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Is this Placebo or something real?

Recently I purchased three Nordost Sort Kones and put them under my Elite SACD player. When I first brought them home I spent a few days doing A/B comparisons and was convinced that I could hear a distinct different. One of the downsides to the Sort Kones was the fact that they are a metal on metal support that makes pushing buttons on the SACD player difficult. In an effort to make sure that it wouldn't fall off of the supports I put some foot corn pads (i.e. foam donuts) on the underside of the SACD player to give the kones a "bumper" to limit the possible movement. I made sure the pads were not touching the kones, but after installing them I was never convinced of the difference in sound quality when doing A/B comparisons. Today I took the pads off and it appears that the magic is back. I know that there is some level of vibration damping from the pads, but is it really possible for it to direct the vibrations around the Sort Kones or is this a negative placebo defeating a positive placebo? I won't be putting them back on anytime soon, that's for sure.
mceljo
photon46
1,082 posts
 
I've no experience with the Nordost product, but I've had a similar experience with Boston Audio's Tuneblocks under my SACD player. I didn't need to do any A/B-ing comparisons with those, it immediately was as obvious as could be that the footers were having a good effect on playback. Sometimes tweaks are a placebo, sometimes it's very much for real. FWIW, I've also improved digital playback by applying vibration damping sheets to various parts of cd transports. I've even seen articles detailing the application of little sandbags to various parts of DACs in the never ending search for ultimate performance.
mceljo OP
1,357 posts
 
Photon46 - I guess the biggest part of my question is if I assume that the Sort Kones made an improvement, could the addition of three toe corn pads eliminate the benefit? It seems that if the concept of the sort kones is to remove micro vibrations then it might not take much of a damper to keep the vibrations from getting to the kones at all.
rakuennow
81 posts
 
I'm not an engineer, but this sounds like placebo to me. The concept of the Nordost Sort Kones is very simple and works exactly the same way as all other products of its class. The ceramic ball damps and decouples vibrational energy from within the system going out, or external energies going in.

The marketing literature seems to imply that the most harmful vibrations are internet; how then, would cones underneath the component affect vibrations within the system? Like I said, I'm not an engineer, but this sounds like snake oil to my 101 understanding of basic mechanical physics principles.

The only way a foam donut could affect this as I see it is if it prevents the metal piece on top of the dome to move freely. Minimizing its displacement minimizes its damping ability.
rakuennow
81 posts
 
Internet = internal. Sorry, typo.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
as long as our senses and nervous system is imperfect one can never be certain that one is hearing what exists, or hearing what doesn't exist (hearing things).

there is no way to definitively answer your question without aid of objective measurement, which eliminates, to some extent the imperfections of our sense organs.

by the way, your dilemma applies to perceptions of changes in the sound of any component.

i would go with my ears and not worry about intellectual matters.
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