted vibration and noise. Damping pucks are a new variant in the clamp/stabiliser field. I only know of two of them and Stack Audio’s Serene is one of those. 

TAPA TENSION

The Serene, spanning 77 x 25mm and weighing just 85g is made from a light, aluminium chassis with a bouncy silicone piece fixed underneath. It’s the silicon part with a hole in its centre that comes into contact with the spindle. Once on the spindle, the silicon stretches and tightens to form, as Stack says,”…a trampoline effect…” to enable a host of particles inside to move around. 

The particles, made from rubber, are part of TAPA or the Tension-Activated Particle Absorption system, that absorbs vibration. When the particles collide, they then turn the friction into heat which is sent to the outer atmosphere. Thus, vibration is damped.   

The Serene works with rigid and suspended turntables and even turntables that don’t recommend stabilisers and clamps because it is a light accessory so it doesn’t put any strain on the bearing.

Covered by the Stack Audio 60-day money back guarantee, this little accessory has been designed and made in the UK. 

SOUND QUALITY

I began the sound tests with a copy of Elton John’s 1972 LP release, Honky Chateau and the track Honky Cat which, apart from vocals, include electric and acoustic piano, trombone, trumpet, banjo, sax, percussion and bass. There’s a lot going on in this song and it’s easy for any piece of HiFi to trip over itself trying to sort it out. 

As for the reference designs I’ll be using in this test? Why are they here and in this test at all? Because I love them all, that’s why they are here. All are recommended. If you fancy grabbing any of these products yourself, do so with my blessing. 

My first Serene test was ‘with and without’. That is, if you’re not using any sort of clamp or stabiliser, what does merely adding a Stack Audio Serene do to the sound?

SERENE vs NOTHING

The effect of the Serene is very odd indeed. The Serene introduces a sense of calm and order over the chaos. That was the thing though, before I put the Serene on my turntable? I didn’t know I was listening to chaos. I thought everything was fine actually. I didn’t know there was a problem. Adding the Serene changed that. So I was no longer listening to the very front of the vocals now, like looking at a flat canvas, but the vocals stretched farther back into 3D space. 

The brass section was better focused and precise, the piano structure was improved, drums and bass guitar were tighter while the banjo – that was the notable instrument on this song. The banjo no longer hid behind the piano. Earlier? It was actually difficult to know that a banjo was on this track at all. With the Serene in place? The banjo revealed itself in all its complexity. 

SERENE vs MICHELL CLAMP (£50)

The Michell, fixing itself directly to the bearing, weighing around 68g, did improve the overall sound, adding damping to both the upper and lower frequencies, giving the soundstage a general tidy up, adding focus to both but, in comparison to the more expensive Serene, the Michell sounded a little flat and lifeless.

The Serene allowed controlled energy to flow, adding air and space into the mids and a sense of bounce the vitality around the bass. The overall presentation via the Serene featured more character and animation to the song. 

SERENE vs HRS ADH ($550)

Next up was the very massy – at 850g – HRS ADH with its added damping pad underneath the stainless steel mass. Sound from the HRS sounded very disciplined, ordered and corralled within an inch of its life. Noise was certainly reduced which was a good thing but it never really relaxed. Music never really flowed, when compared to the Serene.

The musicians didn’t sound like they were having a good time with the HRS again, compared to the Serene. It sounded like they were looking over their shoulder to the man with the gun pointing at them. The Serene had a more open presentation, more information and detail was available to the ear because of the open presentation 

SERENE vs HRS ADL-B ($285)

The much lighter HRS ADL-B at 315g relies much more on the damping pad than its inherent weight. Although there is weight to the HRS so the sound did relax and was more expressive. Even so, as much as I still like the ADL-B, when compared directly to the Serene, the HRS compressed music a little.

That is, the Serene allowed the tails to notes to drift while the HRS tended to cut them short because it was busy damping that note so it placed a little too much pressure on the note. The Serene allowed the note to flow further and for longer but still reduced the noise surrounding it. 

SOUNDECK DAMPING PUCK DP388 (£75)

I next tried Soundeck’s relatively new stabiliser which is based on steel but does feature a slice of sound damped steel within which acts very much like the company’s own damping platter and feet. The result here is an excellent performance with a superb bass response, adding a tightness and focus and give bass a real kick.

Noise is also reduced on the upper frequencies. Compared to the – admittedly much more expansive – Serene though, I thought the Soundeck’s upper frequencies were not as insightful. The Serene’s upper mids reached further, delivered more information to the ear and managed to deliver much more subtleties to the ear. Even the soundstage seemed larger via the Serene. 

SERENE VS GRAVITY ONE (£210)

To my mind? The Origin Live Gravity One, at 67g, is the only design here that immediately threatens the Stack Audio Serene because it’s technology is – very generally – on the same path as the Serene. In that, it is a damping puck whose priority is to remove vibration. It is not a clamp or a weighty stabiliser. I was fascinated to hear how they might compare.

And good gracious sorting trying to sort the two out was tough. Very difficult because both are superb. Both the very close in terms of performance. 

The Gravity One does reduce more noise. It also produces a level of noise so low that the vocals tend to float within a bank of air. Saying that, the Serene does offer slightly better imagery and structure to those vocals and to the music overall. 

You could say that the Gravity One describes the bass guitar and bass overall a little better. Although the Serene is far from bad on this score. Then again, the instrumental separation was better on the Serene. That banjo on the right channel could be better followed and recognised, for example. The Gravity One sometimes lost the banjo in and around the piano. 

Then again – again – I think the Serene does offer more actual bass weight and punch. Which makes sense with the improved imagery and structure. 

In short, how do I describe the difference between the two? The Gravity One offers a lower noise performance than there Serene but the Serene, when it does lower noise, does more with it. That is, the Serene maximises those benefits to provide a more satisfying performance. 

CONCLUSION

Using the same basic design theories as seen in their AUVA range of anti-vibration products, a range I also loved, this is the very first time that I have seen this technology in a turntable-based damping system. As such, what we have here is innovation. And boy does it work and work well. It not only beats my other, highly recommend, design systems but it successfully runs head-to-head with the market leader – well, what I see as the market leader – the Origin Live Gravity One. There are pros and cons for both products, such is their close final performance. Although, I would say that the Stack Audio Serene, when it comes to the bottom line, is slightly better implemented in terms of the sonic performance. 

Because of that performance level and because of the design innovation, I have no choice but to award the Serene a very rare 10/10, a Golden Groovy. Congratulations to Stack Audio. 

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STACK AUDIO SERENE DAMPING PUCK

Price: £195

Website: https://stackaudio.co.uk 

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GOOD: low noise, imagery, focused bass, midrange detail, instrumental separation, build quality 

BAD: nothing

RATING: 10

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