Stillpoint Ultras anyone?

I must say, there must be a reason the Stillpoints don't work under some devices.I wonder if there is some material in the device that prevents them (the Stillpoints) from demonstrating their magic. Must be some powerful voodoo in those other components hexing the Stillpoints. It is not, after all, an electrical interface. It is a vibational one. Unless all vibration is gone, this is a mystery to me. The closest I can come to the proverbial "curse" on a component/tweak not working is when I had the Black Diamond Racing Rack sitting on my Finite Elemente Spider Rack and put footers under an NAD C326BEE. The sound was grainy, like 800-speed film and NO dimensionality (not an inherent trait of the NAD BEE series amps). I couldn't fathom it. Eventually, I took out the Black Diamond Rack and put the NAD directly on the rubber pucks. VOILA! It sounded like the NAD. When I spoke to someone knowledgable about it, they posited that the Black Diamond, the Spider Rack and the footers I was using were "fighting" each other. It made sense, since the removal of the footers and the BDR Rack caused the NAD to sigh in relief, "That Fool. What the hell was he doing?!?!?! Putting competing technologies all together like that and not even testing it one technology at a time."
I never did that again. If I want a hard shelf on the Spiders, I just use maple board instead of MDF, and THEN put the component on that, as I did today. THEN, after listening to a few cuts, I inserted the Stillpoints. OH, BABY, give it TO me!!! LOL. It sounds great. I wandered in and out of the music room at several points during the evening tonight, thinking (delusionally) that the Frey had magically gone thru a time warp and broken in, but MAN, even un-broken in, it sounds as dynamic as hell, with instruments within sections jumping out towards you. Not a "reserved" sound in the least! It's like standing in front of a tiger's cage at the zoo: the tiger looks at you for a bit, not blinking, then quite suddenly rises to his feet, walks toward the edge of the cage...and before you can react, growls and simultaneously swipes at you thru the bars. Of course, you're too far back, but you still blink - if not let out a gasp and jump backwards, caught off guard by the suddenness of the tiger's lunge.
This would be, in audio terms, of the same speed with which the Stillpoints allow the (sudden) release of the dynamic inflections, as well as the dynamic outbusts, contained within a recording.

Tbg:
If you read Gregory's review on The Audio Beat website, he clearly states one must place the isolation devices directly into contact with the component and he states that removing it in any way from direct contact with the component has deleterious effects. Perhaps that accounts for your experience. I couldn't say myself. Just a speculation.

Gbmcleod, I think my problem originates from the power of the Ultra Fives. I have used them on top of many components with great but expensive benefit, but in some instances they do harm. It also seems to depend on what is under the component. Ultra Minis and Ultra SSs are okay but not Ultra Fives.

I really have no explanation for the problem with the HB Designs Acrylic PowerSlave.

I should note that in the vast majority of cases, the various StillPoints Ultra are marvelous. For their impact per cost, the Ultra Minis are clearly a best buy. I would not try them under 80 pound amps or speakers, however.

I have noticed incidentally that Minis are isolators under components. The ceramic balls isolate the component from the base of the Minis. I have had mixed results with the Ultra Fives and have yet to try the Ultra SSs. I think this is important for the same reason that getting cables off the floor are important, namely static electricity.

Mphnkns you are so right. I have a high end system (cost wise under $50k) and stillpoints,audios,pillows, etc. for vibration control. The last upgrade component was a preamp. I was disappointed in the congestion of orchestral tuttis, difficulty in finding a good tonal balance, especially voices which my equipment/cabling exalts (or should), soundstage and imaging. I already tried several sound absorbing panels between the speakers and mid-room with Hallographs. I finally realized adding more panels, mixing them with reflective panels totally changes the room sound. After about 100 hours and 50 panel setup changes, I realized my goal, open, uncongested sound with superb tonality, soundstaging and imaging. I ended up with stillpoints under my monoblock tube amps (big ones at 140 watts), stillpoints under my VPI SDS, aurios under my EAR Acute, a pillow under my EAR 324 and a Seismic Sink under my VPI TNT VI. Funny thing, the sorbothane feet under the pre-amp sounded better than with any of the other vibration items.

While the vibration control devices are wonderful when placed correctly, the room is about 50% of the sound quality
of the music.

Fleschler, I have seen many vibration devices come and go and have boxes of them. I had thought it was all merely a matter of what resonance point pleases you, but Star Sound Technology's Audiopoints proved this to be more complicated than I thought. Their brass Audiopoints sound better than any other brass point I have tried.

Halcyonics active isolation units, however, have no resonance frequency at low frequencies. And StillPoints' Ultra series seeks to convert all vertical resonances into heat. The Halcyonic units are too expensive and the SP Ultra Fives are expensive.

So we now have mechanical ground versus isolation devices, with the question being, which sounds better. I do know that on my TriPoint Troy Signature, the Star Sound "mechanical grounding" was better.