Can I Live With A Hardwood Floor?

asvjerry and nonoise, that's my plan. I'm currently suing the US Postal Service, waiting to be put on the docket. After that, then I'll have some expendable cash flow. For right now as I've mentioned, I placed a wool German military blanket on the floor and a cotton throw with some Ukrainian wool fabric on top and it has helped considerably. Thanks for the link nonoise. It appears as though this would be a good source for not paying a lot of money.
I do still trust in these Akiko Products as careful trial and error positioning has offered a giant improvement to my system.

an isolation transformer is a device about the size of an amp that your equipment plugs into - it will not adversely affect your SQ

since you are on a budget (yet have Quads??) you will want to be very careful about wasting money:

- you probably do not have line noise - most noise is from bad gnds, gnd loops, or is generated INSIDE your own equipment

- you may well want to add some absorbers and diffusers (or a combination unit) - you can read about them extensively in the Master handbook of Acoustics (I saved money by checking it out from my city library (twice)).  And you can build both types of room treatments yourself - I posted some links on here somewhere before

Room Treatments will be by far the most cost effective way to get better SQ

'I posted some links on here somewhere before'
Yes, thank you.  

The top of the line 1,5 Kv isolation transformer called the Blitz is around $1200 plus shipping so probably in the range of $1500. I currently have a BPT 3.5 Sig+ on my front end but balanced transformers hefty enough for amps, and I have mono blocks, would be pretty costly. Hence the search for something hefty and price smart. 
I have searched for balanced transformers for a couple of years. There is a 24 amp Equi=tech on reverb for $1500 but I believe it requires 220 V.
Best deal I have found is SAC. If you email them they are very good about returning and will give you all the details. Best of Luck!

dentdog thanks for the info. My amp runs off a battery so no issue there. Akiko offers a Squeeze Box and DAC Power Supply for 350 euro and given that my sonic objections are confined to my DAC, I'm thinking that this would be an affordable antidote.The SAC interests me but I'm looking for a better college to teach in so $1,500.00 is a little steep for the moment.
I have been looking at acoustic foam to place along the slanting attic walls. The house is a shotgun style built in 1887 and so I;m hoping that $60.00 worth of foam will help with the occasional shrill and separation distortion in the treble. A proper wool carpet would be nice as well.