Stillpoints or Audio Points, has anyone compared

Hello, I have been a user of Audiopoints since the the Earth cooled and a user of Sistrum since the turn of the century, and I am recently a dealer for both. There is a local Goner here in Louisville who asked me over several months ago to compare Audiopoints to his current reference Stillpoints ...I also brought the Sistrum product for comparison..If he is listening then he may want to add his own aural impressions ..or maybe not.. Tom

Fiddler, I must say, this is the first Audiopoints tragedy I've ever seen on the 'gon. What speakers and electronics comprise your system? thanks in advance..

I have been using Audiopoints under all my components, spkrs. ,spkr. stands, rack, and even have the 2.0 audiopoints under my 53" Sony HD rptv for the past year and a half. I have microbearing fill in spkr. stands and audio rack. The improvements that the Starsound products have brought to my audio and video system have been absolutely HUGE! I know one thing, regardless of whatever component changes I may make, the audiopoints are not going anywhere. Also, the service and information provided by Robert are positively first-rate.
Jim L.

Warren,

I use a heavily modified PD65 as a transport with all BlackGates throughout the power supply, Harris Freds, solid silver wiring, Canare BNC, etc.

Extremely modified Audio DAC 1.2 with all Black Gates, tantalum resistors, solid silver wiring, Audio Note Copper Caps, Audio Note Siver Digital Interface transformer, NOS Amperex Orange Globes, Audio Note silver "Interstage" Transformers which bypass the digital filter, custom HMS internal IC's, Canare BNC,....

Supratek Chardonnay preamp with WE 350B's, 1952 Sylvania 6SN7's, Mullard 5AR4, upgraded pot to a DACT, Auricap upgrade, by-passed selector switch...

PS Audio HCA-2 with Black Gates in the signal path and solid silver output wiring.

Heavily modified Newform Research 645's.

All HMS Gran Finale IC's and DIY solid core silver speaker cables.

Warren, do a search here and at AA. Many have moved on from Audiopoints. That is not to say Audiopoints aren't great. But like so many things they are system dependent.

The Audiopoints (cones) made absolutely no difference to my ear over the DH Labs Ceramic cones and I don't think the Audiopoints threaded speaker spikes scould penetrate my carpet. I have a 13 x 20 ( ? ), very heavy and tightly woven Persian carpet on top of a carpet pad and I don't think the Audiopoints ever got through. I also tried them with the coupling discs that Robert recommended. They were awful with the discs and only marginally better without them.

As I said, I suspect the Sistrum products are very good, but not in my application. The difference between the Vibrapod solution and the Audiopoints was night and day.

Fiddler, you obviously have gone to great lengths regarding the tweaking to your components. However, why not provide here the same level detailed response as to how you applied the Audio Points?

To what components did you install the Audio Points under (ie rack, speakers, and all components at the same time?)?
How long a break-in period did you allow for, and perhaps most important, what racking system you used throughout this time period?

In other words, to realize the full benefits of the Audio Points, the methodology (coupling) has to be applied everywhere.

Assume for the moment that you are using zip cord for all of your cabling needs. You then install Jena Labs top of the line speaker cables, and one pair of their ic's but you leave the other pair of zip cord ic's in place.

You would probably notice a nice little improvement, but most likely not worth the $10k you just paid for these cables, and you'd probably want Jena Labs to refund your monies. But when you install that last pair of Jena Lab ic's and allow for proper burn-in, your system is now singing a whole new song.

Same principle rightfully applies when installing Audio Points (and perhaps other similar products) everywhere. However, if you are using some cheap Ikea-like coffee table, mdf boards, or even a much more expensive and popular isolation-type (de-coupling) rack for a racking system, your performance bottleneck will be the rack. You should still realize small performance gains just by installing the Audio Points, but that's the extent of the benefits.

Again, for real night and day improvements, it truly must be an all or nothing approach.

For the record, I have never seen(execpt in mags), touched, nor smelled a Sistrum rack. Small, yet noticeable, improvements were gained after installing the Audio Points under each component. But the fantastic night and day sonic improvements were only after I installed Audio Points on my own custom rack (which also adheres to the coupling methodology) and speakers and then only after about a one week mechanical break-in time period.

I'm fully aware that Y or O MMV and every system is different, but that's not the point. The point is the commitment to a complete installation to fully realize any serious benefits.

-IMO