Opinion 1

It always turns out, that each time I visit the audio-connect  salon in Bydgoszcz, which is also the headquarters of Albedo, I always take something interesting for testing with me. Last year, when I entered the shop just to have some casual conversation, and to see the new location, I saw the Italian monitors Diapason Adamanters III 25th and the visit ended with the test of the stereo power amplifier Wells Audio Innamorata. This winter I also visited the town and again speakers were the main topic – that time there were three pairs signed by Jean Marie-Reynaud. If you think, that one of those went for testing, then I must disappoint you, as instead of the black boxes we got a set of anti-vibration feet Albedo Cermo, which premiered during last year’s Munich High End.

I think I do not need to prove to you, that each kind of accessory changes the sound of our system to some extent, as during the last three years we had lots of opportunities to hear it ourselves, as well as prove that to a large circle of our acquaintances, visitors and many others, which phoned or mailed us asking for advice. If we limit ourselves to anti-vibration feet only, we verified the influence of Acoustic Revive, Nordost, Franc Audio Accessories, Stillpoints or Music Tools products. As you can see, there were a lot of them. And how do the products from Bydgoszcz fare in comparison? In general they are worth their price, and do not put shame to the Polish specialists. But before I will describe their influence on the sound, I need to write a few words about their construction.
Beginning with the elegant pure black box, where the Cermo are housed in, we can clearly see, that the owner and only constructor of Albedo really cares for the detail and aesthetics, although to date he was mostly active in the cabling segment, but he is not willing to lower the standards he accustomed us to during the years. The first impression is more than positive. So after taking the elements out of this box I can have a closer look at them.
Their construction is not so straightforward, as you may think looking at them. Both the lower, as well as the upper, precisely machined and polished cylinders come together with milled, concave beds, that use a ceramic ball as the only element of contact between them. In addition the carcasses are enriched with phosphorus-bronze resonators, and in their center there is a pin made from unknown material. On top of this there are black elastomer o-rings, which on one hand prevent the feet from moving on the table, on the other protect our valuable electronics from becoming scratched.

Moving on to the paragraph devoted to sound, I would like to recall the influence on my system of the Stillpoints and Music Tools, as I need to create some reference point. And the influence of the products from those two companies was closest to what I would like to achieve in my system. The Stillpoints Ultra Mini created the above average clarity of sound by removing huge amounts of artifacts and dirt from the signal circulating around our system. There were no more details, but each one of them became more real, better defined. On the other hand the Italian Music Tools Spike-Hull II opened up the volume of the sound, that was rescaled to being smaller before they were applied. They made the extremes of the sound spectrum reach a step or two further. The Albedo chose their own idea for the music, and although I noticed the sound becoming clearer, as well as the background becoming darker, yet there was not such clarity or seeming extension of the sound spectrum I had with the competition. However something else appeared, what can be the bulls-eye everywhere, where trying to reach the absolute, we lost some mass and tissue filling the contours. I mean here the slight shift of the gravity center down. It made the lower midrange and upper bass becoming slightly underlined, what made the voices of the vocalist better placed, defined and saturated. A result of such kind of acting is, that the contours of the virtual sources are drawn with a thicker like that with other anti-vibration products. This observation seems to be conform with what the constructor was trying to achieve, as he wanted the Cermo to escape the trap of drying out and thinning of the sound. Of course this is not an effect of magical spells and wishful thinking, but the choices made regarding the materials used for the production of the feet, mostly the sorbotane o-rings, I mentioned during the description. We may easily assume, that those are responsible for the sound of the Cermo. What is important, this influence on the sound is repeatable, and the changes I observed was the same with the sound sources and the amplifier. Slight modification of the sound is possible changing the geometry of the setup – 1 foot in the front 2 in the back, or the other way round, but this will depend on the construction of the device placed on top of them and how the weight distribution is.
Well, now is time for some concrete examples. Older, pop-rock recordings in style of „The Gold Collection” Kim Wilde, or „Whiplash Smile” Billy Idol sound much more coherent, homogenous and in fact less plastic. The additional weight makes the sound less irritating than before, without the feet. Pulsating with rhythm hits “All the Best” UB 40 sounded brilliant, and if someone likes this kind of repertoire, and has a system, which is too light, then the Cermo may be true relief.
It is also OK with jazz, well recorded pieces gain some extra points with attractiveness and saturation, what makes the sound nicer for the ear. But it is enough to reach for recordings with too much bass from the beginning, like some of Cassandra Wilson, and you will learn, that too much is too much. The voice of the vocalist reaches regions, where women voices should not go, unless we are talking about female GDR shot putters, and to my knowledge, Ms. Wilson is not one of them. I did not register any anomalies with classical music, as the stability of the stage, and the focusing of the virtual sources remained on a very satisfactory level, what combined with the darkening of the background, allowed to have lots of satisfaction from listening to our music library.

So, do the Albedo Cermo work? For sure yes. Are they universal, and will they perform well in any system? Well, this will depend on the system and the preferences of the listener. But regardless of the finale you will need to have a listen for yourself, and as the Cermo are not too much of a burden to our muscles and wallet, then there should not be a problem to take them home for a few days, or even longer. I can ensure you, they will be worth trying out.

Marcin Olszewski

System used in this test:
– CD/DAC: Ayon CD-1sx
– Streamer: Auralic Aries Mini
– Digital source selector: Audio Authority 1177
– DAC/Headphone amplifier: ADL Stratos
– Headphones: Meze 99 Classics Gold; q-JAYS
– Premplifier: VTL TL-5.5 Series II Signature
– Power amplifier: VTL S-200 Signature
– Integrated amplifier: Electrocompaniet ECI5; Einstein The Amp Ultimate
– Loudspeakers: Gauder Akustik Arcona 80 + spike extenders
– IC RCA: Antipodes Audio Katipo
– IC XLR: LessLoss Anchorwave; Organic Audio; Amare Musica
– Digital IC: Fadel art DigiLitz; Harmonic Technology Cyberlink Copper; Apogee Wyde Eye; Monster Cable Interlink LightSpeed 200
– USB cable: Wireworld Starlight; Goldenote Firenze Silver
– Speaker Cables: Organic Audio; Signal Projects Hydra
– Power Cables: Furutech FP-3TS762 / FI-28R / FI-E38R; Organic Audio Power; Acoustic Zen Gargantua II
– Power distribution board: GigaWatt PF-2 + Furutech FP-3TS762 / Fi-50 NCF(R) /FI-50M NCF(R)
– Wall Socket: Furutech FT-SWS(R)
– Antivibration platform: Franc Audio Accessories Wood Block Slim Platform
– Ethernet cables: Neyton CAT7+
– Accessories: Sevenrods Dust-caps; Furutech CF-080 Damping Ring; Albat Revolution Loudspeaker Chips

Opinion 2

In general, in the audio game, sometimes it seems, that after years of trying to better the sound of our system we have reached a glass wall, it seems that we have reached the maximum we can get out of it. And theoretically this should be the main prize finishing our long search, but yet in our subconscious, we know, it always can be better. And when despite the official end of our search, this thought cannot be driven away, then we tend to reach out to some gadgets, which for some are audio voodoo stuff, for others normal products allowing our electronics to achieve even higher quality levels of sound. Today we will deal with such an accessory, precisely speaking anti-vibration feet from a Polish manufacturer, which is best known for its silver cables. Yes, I mean the Bydgoszcz based company Albedo, and its product aimed at elimination of vibration, called Cermo.

The gadget I will be describing today, that protects our system from harmful vibration, is nothing more than two appropriately milled cylinders, with a ceramic ball between them, that was also the inspiration for the name. Of course both cylinders have specially milled concave beds for the ball, what keeps them together. However if you operate the device supported by those feet, then it will oscillate a bit, but those movements are quickly decaying. I just want to mention, that this movement is really small, and you get used to it quickly, you even fail to notice it after some time. But this is not all, what the constructor had up his sleeves, as each of the cylinders has five brass and one plastic filling, which should remove the resonances of the construction. In addition those elements are topped with rubber rings, what concludes the sandwich construction of the feet. If we would go from bottom to top through the foot, then the list would be as follows: rubber ring on the bottom, the massive cylinder, ceramic ball, then the top cylinder and again the rubber ring. Looking at this we can easily conclude, that those feet will have an influence on our system; and what impressions I had, I will write in the forthcoming part of the review. I invite you all to read on.

Due to the fact, that the changes of the sound are very depending on the construction of the electronic device used with them, you need to filter all my conclusions through the prism of the theory of chaos, meaning that you will have different electronics and a different table to start with. But I probably do not need to explain all this, so I will go to the point immediately. In the beginning I need to let you know, that when other “sound improvers” – products from other companies – provided different results depending on where they were placed in my system. It was different with the DAC, different with the drive. Now with the tested three feet in both cases the sound went into one direction. What direction? They put extra weight on the sound, but at the same time there was no darkening on the sound stage, but the music had extra drive, adding extra juiciness. This resulted of course in some thickening of the lines, with which the virtual sources were drawn, but as I wrote already, I perceived this as pleasant increase of the foundation of the music, and not as harmful averaging. I know of course, that there might be systems, where such approach can prove bad, but you know my gravity point for the sound, which is far away from anorexia, and it was very good despite that. Denser, but good. What was important, the midrange gained from that, and surprisingly, this present did not bind the treble, allowing it shine its full light, and this really is a good prognostic. Everyone knows, that even if somebody is looking for a more colored world of music, that person would not like to lose anything from the vividness in the upper registers, and the Cermo will give that. To confront the mentioned sound influences with reality, I played lots of silver discs. Verdict? Regardless of repertoire, being rock Coldplay, jazz Bobo Stenson or electronic Massive Attack, they all profited from the extra color brought by the feet from Bydgoszcz, and none of them complained about too much weight of the generated musical phrases. The sound was a bit different to the one I have on a daily basis, but it fitted my weight aesthetics without problems. I do not want to prolong this meeting with talks about each silver disc I listened to, as taking into account the world of different systems around, you would need to test the Albedo product by yourself anyway. If you know me, then you know, that I would be able to generate a page or two of extra talk without problems. But in this case, this would not bring too much extra knowledge, it might even be harmful, so I will end now, and would like to summarize things.

From the point of view of a true audiophile, the gadgets I described today, are another step in the never ending story. But for many, they may be the only salvation before a decision to sell some item from their system. Selling is always losing money, and sometimes there is really only a small step needed to have the system become alive. And this step may be provided with the tested feet. Nobody said, that a system can sing only, when the changes are done to make the sound thinner. Each puzzle has each own problems, and I think, that the additional mass provided by the Albedo will be a salvation for many audio compilations. The word “sings” is just a metaphor, and it represents the way we perceive the sounds reaching our ears not by political correctness, but by the masters we have inside us, which often are far away from the outside world. This is the reason that we test and chose all the accessories based on our sound preferences. It may turn out, that theoretically accessories which point our system into obesity, provide such color to our dull system, that was too edgy before, that we will have no choice than to ask the manufacturer to provide us with his bank account number.

Jacek Pazio

Producer / Distributor: Albedo / Audio-connect
Price: 1 800 PLN / 3 items set

System used in this test:
– CD: Reimyo CDT – 777 + Reimyo DAP – 999 EX Limited
– Preamplifier: Robert Koda Takumi K-15
– Power amplifier: Reimyo KAP – 777
– Loudspeakers: TRENNER & FRIEDL “ISIS”
– Speaker Cables: Harmonix HS 101-EXQ (mid-high section); Harmonix HS-101 SLC (bass section)
– IC RCA: Hiriji „Milion”
– Digital IC: Harmonix HS 102
– Power cables: Harmonix X-DC 350M2R Improved Version, X-DC SM Milion Maestro, Furutech NanoFlux – NCF
– Table: SOLID BASE VI
– Accessories: Harmonix Beauty Tone Milion Maestro, Harmonix TU 505EX MK II, Stillpoints „ULTRA SS”, Stillpoints ”ULTRA MINI”; antivibration platform by  SOLID TECH; Harmonix AC Enacom Improved for 100-240V;  Harmonix Room Tuning Mini Disk RFA-80i
– Power distribution board: POWER BASE HIGH END
Analog stage:
– Turntable:
Drive: SME 30/2
Arm: SME V
Cartridge: MIYAJIMA MADAKE
Phonostage: RCM THERIAA