Scary how few audiophiles can arrive at correct conclusions regarding such things. The improvement is not due to vibration control, but to physically elevating the speaker. The speaker will sound far better with raised soundstage. Just one reason why smallish speakers are inferior. Tweak, tuning sellers certainly have your number, and the isolation authorities show their ignorance. :)Oh c’mon Doug-you know better. Every competent speaker designer understands the vertical and horizontal dispersion pattern of their speakers and proper listening position. They account for it 95% of the time. If anything, the height of the Gaia footers would raise most loudspeakers above the optimal height, not into.
If people are so easily led to false conclusions on this, it’s no wonder they pursue insipid methods of system building.
I have not tried every footer under every speaker and nobody else has either. I am sure, though, that the entire matter is loudspeaker and listening room dependent.
Another thing that is certain is that most competent loudspeaker designers do not feel that horizontal compliance is a good idea. Spikes and coupling are the consensus of the engineers, not absorbers. I traded email with John Devore on the subject. He strongly advises against the idea for my O/93’s. My Spendor D7.2’s rely heavily on spikes. They are not the same speaker without the spikes,