Isolation vs. Absorbtion

To anyone trying out the Neuance... When you first put it in place it will sound warm and woolly, then it will gradually sharpen up but you will find there is a problem in the upper mids, then it will gradually improve and become fast, neutral and detailed. This takes up to a week (maybe more to fully come right). This means that experimenting can be a problem. That is, if you try and change footers etc to fix the early sound problems you will be driven crazy. Particularly as the sound will go through a similar process again until your last change has settled in. I have never experienced this with a shelf before. The mistake I kept making was trying to ameliorate the upper-midrange resonance you get after two or three days. I have found this out the hard way. I suggest that the best way to use the Neuance is to support it with a welded steel rack, firmly spiked to the floor and with spikes supporting the Neuance - and then leave it for a week, regardless of what it sounds like during that time. When it has settled in you will find notes start and stop very quickly. It took me a while to figure out whether this was right or wrong. My previous setup and the Maple Butchers Block romanticised the sound much more, but the Neuance was more revealing of the different character of disks and was just a whole lot less noisy. In the end I concluded that my system with the Neuance was much closer to what I hear at live events.

This thread has gotten large and complicated - what have I started?! As a new "audiophile", I remain somehow confounded. I am building a heavy welded steel rack, with thick MDF shelves, and I still need (3) (simple?)answers, ie:
Rack to Wood Floor: Hard Spikes or Soft Pads
Rack to Shelves: Fasten Tight or Isolate w/ Pads
Component to Shelves: Isolate w/ Soft Pads/Cones - appears to be correct.?
Thanks again for all your help!

Equa: This is the shortest (by far) thread that I have seen on the subject. Search for the "shelf material(s)" thread and their will be more info.

Hi Equa. I don't agree with using thick MDF shelves, but if you do then use spikes between rack and shelf, and try out some of the hard but damped cones like Walker and BDR. This will stop the MDF creating a lot of muddiness. Better still use a very light and rigid shelf like Torlyte or Neuance and use the E-A-R feet (remembering to match the size to the weight). Another good option is Maple Butchers Block - much better than thick MDF if you don't like the light and rigid approach. I am sure that there are other ways to go than I have outlined, and they may be better, but hope this helps with one set of answers to your questions.

Dekay, did you ever try the E-A-R feet? They work in the context of my overall approach to isolation, and several of my audio mates locally concur, but am very interested in what you thought.