Where to use Isolation devices

I think I use them in the following order:

Turntables
Tube Equipment
Analog Sources (i.e. CD player)
pre-amp
amp

I have three Nordost Sort Kones under my SACD player and actually think that they made a real difference, but doing a quick A/B comparison is impossible so it's difficult the be sure.

Turntables, so I'm told, are very sensitive to vibration as are tube based equipment. I think I remember reading somewhere that Nordost recommended starting with the analog sources and working from that end.

My personal opinion is that I wouldn't bother using isolation for digial sources, but some will tell you differently.

There are several different types of isolation devices. Some decouple the equipment and others couple it like the Sort Kones. I think different ones can work better or worse for different pieces of equipment.

I know the guys at my local hi fi store went mad when they got the Sort Kones. The finally sent me home with a set to try out with the promise of a free return. They have almost every piece of equipment on them to the point that they had to steal from equipment to find three for me to take home.

Sean34, the Sort Kones are actually a coupling device that is in fact the opposite of an isolation device. The coupling devices, in theory, provide a path for any vibration to leave the equipment while isolation devices should isolate the component from the surrounding environment. Having said that, they are used for the same purpose. I have three sort kones and believe that I hear a difference as well.

I wish I had two identical CD players that I could setup identically for an A/B test that didn't involve the delay of installing and removing them.

I think an idea setup just might be a chunk of marble or other heavy inert platform that is sitting on isolation devices with the component on coupling devices on top. Should be the best of both worlds, in theory.

Sean34 - I also heard a demo using Focal Utopia speakers (I think it was the Scala). It wasn't a perfect setup because it was during an event where there were a lot of people in the store, but I could convince myself that there was a difference. What I told the salesman was that I could hear the A/B difference, but I doubted that I'd ever notice if they were not installed and nobody let me in on the secret.

When I did some A/B stuff at home I can easily describe the difference that I hear. On one particular CD there are areas about half way to the center from each speaker where I can almost hear things overlapping without the kones, but with them installed everything has air around it. It sounds like snake oil to me when I say it out loud, but it's my placebo and I'm sticking with it.

Ironically, I installed foam corn pads (i.e. donuts) on the bottom of the SACD player to prevent it from sliding off of the kones and I swear it sounded worse than without. That's an even harder setup to A/B, but I took them out. My theory is that the foam pads were providing a level of damping that was directing the vibrations around the kones.

Inna, when I purchased my Nordost Sort Kones I found it interesting that the Nordost website/white paper indicated that improvemetns could come from using a single Kone. They said that wine bottle corks could be used for the other two feet. This could be marketing hype to get people to at least purchase one or two of the Kones if three was too expensive, but it was an interesting concept. I can't see myself sitting my equipment on corks.

Alleung - How did they do the comparison of the Sort Kones at the show? I've always wanted to hear two identical sources sitting side by side with one having Sort Kones for an immediate A/B change. Taking out the kones are swapping their location should give some confirmation of the actual change. Since I only have one SACD player it takes a few minutes to swap the Kones in and out and I'm convinced that the placebo levels increase in anticipation of whatever the expected result is. It's almost impossible for the average joe to own duplicate equipment...