Best Isolation Device for Speakers?


Has anyone had a chance to directly compare different speaker isolation tweaks? I am wondering because of the recent thread on the Sistrum stand. I know that many of these things have been discussed in other posts, but there is not alot of direct comparison among them. I suspect that most of these are excellent, so if anyone has some information on their specific sonic impact, that would be helpful. I have a pair of Thiel 7.2s. Some of the ones I am considering:

Aurios Pro
Sistrum Speaker Stand
Mana Speaker Stand
Stillpoints
Audiopoints

Thanks,
Rob
rtn1

Showing 2 responses by rtn1

It seems to me that coupling might be best for certain applications, and isolating for others. I, too, have a suspended wood floor. In theory, it makes sense to couple the speakers to the floor in order to stabilize the speakers and prevent smearing and distortion of the waves. But since the floor is now vibrating via the speakers, perhaps the rest of the electronics should be isolated. I would think that the floor vibrations would be much more detrimental than the vibrations inherent from the power supply and electronic circuits.

Has anyone tried this approach? I would think that a device like Aurios would create unwanted lateral movement of a speaker backwards with each forward push of the diaphragm. This might lead to a loss of coherence and a detriment to speaker accuracy. And yet, many people writing glowingly of the Aurios.

Can someone help enlighten me?
Thanks for the responses. I am wondering if anyone can speak of A/B direct comparisons for these products. Speakers are an interesting problem, perhaps because they are designed to resonate. I would think that isolating them on ball bearings would degrade the sound, being that they are more free to move in the horizontal plane. I know that testimonial and others experience would suggest this not to be the case.

There are alot of very long threads on the isolation vs. coupling theory. I thought this thread would be useful because it pertains specifically to speakers. I don't have the time or money to try all the different approaches. I know that some have put alot of thought and time into this stuff, and I wanted to learn from their direct experiences.

More specifically, I am wondering if anyone has experience with the Mana speaker stands. I am going with Mana for the rest of my equipment.

Thanks,
Rob