Is this Placebo or something real?

I really don't plan to stop analyzing things like this simply because I'm an engineer and actually enjoy trying to figure stuff out. The world is full of people that don't care to know why and just bumble through life. I realize that I have partaken of the cool aid in the audio world, but everything should have an explaination.

Note: I almost felt like a moron even posting this question because it seems stupid, but such is life.

Photon46 - I guess the biggest part of my question is if I assume that the Sort Kones made an improvement, could the addition of three toe corn pads eliminate the benefit? It seems that if the concept of the sort kones is to remove micro vibrations then it might not take much of a damper to keep the vibrations from getting to the kones at all.

Rakuennow - There are two general types of support devices. One type decouples the equipment from the surroundings (i.e. sitting on foam, rubber mounts, etc.) and the other couples the equipment to whatever it's sitting on (i.e. spikes, etc.).

The ceramic ball (the other material option is steel) in the Sort Kones is a very hard material so I would put it into the type that couples rather than decouples.

I do work around vibration reduction materials and can comprehend how the foam just might create a negative effect. It could be argued that this is exactly why I wondered if there would be a negative effect when I first put them on.

Tomorrow night my EE buddy is coming over that is my best set of ears to see what he thinks. He appreciates music more than just about anyone else I know (i.e. plays piano, symphony ticket holder for several years, etc.) and also a very smart electrical engineer so I always value his opinion. He listens to every piece of equipment that I purchase and many before I do.

Would this be a bad time to admit that I've managed to never see the Matrix? Not really on purpose, just seemed to work out that way.

Rakuennow - Being an engineer causes me to always wonder and try to understand things, but I certainly don't claim to understand vibrations. In fact, I switched from mechanic engineering to civil engineering after two weeks in feedback and controls which preceeded vibrations. It was beyond my ability, at least in a finite amount of time.

Having said that, the Sort Kones give the vibrations an exit path from the equipment, but I'm not sure how to make it "fit" exactly with their description. Sometimes audio marketing uses pseudo science to make things sound a lot more impressive than a simple explaination could, but that doesn't mean that the product works any better or worse. I think the goal is to make the explaination beyond the vast majority so that it unlikely that anyone would debunk their story.

My friend stopped by tonight and confirmed that he could hear a difference with the Sort Kones, but it isn't such a significant change that he wasn't wishing for two identical systems to do an immediate A/B comparison.

He was listening to my new Mr. Paganini SACD and commented on hearing the violinist moving relative to the mic as he played. He said it was something that he was used to hearing live (i.e. change in sound with the movement), but not on a stereo system. I'd never hear this which is why I like him to listen to my new toys and provide an opinion.