Isolation Tweak Confusion...

Sutts, you're gonna get all kinds of suggestions that all work...everything you try will have a different sound. One you'll absolutely love for what it does...there may not be an absolute best, just what sounds best in your application...what do I use? This will crack ya up. I use large marbles in plastic holders with one directly under the power supply....I would try something different for tube amps, though. do you know some people over at TNT are using dr. scholl's foot rubs in place of carbon, etc? talk about a tweak that works and is too cheap to be taken seriously...have fun, regards, Bluenose...

The large EAR feet worked nicely for me under my BATVK500 amp, $1.25 each from The Parts Connection (I used 6 of 'em). Worth mentioning my homemade amp stand; I used two pieces of 3/4" BC Fir plywood with a 1" thick rubber mat sandwiched inbetween. The "legs" of the amp stand are 4X4 pine.

I'm using two plates of aluminum with routed grooves in them. The plates are sandwiched together with marbles in between them that can move in the grooves. It's a similar concept to the Symposium Roller blocks, except it only cost me $20 in stock aluminum. This is with a solid state amp (Mark Levinson Reference 20.0), but it really helped. It got rid of any harshness and reduced the background noise. The theory behind this isolation is that you maitain rigid coupling to the floor (or stand), but allow disappation of internal driven vibrations (from the transformer). Although, I've never tried this with tube amps it should work quite well.

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Sutts, I have almost every one of the isolation devices you name, and a few you did not mention.

I use McCormack (Mod Squad) Soft Shoes under the majority of electronic device I own. I do use several others, but find that every one of these devices are system dependant. The good news is that the Mod Squad feet are very inexpensive, and will always work somewhere in the system.

The last time I ordered some, I bought a hundred. They are almost all gone, as the other guys in my group try them and will not remove them. I suspect the Vibrapod is a very similar product, as it looks to be made of a similar material and of a similar shape. This is certainly a direction I would try before spending $300.00 to $500.00 on feet that may not be any better.

Maybe I could arrange for you to try some of the feet I own. As mentioned, I have the Carbon Blocks, Walker Valid Points (tall and short and both thickness dampers), Black Diamond Cones, Mod Squad Tiptoes, Sound Anchor Steel and Sound Anchor brass Cones, Purist Audio Pyramids, McCormack Soft Shoes , Simply Physics, Audioquest Sorbothane, Goldmund Cones and Symposium Rollerblocks with upgraded bearings. I may have some others, but would have to scrounge through the box and see what else is in there. I typically do not sell any, always hoping that one will be the magic foot under some component of the future.

Thanks for all the comments guys. Bluenose- you're hilarious! Jeffloistarca- great homemade solutions; Abstract7- nice Rollerblock knockoff! Questforsound- I'll check that out, and Albert- I'll e-mail you (its been months since we spoke anyways- thanks for responding). Later!