^^^
Nice post, Andy ...
You just never know what will affect the sound either negatively or positively. Salt blocks ... who-da thunk it? :-)
I'm really looking forward to your assessment of the two SR outlets as they break in. They're on my bucket list.
I tried putting granite slabs under my speakers, spiking the slabs to the floor (raised foundation), and then spiking the speakers to the granite slabs. I was looking for a way to improve the bass. Well, it improved the mids and the highs, but the bass became almost nonexistent. So then I got the idea of ordering two Mapleshade maple platforms and tried them in the same way.
http://mapleshadestore.com/feedback_mapleshadeplatforms.phpWalla! Great bass and an overall improvement throughout the full range. The granite slabs are now on top of the speakers and they fit the exact dimensions of the speaker tops. The added weight of the granite slabs add to the mass of the speakers and give a further improvement, especially in the area of overall clarity.
At the moment, I'm breaking in two of the Von Gaylord 7000 IC's and a pair of their biwired speaker cables.
http://vongaylordaudio.com/beta/cabling/So far, I'm getting fantastic results with only about 50 hours on them. The Von Gaylord cables require about 200 hours to sound their best. I'll start a new thread about them in the cable forum when they're broken in. At 50 hours they are stomping all over the wires they replaced, and those were no slouches at all ... not by a long shot.
Hang in there ... and happy listening.