Sota Sapphire and Isolation?

Congrats!

Now put your sedan on a flatbed trailer, strap it down to the bed, and ride in your car while someone else drives the trailer down the same highway. The trailer has its own suspension with its own spring rates and damping.

@lewm But the SOTA is already on another flatbed truck that is the shelf/cabinet that has its own issues and further depends on the quality of that unit so yet another unknown. Would you rather have your car on a flatbed truck with a spring suspension or on one with no springs in the suspension at all and have your car beat to sh*t? The only question is if the vibrations from the cabinet are more harmful than using spring-based footers realizing that both have issues. Neither you nor I can answer that for sure given all the variables at play here, which is why it’s still worth at least trying.  You’ve got an awesome system BTW. 

I’m not saying it’s perfect, but adding a second independent spring suspension to the closed system can only interfere with its function.

@lewm Due respect, but you can’t know that as there are too many variables such as it’s not spring on spring — it’s spring, footer, plinth, then the sprung suspension.  There’s no mathematical or physical model for that combination, and there’s no way of knowing how the resonance frequency of the footer springs would interact with that of the suspension, so again just too many unknowns.  And as you say, the SOTA suspension isn’t perfect so the big/ultimate question is really if significantly minimizing shelf vibrations could have significant benefits that may (or may not) outweigh any negative spring resonance effects and absolutely no way of knowing that without trying.  If it’s me I’d try the spring footers just because no risk/cost to do so then I’d try a thick butcher block that’s cheap as well, and then I’d try something like a Ginkgo Cloud or other absorptive platform and see which combo sounds best.  Always fun to experiment and learn, and often the results can be surprising and counterintuitive.  It’s kinda like implementing room treatments and figuring out the right combination of absorption and diffusion — you can digest all the theory you want, but you’ll never know unless you just try different combinations for your specific situation.  Anyway, at the very least there’s some good food for thought for the OP to chew on here.

@lewm  Ok, fair enough.  But the shelf itself still vibrates, which is why people use isolation devices on a shelf, under a cabinet, etc.  The question then becomes which is worse, the vibrations from the shelf or the potential resonance from the spring footers.  That’s not knowable until you try, and since there’s zero risk again I ask, why not?

@lewm Interesting.  I guess I’d think this may still be at least worth a try because the SOTA’s feet are not spring loaded and thus physically separate from the springs located within the ‘table itself so it’s not directly springs on springs.  I’d actually think if the spring footers can reduce vibrations getting to the springs in the SOTA’s suspension that could be a potential benefit.  Anyway, they’re only 29 bucks and can easily be returned to Amazon so no risk to try, and especially with tweaks like this you really never know til you try — kinda like cables.

Obviously isolation can be hit or miss but can almost always help once you find the right type.  You can shoot the lights out and pay up for something like a Townshend Seismic product and almost certainly get a significant improvement, but it comes at a price.  Alternatively you could just try something like this on the cheap and see if it works and if not just return it to Amazon, so why not?  Several people here have used these to good effect.  Just a couple thoughts to ponder, and congrats on the excellent new ‘table!

https://www.amazon.com/Nobsound-Aluminum-Speakers-Isolation-Amplifiers/dp/B07K9ZYP84