Perhaps the world's most imitated isolation/coupling footer, Rollerblock Series 2+ enhance audio and video resolution without euphonic resonances or artifacts.

"The Rollerblocks 2+ arrived on Friday. 'Yeah, they're pretty good' as he said in his patently understated way. No Peter, I'm just kidding. They sound GREAT!! The HDSE may be at the sweet spot in the Rollerblock line-up, but your customers shouldn't get it twisted; the 2+ are spectacular and provide a much bigger improvement. That was not a subtle change at all. I had 3 of my audiophile friends over to do some listening on Saturday. I hadn't planned on listening to the 2+ then and they were still in the box sitting besides the sofa. I said for the heck of it, 'if you fellas like the HDSE, wait until we plug the 2+ in the system'. Personally, I wasn't ready for the level of improvement we heard.

"I would put it like this. Generally, as a case of habit, if anyone brings CD's with them, we listen to them first while things are warming up just to get them out of the way, then get on to the serious listening with JRiver or Roon. Saturday, with the Marantz on the Ultra platform and HDSE, the sound was exceptional, for sure. But when we inserted the 2+ into the system, it was game over. There was no way we were switching away from the CD player to do any kind of listening. In fact, guys were going out to their cars and getting CD's they wanted to listen to. That was a first. And seriously, it got better even 4 hours later, after they left and I continued to listen. One of my buddies took the box that the 2+ came in home with him and told me not to even think about sending them back."
- M.W., Illinois

"I am really astounded at the incremental improvements to my system as I add Symposium products. I switched the 'regular' Rollerblocks under my SACD player for the recently received new set of RBs with Superballs and put the regular RBs under my tube preamp which previously had Precision Couplers--both have a Svelte Plus platform.

"Doing somewhat extensive A/B testing with some friends (and going a little nuts installing and removing inverted RBs), it was noticed that the last round of changes noted above yielded better definition in the attack of instruments and once again acoustic piano sounds quite 'real.' Also the 'stirring the soup' brushwork and decay of cymbals on drum kits sounds incredible--as far as upright bass the improvement took my breath away. (As a musician, I am very familiar with the actual sound of instruments especially acoustic.)

"We started thinking that before people go out and buy new components in an attempt to create audio Nirvana, if they already have good gear, perhaps they should attempt the Symposium route--but I think that's a hard sell. Thanks for your research."
- R.G., Connecticut

"I spent a half day with a friend comparing the top level HRS shelf and footers to your Ultra shelf and rollerblocks I had picked up [Double-Stacked Series 2+G2.5], and your stuff won! It actually took your stuff to figure out what was wrong with the HRS stuff, lol."
- M.C., New Jersey

"...when I got home I popped the rollerblocks under my Linn Genki CD player. Based on my positive experience using them under my VTL, I expected them to work fine, but not to the extreme they actually did. Same kinds of improvement as with the amp -- much better bass control, less rasp on violins, better dynamics -- but even more so. Stuff just jumped out of the system. Congested CDs got sorted right out. Much easier to hear low level information and soundstaging cues, echoes of cymbals, rhythm instruments in the corners ... really quite shocking for a couple of balls in cups, and has me questioning reality."
- A.M., Maryland

"OMG cannot believe the difference with Roller blocks under my Phonostage. I thought it sounded live before, things just lifted 30%! Instruments/symbols, everything really is more emphasized! ... cannot wait to see what the platforms will do! I'm so grateful for all your help!"
- M.M., United Kingdom

Introduction
Symposium Rollerblock Series 2+ is an equipment support system providing simultaneous coupling and decoupling of audio and video equipment. When properly installed, Series 2+ Rollerblocks will enhance overall system performance, sometimes by an order of magnitude similar to a wholesale upgrade of the component it treats. The Rollerblock, first invented and introduced to the audio world in 1997 by Symposium, has for over twenty years been widely copied by numerous "also-ran" imitators, with new imitation products introduced on a seemingly never-ending basis. Points, isolators, footers, all with balls of some type in them have become ubiquitous, but none are as neutral or as resolving as the original, genuine Rollerblock® system.

Utilizing technology employed in earthquake protection and combining it with proprietary mechanical transmission techniques, Rollerblocks offer extraordinary results at a reasonable price, usually outperforming other footer devices which sell for double or triple their cost. Used beneath digital equipment, DVD players, preamplifiers and other components, results can be nothing less than astonishing. Increased focus, soundstaging, image stability, dynamics and delicacy are just a few of the sonic delights awaiting the serious audiophile. When used on an appropriate and non-resonant equipment support (such as Symposium Platforms), the Series 2+ Rollerblock system provides an additional step toward ideal equipment support, which is simultaneous component isolation and drainage of chassis-borne vibration.

Symposium Rollerblock Series 2+ systems achieve their seemingly "magical" results by obeying laws of physics. Their strict manufacturing tolerances (much higher than usually found in an audiophile "tweak" device) are responsible for their world-wide reputation as the best ball-bearing isolation device available. Professional reviewers and private owners alike have spoken emphatically about the ability of Rollerblocks to enhance and improve the performance of virtually any component, including CD players, DVD players, digital transports, preamplifiers, amplifiers, and more.

Series 2+ Introduction
The very early Rollerblocks were individually numbered. The very first samples used 7/16" Grade 25 chromium steel bearings which were soon upgraded to 1/2" diameter. When the Series 1 evolved to Series 2, the numbering system applied to sets of 3 or 4. At this stage, 1/2" Grade 25 chromium steel balls were supplied as standard, and 1/2" Grade 25 Tungsten Carbide balls were offered as an optional upgrade. Beginning September 15, 2002, all Series 2 Rollerblock systems were supplied with Grade 25 Tungsten Carbide balls. These sets were then designated Series 2+ to signify Series 2 plus Tungsten. Two years later, the Grade 25 tungsten balls were upgraded to (and remain to this day) high precision Grade 10 tungsten carbide bearings. (Note: "Grade" refers to parts per million precision, and the lower the number, the better the bearing. Grade 25 signifies "25 parts per million" precision, and Grade 10 signifies "10 parts per million" or 2.5X better precision than Grade 25, etc.)

Grade 2.5 Superball Bearings
Currently, all standard Tungsten Carbide balls supplied are Grade 10 precision. State-of-the-art precision Grade 2.5 Superballs are available as an ultimate upgrade; this can be done at a later date (with a rebate available for return of the original Tungsten Carbide balls) or Superballs can be purchased at the outset, pre-packaged in the Series 2+G2.5 set. Bearing quality is absolutely critical to results - and the Superball Grade 2.5 bearings are unconditionally guaranteed to bring your system to a new and better level of performance.

Setup
Series 2+ Rollerblocks are a high resolution device. For best results, they should always be installed directly underneath the component, with either the ball or the body directly contacting the chassis of the component and bypassing its original built-in feet. The body can be used to contact the chassis, instead of the ball, either as part of a "Double Stack" system, with an additional, inverted body placed on top of the ball, or with just one body, used upside down on top of the ball (with the ball contacting the support surface), as in the "Inverted Configuration" (see below). Placing Rollerblocks under the platform and not under the component is counterproductive and should be avoided unless a set is already directly under the component itself. Placing the Rollerblocks under a separate isolation platform instead of directly beneath the component, in nearly all cases, does not yield optimal results - always . It is also important to observe that the surface upon which Rollerblocks are placed should be NON-RESONANT. Use on shelves made of glass, plastic, undamped stone (such as granite, marble, or artificial stone) or metal surfaces (such as plain steel, aluminum, or other metal sheets that are not constrained-layer damped by other materials bonded to them) will yield timbral distortions ("edginess," "shrillness," etc.) consonant with the character of these undamped materials. Throughout the midrange and upper ranges, Rollerblocks function as coupling devices and should always be used on surfaces which accept and neutrally dissipate vibratory energy.

Inverted Configuration and DoubleStacking
The conventional setup is to place the Rollerblock body on the support surface (which, again, must be non-resonant - glass, stone, plastic, etc. should not be used without a resonance mediating interface such as one of our platforms or, at minimum, a set of Point Pods). However, the "inverted configuration" offers enhanced performance by deployment of the Series 2 body placed upside down, with the ball bearing now on the bottom, and thus contacting the support surface. The improvements occur because the bottom matrix of the Series 2 body now directly contacts the chassis of the component, offering superior damping to the component and providing a better interface for high frequency energy drainage than only the tip of the ball itself. "Double Stacking" is the use of an additional set of Series 2 bodies placed on top of the balls, inverted, so as to form a "sandwich" of two bodies with a single ball in between. With rare exceptions, this is the highest performance setup configuration.

How Rollerblocks improve sound and picture
Improvements in sound and picture quality are accomplished by reducing noise in the component (caused by vibration) which the Rollerblocks achieve without introducing any new resonances or distortions, or changing tonal character of the component. Rollerblocks not only isolate the component from externally sourced, low frequency lateral waves, but also drain and dissipate mechanical energy (vibration) which originates from within the component itself. This specialized, two-pronged attack on vibratory energy distinguishes the Symposium Rollerblock systems, and is responsible for their unsurpassed effectiveness and performance.

The strength of the Series 2 Rollerblock is its simple yet effective design. They are small enough to be unobtrusively inserted into any system with a minimum of fuss and setup, and require little or no maintenance or adjustment. Unlike flat race devices, Rollerblocks are self-centering and do not require that the component or the support surface be level, or that their surfaces be parallel. Also, if the component is touched or moved, the component will simply return to its center position and not become "stuck" or bind up.

Description
The Series 2 Rollerblock body is made from solid, rectangular blocks of extremely hard, premium grade 7075 alloy aircraft aluminum, and are given a surface of black "hard-coat" anodizing. This relatively thin, special layer, harder than the aircraft aluminum itself (which is harder than some types of steel), improves contact efficiency and provides "constrained layer" resonance damping to the body. The bottom of the Series 2 Rollerblock has four beveled edges, and a matrix consisting of a pattern of holes. This unique and patented design improves mechanical coupling between the body of the block and the supporting surface, like a cone, but with much greater stability. The matrix is filled with an acoustically absorbent material which eliminates Helmholtz resonances of the holes themselves. On the top surface is a precision, spherical depression which is polished to a mirror finish, specified at 6 microns or better. This is an especially good finish, difficult to manufacture with precision. It is absolutely necessary, however, for state of the art results in a bearing isolation device.

One precision ball sits in the cup depression, and rests at the bottom. At least three Rollerblocks are placed beneath a component so that the component's chassis contacts the tops of the three balls, which now function as bearings. The component rests directly or indirectly upon the ball bearings, which rest at the bottom of the polished cup.

Theory of Operation
Vibration affects the performance of electronic components, usually with negative results, and originates from sources outside or inside the component. Rigid supports such as cones or spikes provide an escape route (in essence, a mechanical "ground" connection) for vibration that is more efficient than the typical rubberized feet of most components. These cone devices work by acting as a crude "waveguide" for mechanical energy, funneling energy to a point and forcing it to encounter the support structure at an angle of 90 degrees, the optimum approach angle for energy transfer (please see our web page on the nature of equipment cones in the "Our Technology" section for a more comprehensive discussion of how and why they work). While there are some directional characteristics to these devices in that more energy can flow from the large area side to the point side than the reverse, they are unable to isolate or absorb low frequency waves, as these readily traverse the pathway, moving the support structure, the cones, and ultimately the component.

Rubber Feet, Rubber Balls and Sorbothane Pads
Such low-frequency external vibration, including footfalls, sound, or shock waves from loudspeakers or other sources, can be reduced by introducing a high compliance between the component and the support, such as rubber air bag devices, or very soft, compliant materials, such as sorbothane rubber. While these devices seek to decouple the component in a crude approach to "isolation," they trap vibrations in the component itself by closing off its drainage path. In other words, what can't come in also can't get out. Worse, rubber-like materials store and release energy back into the component, and usually worsen results with a new source of secondary vibration. For a more comprehensive technical discussion of Rollerblock devices versus these compliant materials, please click here.

Thus, it is desirous to isolate the component, but at the same time provide an escape route for internal vibration. Buzzing transformers, CD servo and disk motors, or even junctions of "singing" solid state devices (caused by the heat expansion and contraction of elements subjected to high current densities) can all be sources of internal vibration. By efficiently coupling the component's chassis to a non-resonant drainage sink, or mechanical "ground," we can provide an escape route for this vibration. The conduit for vibration flowing out of the component must be rigid, since flexible materials don't transmit energy well. But, since we also want to isolate the component from external vibration, this support must also be flexible. These requirements are mutually contradictory - akin to a "soft hardness!"

Symposium Rollerblock systems (both the Series 2 as well as the entry-level Rollerblock Jr. fulfill this seemingly contradictory condition by combining a ball with a receptacle optimized for vibration transmission - the Rollerblock body. Precision machined from hard metal, it makes an excellent conductive path for vibratory energy, one far superior to woods, plastics, or rubber. The matrix on the Series 2 body bottom relegates surface contact to the ridges between the holes (with increased pressure) and serves as a mechanical waveguide. Vibratory energy travels through the steel ball, then the block body, and is "guided" down irregularly shaped pillars of metal (the "honeycomb" matrix). The energy is able to pass into the support structure at multiple points and at a more optimal angle, and this enables it to more efficiently penetrate the supporting surface. Acoustically absorbent material in the holes dissipates some of this energy as heat, and eliminates any resonances which might be caused by the hole cavities. Early experiments in different systems confirmed the effectiveness of the matrix to improve performance.

Low frequency waves from the support structure cause physical displacement of the support and the Rollerblock body. As this "microearthquake" occurs, the captured ball in the Rollerblock's cup rolls - or "slips" - between the Rollerblock body and the equipment chassis. As the Rollerblock body moves, it pushes the ball and the component up the sides of the cup, dissipating the energy as work. At all times, however, there is contact between the component chassis and the Rollerblock body through the bearing, providing an unbroken, constant-metal drainage path for vibration otherwise trapped in the component, even while it is "decoupled" and able to move relative to the support.

The rolling, rigid, single ball bearing contact, mated to a receptacle optimized for mechanical energy transmission, effectively achieves a dual coupler/decoupler in a simple, elegant solution. The design is patented.

Why is Tungsten Carbide used for Ball Material?
Tungsten Carbide is preferred for the ball material of the Rollerblock systems. We have determined that it is demonstrably superior to steel (chromium or stainless), brass, glass, and especially ceramic, which creates euphonic colorations. The reason for its superiority has to do with Tungsten Carbide's unique combination of extreme hardness, high mass density and good mechanical transmissivity. Helped by the presence of carbon, Tungsten Carbide's transmissivity, or the ability to act as a mechanical conductor at higher frequencies, is very good, thus making a coherent, reflection-free transmission path and a better mechanical impedance match to the Rollerblock's top grade aircraft aluminum body. By comparison, ceramic, although it exhibits excellent hardness, is not as good a match in terms of its mechanical density, and perhaps more importantly, does not transmit heat energy nearly as well as Tungsten Carbide (Heat transmission is a direct indicator of a material's mechanical transmission ability. Most ceramic's modest heat transmission capability is better exploited as a heat insulator, for instance, as a material for use in coffee mugs, rather than as the mechanical ground linkage in a ball bearing isolation device. Devices using ceramic balls are often noted for their "spotlighting" of upper midrange and lower treble ranges, which is unfortunately mistaken for an increase in resolution. Unfortunately, what is heard is not "higher resolution" - it is simply noise, and this problem can not be "fixed" except by the removal or substitution of the offending material.)

Summary
Rollerblocks offer sonic improvements with all components, but the most dramatic usually occur with digital equipment, such as CD, SACD and Blu-Ray players, Music Servers (including computers), DACs and dedicated transports. Improvements in dynamics, transient response, and overall "air" and clarity suggest enhanced information retrieval from digital disks, probably due in part to Rollerblocks' unsurpassed ability to dissipate and isolate the minute rotational mode vibrations caused by these devices' spinning platter mechanisms. Beneath DVD and Blu-Ray video disc players, greater clarity and image sharpness with decreased background noise can be expected. Improvements range from the subtle to the shocking, and the degree of improvement will depend upon the characteristics of both the specific component and the entire system.

The reduction of vibration and its effects upon audio and video components brings the audiophile or videophile a significant step closer to optimal performance. Such a highly reviewed footer device is really not an accessory, but an indispensable component. As one reviewer said, "the Symposium Rollerblocks function just like a component which can stand the test of time for they will never be obsolete."