Butcherblock Acoustics "feet" effecting sound and isolation

I use Nobsound springs under all components including turntable after a lot of testing. I threw my pointy cones and spikes away. I found that spongy materials like cork, rubber, Sorbothane, foam etc. to soften and color the sound. Granite as a shelf or tabletop sounded bad—dry, pinched and strident.

...well, since befriending my mad-scientist audio chum in the mid-90's, addressing unwanted distortions and resonances has been an integral piece of my journey to great sound in a dedicated space.  Rick, for a time, was the US repair person for Audio Matiere, amazing French tube gear.  I can qualify him in many ways...Pierre Sprey of Mapleshade, Ron Hedrich of Marigo Labs, as a dealer for Audible Illusions is the tip of the iceberg in his experience.  Rick was a person who could awaken at 3am with an idea and have it on his test bench in a few days.  He lived inside circuits and ways of isolating unwanted elements, and his results were proofs.  

Please take a minute to watch "George Cardas - Current Through a Cable" on YouTube.  Very very little in audio does not affect the sound in some manner, generally in a negative way, including "under the hood."  Only in recent years has the exotic high-end been directly addressing some of these issues with interior isolation, anti-resonant exotic materials (especially loudspeakers,) aggressive room treatments etc.  

Rick would spend hours upon hours in experimenting with materials...isolating, dampening, suspending, bladders, grounding approaches and early computer technology.  He did re-master work for Mapleshade artists who visited him in Maine.  Find his article written for The Audiophile Voice on Marigo VTS tuning dots.  

There is very little that is mass manufactured and marketed that cannot be somehow improved upon.  My audio niche is by experimentation and research equal to my ability and budget, in making careful choices of gear, treatment and tuning...pulling everything forward.  It's creative, exciting and rewarding.  A life-long passion.  

More Peace                Pin

@pinthrift 

Good reference to the Cardas video. It is great when someone simply demonstrates an aspect of audio… few words needed. The point is irrefutable.

Also, the follow on video describing the Cardas philosophy and progressive change in sound characteristics is something anyone considering cables should hear. It is short.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T2NmbYvACM

great suggestions, I'll check them out.

There are 2 main issues that isolation devices may solve.

#1 is external vibration to the component (e.g., footfalls causing a record to skip)

If you have a solid floor and solid rack/stand, and footfalls are a non-issue, this should be easy to solve and not involve tire tubes and sand boxes. (I have zero footfall issues so my solution is designed around that scenario)

#2 is internal vibration generated by the component (integrated tube amps and CD transports are among the worst offenders)

#2 is addressed by coupling the component to allow the vibrations to dissipate and absorbed by something that can convert that energy into heat. In this case, sorbothane, wood etc. makes it worse. In my case this simply meant removing the plastic "buttons" on the bottom of the metal turntable feet and removing the stock rubber/plastic feet from my amp, then applying several different application-specific solutions from Symposium. They are reasonably priced and they work. Peter knows his stuff.

Details are in my virtual system in case your are interested.

The biggest impact was my integrated tube amp, followed by the center channel speaker. (not listed in my system but I use JR. roller blocks to lift the Paradigm speaker off the wood cabinet instead of having it sit on stock rubber feet, or sorbothane pucks, and the clarity and detail improved - a LOT), then TT.