Are You Sorbothane Experienced?


I couldn't find any discussions on user experiences with sorbothane isolation feet, so decided to start one. I recently purchased a set of 4 40mm sorbothane feet for my Music Hall mmf-5 turntable. 
Setup was less than favourably a one-man affair, so it was a rather precarious endeavour.

One thing that adds to the difficulty of what I imagined would be an entirely straightforward installation, is the fact that the sorbothane feet easily distort under the slightest off-centre loading. That means you have to adjust them incessantly  at both top and bottom contact points until you miraculously have all 4 perfectly vertically loaded perpendicular to your turntable's factory feet as well as your shelf. In my case the shelf is by Salamander.

Once you've managed all this and justifiably rather pleased with yourself, guess what? Your turntable may or may not be level as it was prior to the installation. So, level the TT at the shelf rather than at the adjustable feet, as are standard on the MH, because adjusting the feet would upset those super squishy sorbothane isolation pucks. 

The listening verdict: I honestly can't say that I can hear any difference during before & after playback of Jimmy Cliff's Wonderful World, Beautiful People.

I'm curious to learn of your experiences, if any. Cheers!
avdesigns
Geez, there are so many different materials: variations of the same type of material like Sorbothane and similar viscoelastic material, lead, ceramics, many different types of hardwoods, including Mpingo, maple, but also granite, slate, bluestone, air bladders of various designs, racquet balls, squash balls, tennis balls, brass cones, steel cones, aluminum cones, springs, cryo’d springs, suspensions, magnetic levitation, sandboxes, glass microbeads, roller bearing assemblies, negative stiffness isolation, dual layer mass on spring platforms. And permutations and combinations thereof. Who can evaluate and compare them all?
geoff is right about the plethora of different materials and devices on the market as well as some you might pick up at a well stocked hardware store.  After messing with many of these over the years I have found Steve and Robert Herbelin (Herbie's Audio Lab) to provide very sober yet sane advice.  You can always give them a call or email them, describe your issue and see what they might recommend to deal with it.  I have had fine results with both their regular and stiff Tenderfeet.  They have other devices to discuss as well.

Of all of the many tweaks I have experimented with, this was the least favorite. As noted, these damm things distort and are generally a pain to install. Once installed they are NOT attractive nor could I hear any improvement whatsoever. Mine went back with a note that these things were not at all pleasing. 
Generally speaking Sorbothane is good for absorbing shock but the same reason that makes it good for insoles of walking shoes makes it bad for the sound - it absorbs and stores energy. Super balls, on the other hand, those little high bouncing multicolored rubber balls about 1" diameter you can get in bubble gum machines at the supermarket work much better, I.e., sound much better. They don’t store energy, they release it. It's the same thing with the Happy Balls and Sad Balls from Edmund Scientific. One is good for the sound, the other isn't.
Like a couple of others in this thread, I've had good luck with my Sorbothane table mat (an Audioquest).  Used it on a Rega Planar 2 and now have it on my vintage Pioneer PL 15D II.  Made a bigger difference on the Pioneer because of its flimsy aluminum platter.

My Sota never needed anything; one of the best suspensions out there.  Both of my tables are also in an exceptionally massive built-in cabinet rig.  Footfalls and the like simply don't propagate much, if at all.  Never liked the idea of accessory isolation feet.  They just seem like too much of an engineering compromise.  My 2 cents, anyway.