@bugredmachine thanks for the foam blocks!
bugredmachine was kind enough to send me his excess foam/rubber isolation blocks. i finally got around to trying them out with nobody else around to distract me...
let me set the stage first: i have my stereo in a somewhat dedicated room in the basement. the floor is a concrete slab covered with a thin carpet pad and a thin, dense commercial carpet. i'm currently using spikes that pierce the carpet and pad, resting on the concrete slab below.
the foam/rubber blocks do not seem to be a good match for these conditions. compared to the spikes, the bass became less defined and reduced in power and the whole soundstage collapsed slightly in on itself. my guess is these blocks would sound stellar between my speakers and the pure concrete slab. with the carpet pad, carpet and the foam blocks between my speakers and floor, the speakers weren't planted enough.
i'm going to try them between my preamp and its isolation platform next. i currently have wooden feet in that application.
oh, almost forgot, i bought some conical compression springs for under my preamp iso plinth, to replace the rubber inner tube that was there. they were $3/piece from grainger. well worth it and, because they are conical, they are very stable, so i did not have to countersink them like i did the regular compression springs i used on my TT iso platform..
here's what i heard after replacing the innertube under the preamp with the springs: the sound cleared up a bit, with slightly better separation between instruments and slightly tighter bass. definitely an improvement, but not nearly as drastic as the improvement i heard when i replaced the innertube under the TT platform with springs. that was a very noticeable improvement.
bugredmachine was kind enough to send me his excess foam/rubber isolation blocks. i finally got around to trying them out with nobody else around to distract me...
let me set the stage first: i have my stereo in a somewhat dedicated room in the basement. the floor is a concrete slab covered with a thin carpet pad and a thin, dense commercial carpet. i'm currently using spikes that pierce the carpet and pad, resting on the concrete slab below.
the foam/rubber blocks do not seem to be a good match for these conditions. compared to the spikes, the bass became less defined and reduced in power and the whole soundstage collapsed slightly in on itself. my guess is these blocks would sound stellar between my speakers and the pure concrete slab. with the carpet pad, carpet and the foam blocks between my speakers and floor, the speakers weren't planted enough.
i'm going to try them between my preamp and its isolation platform next. i currently have wooden feet in that application.
oh, almost forgot, i bought some conical compression springs for under my preamp iso plinth, to replace the rubber inner tube that was there. they were $3/piece from grainger. well worth it and, because they are conical, they are very stable, so i did not have to countersink them like i did the regular compression springs i used on my TT iso platform..
here's what i heard after replacing the innertube under the preamp with the springs: the sound cleared up a bit, with slightly better separation between instruments and slightly tighter bass. definitely an improvement, but not nearly as drastic as the improvement i heard when i replaced the innertube under the TT platform with springs. that was a very noticeable improvement.