A few weeks ago, whilst visiting clients in America, Peter had chance to finally sit down and evaluate a product that has been causing a stir on the forums over the past few months…Silent Mount! As you can read here, Silent Mount made quite an impression on both Tom and Peter and since his return and publication of our blog article which can be found here, people have been going crazy for Silent Mount!

Because of the intense interest surrounding Silent Mount, we had a chat with Chord Company MD Alan Gibb about how Silent Mount came about and what makes them so special, here are his thoughts…

The origins of this product go back into the dim and distant past of the 80’s. I was working with Linn Products at that time and was despatched to Japan to train a Mr Suzuki on how to set up and optimise the LP12. As you can imagine I was both exhilarated to be going to Japan and also very apprehensive about getting things right and making a big difference to the sales of Linn in that market. Upon my arrival I was told that many customers were unsure about using metal platters as they were thought to ring. To prove his point he held up the outer platter with one finger and struck it like a dinner gong….to my horror it rang like a bell! Without engaging my brain I called the factory (from an hotel phone at the crazy long distance rates). To my eternal shame it was pointed out that this test was absurd as that’s not how the outer platter was used. It was suggested by Ivor (in no uncertain terms Ha Ha) that I go back and put the outer platter back onto the deck and repeat the experiment. Of course this time the platter was dead. I showed this to Suzuki-san and then spent the entire visit repeating this demo round the retailers…with great success.

Many years later we started to use Suzuki-san as our distributor for Chord cables in Japan. He reminded me of this visit and said that this got him thinking about the energies running around many mechanical devices especially speakers. Japan has some major challenges with floors. Many houses use the traditional Tatami matting (essentially matting made from rice straw); A very expensive flooring material that is easily damaged by equipment spikes. To get round this issue and ensure the best possible sound he had developed the Silent Mount system. As a gift he gave me a set of SM7’s and a set of SM5T’s.

On the surface they look like a regular floor protector BUT unlike most floor protectors they are not a simple metal disc. From the pictures you can see that they in fact consist of two parts; on the underside there is a second ring.

The expense of these parts lies in the fact that the two mating surfaces need to be extremely accurately machined…this ensures a perfect bond between the two different materials.

On the SM7 the large disc is stainless steel and the “cancel ring” is a specialised brass alloy. The SM7 is designed for use underneath speakers/speaker stands. This mount is also available as a 5cm version (SM5). This model is intended for use with equipment racks (and some equipment itself that employs spike style feet).

The SM 5AT is the ultimate Silent Mount for equipment racks/ equipment the uses spikes. (NOT TO BE USED UNDER SPEAKERS…loads of detail but NO music ! ). The top visible surface is machined of Titanium and has a specialist alloy of Stainless steel as the cancel ring.

The Silent Mount Floor Protectors, are definitely something very special. Although on the surface they look very normal…the difference to the system is extraordinary! We were so excited when we first heard them that we have decided to import them exclusively from Japan. They are certainly not cheap, with a range of different products available from the smaller SM5’s mounts right up to the range topping, beautiful Titanium stand spike mounts.

Technically, they appear simple, however the combination of materials, shape and complex construction, underlines the many hours of research that have gone into the finished article.

I believe the difference that they will make to your system is astonishing. As always the proof is to sit down and listen to the difference that they will make to your music!

We have certainly had a lot of success with Silent Mount here at Cymbiosis and really feel that they are a sonic upgrade to the majority of systems for a modest price!

For more information about Silent Mount please contact Peter directly.

SM5 RRP – £300.00 (4 Pack)

SM7 RRP – £340.00 (4 Pack)

SMT5 RRP – £500.00 (4 Pack)