Stillpoint Ultras anyone?

Tubegroover, I didn't say the Ultra ALs were superior or the equal of the Ultra SSs. It was the existing special feet on the HB Designs Acrylic PowerSlave that were better than the Ultra Fives.

I use the OEM aluminum feet under my LSA1s in New Mexico and have not tried the Ultra Minis there as I don't want to know they are better. The OEMs have no resale value as only manufacturers could get them.

Tbg, I was directing my comments to the OP, not you. I hear you concerning trying the Ultra Minis and not wanting to know, neither do I considering the prices for the ss. Your reason for not trying is sound, yours being an OEM product with a very specific market to resell. Ignorance is bliss, at least concerning the wallet. These guys keep feeding on our inpulses as audiophiles but there comes a point where I'm not buying. I'm not going to pay those prices for a passive vibration reducing device so like you, why listen?

Tbg:
Using my wife's name to respond, but it's me: gbmcleod
I haven't placed speaker cables on the floor in many, many years, not since Enid Lumley said not to (circa 1990). Nor power cords. I've found that precise setup - which includes the room first, the electrical power second, and keeping cords anAd cables off the floor and isolation devices all third, set the stage for everything else to reveal itself. Leaving any one of those three out will dull the results and skew the actual performance of the products in the (usually) wrong direction.
The room is always the first thing I find most poorly addressed. Until the room is out of the equation, a person is wasting money on the wrong things. Of course, if you have a really large room, the room becomes less of an issue, although not a NON-issue.
All those things addressed, I'm sure you're correct. And I agree that
"seldom having the isolation devices in each of the four corners of a component is the best location for them." I'd never found that to be the way to do it. I usually slide the isolation devices all around a location (time-consuming to be sure, but I was the Equipment Manager for Fi Magazine before Harley was, so I do have some expertise in this) to find a "good" position, or I should say the improvement is "good enough." I then move to a second isolation device, slide that around and then to the third. After all 3 are in "good enough" positions (meaning the improvement in a soprano's vocal cords are pretty clear, especially trills), I then go back to the first foot and see if I can improve the clarity (and the transparency). Repeat ad nauseum.
I have no doubt that manufacturer's filters affect the sound, but if they can be turned off, i turn them off when I first get a product, so I can hear it "bare." I use the same logic listening to amps/preamps. First, I listen with the stock cord, and only then do I put in the audiophile-grade cord. It takes much longer, but a person can get a much better system with less money by investing 1), curiosity and 2), time. As Einstein once said, we should never lose our sense of curiosity and awe of 'the mysterious.' I think the same can be said for audio: magic happens much less expensively than most people know: they just don't have the curiosity of "I wonder what happens if I put this...here!!"
NOT investing time costs you a lot more money than investing the time in experimenting.

Gbmcleod, I guess there must be an interesting story behind your using your wife's name in posting.

I agree totally about keeping the cables off the floor. This is one area where reviewing gets to be a pain. I often end up with a snake's nest of pcs, ics, etc. behind my rack despite perhaps cleaning up everything maybe three times a year.

I was unaware of Einstein's remark, but will always remember a EE professor telling me that Ohm's law and a few others "totally" covered what happened in a circuit. Having been a grader in a physics course, I responded that I didn't think that was true. The look on his face convinced me that EE wasn't going to be a major I could tolerate.

On your room remarks, I would urge you to try Zilplex resonators. I have a big room in Texas and a very small room in New Mexico and both benefitted greatly from these guys placed where Zilplex says to place them. I have tried perhaps twenty other devices ranging from reflective mirror and absorbers to tubes, Tibetan bowls, digital equalization, etc. The Zilplexes are clearly the best at least in my two rooms. Obviously trial and error is our only way to assess the influence of anything, other than perhaps hosing down our system. : )

TBG:
I suppose it is interesting, as an example of the capriciousness of this site's login issues.
The site kept telling me I had the wrong username and password - this, AFTER I had signed in to "My Page." I deleted cookies, closed down the computer, brought it up, and the site STILL gave me the exact same message. Fortunately, the first time it did that I copied and pasted my post into the "TextEdit" on my Macbook.
I'd like to try the Ziplexes. Who sells them?

By the way, my 2 meter Nordost Frey 2 arrived at my dealer's today. Installed them (in place of the 1 meter pair, since I needed longer lengths to go from preamp to amps. Longest pair of Nordost I've ever bought. $$$!!!) They actually sound quite good out of the box, unlike earlier models. Highly musical. And tomorrow, the Nola Contenders arrive! My cup runneth over, not to mention my electronics repair person informed me that the Hurricane amp was repaired and ready for pickup (I love my Hurricanes: their realism is astounding, regardless of their not being "tops" in the resolution sweepstakes). But back to the Stillpoints.
I'm completely thrilled with the Minis. I expected them to be great - but they are closer to "fantastic". Astonishingly so. Were I to have a state of the art system - or something close to it, or even if I upgrade further - I'll try the next Stillpoint models. For now, this is splendid!