Best Isolation Devices?

My favorite line of isolation products come from Symposium. I have my speakers on their Svelte shelf. This does a very good job of tightening up the bass and making the sound stage lock into place.

I use an Ultra shelf under the preamp. This has a very subtle effect on the preamp, but this may be the case because my preamp requires relatively little extra isolation (Levinson Ref. No. 32 has a thick case and power supply in a separate chassis).

My CD player are on Rollerblocks that couple it to the shelf that comes with my Zoethecus rack. The Rollerblocks make a fairly substantial improvement in making the sound much cleaner (perhaps a bit leaner sounding) and more dynamic.

Cheap, easy & effective would be to add a wall shelf (could be mounted directly above the rack) for the CD player.

Ask Ken @ Greater Ranges/Neaunace if there is a model he can recommend to be used in combination with one of their Neuance shelves. Can't imagine such a combo being too expensive as the shelf alone is only around $165.

The wall shelf should offer "adjustable" upturned spiked shelf supports in order that you can easily maintain an even keel on the CD player as the house/building settles. Spiked shelves are desirable for other reasons as well, but adjustable spikes are what make sense with TT's and CD players.

CD players (the transport sections) are better off leveled (just like a TT) for optimum performance. Doesn't make much sense considering the weight/mass of a CD, but level your player, if it's not, and you should hear a difference/improvement in the HF's. Most new/older buildings continue to settle (our 40 year old building supported by steel "I" beams just keeps on moving).

If a wall shelf is out of the question (they can look quite nice if centered over a rack), then look into a rack that offers like features to the wall shelf described above (for the CD player shelf @ least). A wall shelf however, by isolating the player from the PS/Pass gear is your best bet, IMO.

I'm am only familiar with the little 30 watt Pass single ended amp (not your Biguns:-). The Aleph 30 that I played around with for an afternoon sounded pretty much the same when placed on any hard/solid surface (not so good when resting on either the carpeted floors/shelves @ the shop). The Mapleshade cones I tried (in combination with a rack) lightened the bass up too much (no one cared for the change in the sound).

Other than looking for stands/racks for the heavy gear, maybe just try removing the PS unit from the rack in the meantime? You might try coning it to the floor if you have any spares on hand.

Racks/stands are a good focus area, IMO, which is where you are headed. I have gone through 3 systems in the past 3 years, in the process of downsizing, and the original rack/shelves have done duty for all of these systems. I traded down electronics only, not the racks/shelves/cables which make even lesser gear sound better than it normaly would.

I do use spiked shelves for the amps/preamp, but I do not believe that mine would hold up to the weight of your Pass gear in the long run. Mana and Sistrum racks, to name a few, look to be fairly sturdy.

I would highly reccomend the Grand Prix Audio racks. I have recently added a rack and some amp stands in two different systems. The benefits of these devices was simply amazing, really you'd have to experience it to believe what these can do for a system. There is a lot of science to back up their claims as well. After experiencing the improvments the Grand Prix racks make I move the importance of vibration control in a system up a notch, especially with top notch electronics that are capable of very high resolution. They aren't cheap, but what they will do for your system makes them a great value.

Also excellent is the Sounds of Silence Vibraplane. Source components benfit especially from the Vibraplane

The best so far I've experienced are Neuance shelves, www.neuanceaudio.com. I use one under my cdp and one under my integrated amp, and they can be just put under the component as free standing. The shelves are far superior to the BDR cones that I tried before, and much cheaper then most other platforms. Hope this helps...

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I use a sandwhich of Audiopoints, half inch plate glass, and Vibrapods tuned to the weight of your equipment. I have tried both flavors of BDR cones and the Mapleshades (the shades do thin the bass) and preferred Audiopoints. This combo works well with my Levinson gear. I'm curios about the cones from Oregondv.com but have not tried them yet.