Vibration isolation or absorption?

The statement is not a question, it is a prompt to encourage further investigation into how a variant of a in use support structure can produce an improved impact on the Sound being produced.

I have a substantial collection of Footers from Spikes, Pads and Suspension, with Solid Tech Feet of Silence being the most expensive.

I have used numerous Sub Plinth Material from Natural through to Manmade, with a Panzerholz Sub Plinth being the most impressive used to date.

All that I own has been loaned into other systems, and to date if there is a assembly without a weight constraint for Devices that can be claimed to have been very well received, it is a Two Teir Assembly of Panzerholz Boards with  9 x Audio Technica 616 Footers in use as separators.

In my own system, the above assembly gets better, with Feet of Silence, separating the Top Teir and HiFi Device, but as stated, this has a constraint on weight that can be supported.

The feet suggested by Elliot are owned by myself in both Cork and a Blue Sylomer Foam. These are used in industry as well, that are designed to absorb energy and reduce noise from machinery. I have used them under Speakers mainly and they do assist with tightening a Bass Note. The AT 616, are able to improve on these, but at a considerable cost.

Friends who were impressed with their loan of AT 616, and were put of by the difficulty in acquiring them, have proven to themselves, though comparisons, that the Iso Acoustics Gaia Footers are as close to parity to the 616 as can be wanted. , 

@ emergingsoul

Thanks for the advice. We will make an effort to do so. The equipment changes often. People who work here spend more time listening versus equipment setup, imaging, and marketing.

The Energy Room is open for auditions. Hearing the sound generated by the room is a rush. Since Covid, the traveling reviewer is not readily available. Reviewers want to take on new audio innovations, but a cloned acoustic environment has nothing to compare within the Industry. 

Anyone interested in reviewing their experience in an Energy Room, regardless of Industry affiliations, publications, or amateur-professional status, please telephone me. We will work on arranging your visit. 

@ mitch2

Ha-ha. One listening session and all your quotes, jokes, and puns would cease. Believe it or not!

@audiopoint 

Exhausting ... isn't it?

@whipsaw I know that Isoacoustics announced a partnership with Wolf Von Langa, although I don’t know if the SON comes with the Gaia. Mine didn’t.

I have used Starsound/LiveVibe products for the past ten years and have had all my equipment on Sistrum stands with good effect. THey were recommended by an Audiogon member who sold me his TRL Dude preamp in 2012. He was so impressed with their stands that he had them build his listening room using their technology. At the time I had a pair of Audiokinesis Jazz Modules in a room that was giving me a lot of problems, with bass in particular. I bought a used pair of Sistrum stands from Starsound and they had a profound effect on SQ when I placed the Jazz modules on them. Bass was solid and sound overall was cleaner and more articulate. Fast forward 10 years and I moved to a different house with a friendlier listening room.

I received my Wolf Von Langa SONs in early January and Colin King of Gestalt came to set them up. Once we settled on a position we put the SONs on the Sistrum stands and immediately there was a substantial improvement in the sound quality versus on the floor. I actually purchased a pair of the Gaias to try during set up, but after hearing the SONs on the Sistrum stands, we didn’t bother trying them out.

Because the Sistrums are kind of sprawling and we needed to be able to walk around the speakers to get to a bathroom behind the speakers, I talked to Robert about the current LiveVibe Rhythm Jr stands, which fit nicely under the speakers and are more substantial including larger Audiopoint and coupling discs. I also traded in the Sistrum stand under my Circle Labs M200 amp for the Rhythm stand. I recently received them and set them up and noticed another step up in sound. The soundstage is remarkably 3-dimensional and extends well behind my walls on many recordings. Bass is clean and musical. Highs such as cymbals are crystal clear and really shimmer. It should be noted that that I have no acoustic treatment in my 11x17 room so I can imagine that tweaking that would result in further improvements

A side note is that Robert offered me about 85% of original purchase price for the products I traded in, which is not bad after 10 years of ownership.

So the benefit of the LiveVibe coupling technology is clear to me. I can’t say whether decoupling would be better but I find that this technology works for me. It would be interesting to do a direct comparison to decoupling devices like the Gaia or Townshend products so maybe I’ll try that when I have some spare time..Of course OCD Mikey, who is a big LiveVibe fan, has done that already as shown in these videos (and a few more. He believes that LiveVibe stands are an improvement over the Townshends. Take YouTube SQ for what it is worth in terms of your own ability to tell a difference..

THE PROFOUND IMPROVEMENT AMPLIFIER STANDS MAKE - YouTube

LIVE VIBE AUDIO STANDS UNDER SPEAKERS ! LISTENING TEST - YouTube

@hchilcoat 

Thank you for sharing your anecdotal experiences so eloquently. As should be clear from my posts, I was never arguing that the products of Isoacoustic or Townshend are necessarily better than those produced by Robert's company. But they have clearly been well-received by a meaningful number of audiophiles, as well as some high-class component manufacturers, and I see no reasonable basis on which anyone should attempt to ridicule them.

You have a terrific system, and are probably aware that I use a Circle Labs A200. I had a similar experience to yours when placing a set of Stillpoints Ultra SS V2 under that amp. A big improvement. Could I squeeze further improvement out by utilizing a different vibration control product? Possibly, but I do have a difficult imagining that it would be significant.

I have also placed Isoacoustic Gaias under my FinkTeam KIM speakers, and am quite happy withy the result. I could imagine that Townsend Podiums, or perhaps the ones that you are using, might produce further improvements. But again, I would expect diminishing returns at best.

I would be very interested to hear your impressions if you are able to compare a Townshend Podium under your WvL SON to the LiveVibe, but I expect that you would agree that it would be nearly impossible to do so "blind".

Finally, I'm also glad to hear that your personal experiences with Robert have been positive. I have no axe to grind with him beyond what I have articulated in previous posts on this thread.