I use steel spikes under my two racks into a 12" thick, 3000 psi steel reinforced concrete slab. Nothing from the ground goes up into my racks. However, the racks are welded steel with 50/50 mix of sand/shot. They are relatively damped before getting to the shelves. Most of my shelves are HDF 1 1/8" and others are 1" granite. Then a mix of ultra and mini Stillpoints, one Audio Technica footer set and a Townshend Seismic Sink (turntable). Some components are not footed (COS Engineering D1 DAC has excellent designed spikes/very solid cse and VPI 19-4 which has rubber & springs).
Isolation Feet Recommendation for Equipment Rack
I just bought a 4-tier equipment rack to set up a 2nd system. It’s not audiophile standard and comes with standard spikes. The sound quality of the system is decent with this rack but I intend to replace the spikes on the rack with something else in the near future and was wondering about the available options.
The target support weight inclusive of the rack is up to 150 lbs (on a more accurate level it's around 130lbs). Apart from the Isoacoustics Gaia, are there any other worthy options around the same price range? What about the Finite Elemente stuff such as Cerabase and Cerapuc? I have the FE Cerapuc installed on the equipment rack in the main system but did not compare the Cerapuc with anything else for the past 15 years of ownership.
I would appreciate experiences from folks who have switched from spikes to any of the "audiophile standard" isolator options on the equipment rack, going from coupling to decoupling. These isolation feet will need to bring some noticeable if not significant change or improvement to the sound quality of the system after they replaced the spikes on the equipment rack. If the difference is subtle to the point of negligible, or the sound becomes worse instead of better, I’d say forget it.
The target support weight inclusive of the rack is up to 150 lbs (on a more accurate level it's around 130lbs). Apart from the Isoacoustics Gaia, are there any other worthy options around the same price range? What about the Finite Elemente stuff such as Cerabase and Cerapuc? I have the FE Cerapuc installed on the equipment rack in the main system but did not compare the Cerapuc with anything else for the past 15 years of ownership.
I would appreciate experiences from folks who have switched from spikes to any of the "audiophile standard" isolator options on the equipment rack, going from coupling to decoupling. These isolation feet will need to bring some noticeable if not significant change or improvement to the sound quality of the system after they replaced the spikes on the equipment rack. If the difference is subtle to the point of negligible, or the sound becomes worse instead of better, I’d say forget it.