I would like to state that the Shakti stones do work, at least in the sense that they effect the sound of many, but not all components. I probably should not post my opinion at Audiogon, because I really like the guy that manufactures the Shakti products. However, I really dislike the sound of the Stone itself. As far as what they do, there is a device inside that disrupts the magnetic field of the equipment it is placed upon. Yes, the VPI brick did the same thing, but in an even WORSE way. Take a VPI brick apart, and inside are about a dozen pieces of cut up (rather rough) scrap metal plates. Since they are steel and therefore ferrous, they immediately effect (disrupt) the magnetic field of the product. Right here I would like to point out that many manufacturers construct their products of aluminum and other NON magnetic metals, just to avoid the effect that a VPI provides. That being said, I went crazy when the VPI brick first came out, because I really loved the sound it provided as a damper, but hated what it did for the magnetic field. It took a rather long time for me to discover that the sound was partially from the weight and partly from the steel. Please remember this was in 1985, 17 Years ago! Not many of us knew about magnetics and damping all that well then. The solution with the VPI test was to purchase the milky plastic hinged boxes from Container Store and fill them with lead. Pure lead is non magnetic, and safe, as long as it is enclosed in the box. Adding them and then the VPI allowed me to test the difference the MAGNETICS played in the test, aside from the mass loading. Finally, the weight of the Shakti stone is not near what the VPI is, but the bottom of the stone is covered in a soft damping material. This material, combined with the fairly large surface area of the stone, and with even its relative light mass, often will provide a change in sound, even when there is no effect on magnetics (i.e.: a piece with no transformer/minimum power supply). I tested the Shakti stones several years ago, when the manufacturer sent me 6 of them free for evaluation. I could not find any piece of active equipment that I wanted them to stay on. The only place where they worked for me was on the power supply for the Versa Dynamics turntable. It worked there because the disruption of the magnetic field from the power supply was preferable to the distortion caused WITHIN the phono cartridge that otherwise was being bombarded with a large noise floor from an active magnetic field. Short answer: Put the stone where it may NOT harm an otherwise noisy device, and that may block the noisy device from interfering with an active device. A wild version of this was placing the stone on top of sub woofers that were used ONLY for surround sound. While the regular two channel was playing the subs were off, but too much trouble to remove from the room (too large too!). The stones placed on top during two channel and removed for movies was the only way it was a win / win deal. Obviously the radiation from the large magnetic field of the sub woofer was affecting my (then) reference amp, the Atmasphere MA2. Sorry this was such a complicated response.
