What isolation feet to use??

I'm not sure about the audiophile stuff, but isolation in physics is a kind of decoupling, and the purpose is to absorb or cancel out vibrations. The ideal model for this is the spring and dashpot, the next best thing is a visco-elastic material. You need to have deflection in order to decouple; imagine a spring that "bounces" at the frequency of the vibration you want to isolate. On the other hand, if you apply pressure against a relatively hard/inert object, it absorbs none of the pressure, and actually transmits that to the other side. As an experiment, hold a brick and have someone push you, versus a pillow, and see which absorbs and deflects more pressure.

The same principle applies in audio. Rubbery visco-elastic materials, springs, dashpots, shock absorbers, hydraulics, tuned mass dampers, etc. are decoupling devices. Wood, brass, silver, metalic, and any hard surfaces, like compressed sand or shot, are coupling devices. Coupling devices will transmit vibrations from your equipment to the ground, and from the ground to your equipment. There's no such thing as having only one-way (Newton's law: for every action there's an equal reaction in the opposite direction).

I'll treat lightly, since I don't want to offend anyone, but there are a lot of ideas here that flies right in the face of science. For some no-nonsense literature, for one, go to sorbothane . com and read what they have to say, and they even have a nifty program where you plug in a couple parameters according to a formula, and figure out the ideal size isolation feet you need for the project (hint: depends largely on the weight, aim for the lowest frequency). Sorbothane manufactures a proprietary visco-elastic material that many of these other audiophile products source from.

Note: I have no affiliation with Sorbothane, but the program on its website really is just the easiest way to figure out the idea feet for your equipment

Sorry I was not clear. Whether a device subjectively improves upon your sound is up to experimentation. While maple blocks and such might physically "isolate" a component from ground, it does nothing to isolate vibrations (spikes are most efficient in -transmitting- vibrational frequencies by focusing all mass into 1 point... mass = weight / volume).

There are many devices that incorporate these principles, including Sorbothane, Sorbogel, Mapleshade's Isoblocks, and (my guess) maybe even the Marigo Mystery Feet. The point is to deflect vibrations as it is customizable to the weight of your components. Every isolation feet (size, material, etc.) has a different ideal load where it works to maximum efficiency.

I did not recommend Sorbothane for the Sorbothane material, but rather the science in plain English on their website, and most importantly (!), they have a program where you can plug in various numbers and it will show you the ideal shape and size if your goal was to isolate vibrational frequencies!

My hunch is that people who are dissatisfied with any of the decoupling technologies are using the wrong shape or size (once again, that depends on the load/weight of your components), as in theory, Isoblocks and Sorbothane should do exactly the same thing. And so using the program on Sorbothane's website, in theory, takes out the guesswork in figuring out which audiophile component best suits your equipment, since very rarely do any of them publish specifications.

I would encourage experimentation, since what subjectively sounds good to you is all that matters in the end, but it helps to get a working knowledge of how these things work.

I would add that the theoretical ideal is to lower the resonant frequency below 5Hz, so that it becomes inaudible, but some devices, for example, may purposefully tune the resonant frequency between 20-40Hz, which will produce an audible bass hump (improve bass, increase dynamics).

Jimjoyce25, would Marigo do money-back even if the footer has been taken apart? That would be funny.

Nikturner920, you input the expected weight, as well as the shape and size, and viscocity of the Sorbothane footer, and it outputs the resonant frequency, and the deflection ratio, and some other stuff. The idea is to calculate the lowest resonant frequency for the weight of your components. The footer should deflect between 50-80% of its height.

Then, for a professional result, put the Sorbothane in a small maple box (like this one: http://www.giftsbyginny.com/boxeswoodkeepsake.htm) and call it Nikturner's Magical Box and sell it for $900 per set of 4. :)