Please help me choose CD isolation

Martin, HEY! What did you replace your power conditioner with? (Glad to see you round!!!)

I am also using the Sony 9000, and have had best sonic results with the Townshend Seismic Sink. I know they are an older design...but I have tried many of the other things out there, and just got best results with the Sink.

Three other things that may help things sonically.
1. Try to keep your interconnects from running next to your AC cords.
2. If you have a cable TV feed that is connected to your system in any way....the ground on cable TV feeds can cause real sonic concerns...be it noise or DC voltages that are sometimes on these grounds. A quick way to check is to disconnect the 75 ohm coax from your system...and, if you are in single family home, go to where the cable comes into your home and see if there is a green ground wire going from the cable input to the AC conduit comming into your home. If there is, disconnect the green wire..and see if your system sounds better...if not then there is no cable problem. If your system sound better after this..the the cable does have something on the ground that is getting into your system. Of course, re-connect the ground..after this test. If there is a problem have a qualified electrician help get that noise bleed off the cable feed.
3. Make sure that the Sony 9000 is level. Not the shelf it is on, but the unit itself...an un-level cd drive may not be the concern it is with a turntable..but a level cd transport can sound better.

Hope some ot this helps.

For very little money (probably under $30) you could try out a piece of laminated glass (also known as security glass) on top of the vibrapods with the CD player on top of the glass. You could also try vibrapods between the glass and CD player with this configuration to see how that sounded. The laminated glass is pretty thin (I think about 1/4 inch) and doesn't weigh that much so you probably wouldn't have to buy new pods. It consists of two layers of glass sandwiching another type of material to prevent shattering and is very inert and doesn't ring. If you don't like it you're only out about $30. If you're going to mass load your cd player though, it may not be sufficient to support the weight (your Sony is pretty solid though and you're probably not going to). Another alternative, albeit more expensive is to go with standard 1/2 inch glass. I purchased two shelves of 1/2 inch to use in conjunction with vibrapods and my Target rack and have been very pleased. Cost for a 1/2 inch glass shelf should be in the range of about $50-$60. It is very heavy and you'll have to re-weigh and purchase new vibrapods, but if you liked what you heard with the laminated, I'm sure you'd be happy with the 1/2 inch, and still be below your budget. The 1/2 inch is bevelled on the edges and also has a very nice appearance. Both available from any glass shop.

Mapleshade has Isoblocks. They're made of rubber/cork/rubber laminate "carefully tuned by ear to give just the right vertical, horizontal and torsional resonant frequencies for optimum sonic isolation." A set of four (weight up to 99 lbs.) cost around $25 and for weight up to 199 lbs, a set of four is around $50. They recommend using them with a maple platform. According to Mapleshade, "maple sounds noticeably better than oak, cherry, walnut or mahogany—and far better than MDF, graphite, marble, corian, or glass." I have the Isoblocks and I have had Vibrapods. IMHO the Isoblocks sound better than Vibrapods.