Footers under my speakers double the perceived value of my speakers!

I spent years working on lower cost methods, passive devices with floor stander and stand mount speakers.  IMO insipid in comparison with building systems. Elevating systems makes the other activities a poor return for my time. 

Jim's book is ok, but underrates importance of quality of gear. Setup can't fix mediocre gear. You can't reach upper level sound by tuning and tweaking average gear. Anyone disagree? I'm not too bothered by that.  :)

Suppose a speaker comes in. Do I spend time on spikes vs. Stand or build another system. Maybe you spend time on stand, but i build another system. I am a system Builder,  not a tweaker. Disagree? Great, go at it your way. 

Revolution going on in digital, and a new DAC under assessment, and I'm going to spend time on a stand? I'll let someone else do that.  

Anyway, I think I'm done with this discussion.  Blessings to all and happy listening. 

Well Doug, no one can say that you don't admit your shortcomings. You just laid them all out in plain language.Thanks.

hg, yours are a perfect example of a floor stander that could accept Townshend Audio seismic pods, however with the bolt on top like the seismic corners have, then you can bolt them directly under your outriggers.

Zero Stiffness is the goal.

There's a reason springs are used under cars, buses and trucks and not Gaia. However the springs are so pliable that for example outriggers are generally required. The Gaia are not as compliant. It is the effect of compliance that will allow the greatest of isolation to take place.

Revolution going on in digital, and a new DAC under assessment, and I'm going to spend time on a stand? I'll let someone else do that.  

Can anybody understand Doug's entire posts? I can't. I am reminded of Geoff but Geoff's weird statements are on purpose. 
Take this one. Is he saying that there is currently a revolution going on with digital? What revolution is that? I had not heard. Maybe like a revolution in Bolivia? Has someone magically broken the code as to how to eliminate all problems associated with digital filtering, digital algorithms, interpolation associated errors, power supply spuriae, clocking drift, and all the other things that make digital less than perfect sound forever? If so, I guess I am the last to know and Doug is all over it. 
And since when is "stand" and "footer" interchangeable? He keeps talking about stands and for the life of me I don't know why a floorstander would be on a "stand". Can someone take out their secret decoder ring and explain to my simple mind what the hell he is trying to say?
Thanks in advance. 

I dont know why simple thing like resonant mechanical embedding of an audio system is not simply experienced and understood by some....it is simple college physics.... Even a litterary mind like me knows....

I will not add the necessary controls of the electrical grid embedding to this one...This one is completely underestimated by most...

The acoustical embedding treatment is way more partially understood tough in the passive way to remedy the room, but forgot the active ways that are almost unsuspected by almost all people....

These 3 embeddings treatment and controls exceed in S.Q. change any normal upgrade not of one component, but in "some" cases the upgrade of all components, so powerful they are....

Think about any manufacturer in the obligation to reveal these inconvenient truths (for the sale pitch) to you before you bought his 10,000 dollars amplifier or dac? Will you be pleased to learn that day that his perfect engineering gear is not enough by themself to create Hi-Fi experience?

Asking the question is answering it.... :)

I succeed to afford Hi-Fi experience at peanuts costs thanks to simple listening experiments with homemade common sense and only very low cost materials....

Someone must say that to help the people who throw their money out of the window before knowing it or thinking about it, because they dont know no other way, and because they like me dream of Hi-Fi experience...


Perhaps i dont know the last dac technological marvel, my dac was paid peanuts by a bid on Ebay, but for sure i know now a few things about the way to embed an audio system at low cost and trust me the best dac in the world cannot replace that 3 embeddings controls by himself....

Dac dont eliminate vibrations, dont decrease the noise floor of the house and dont adress the acoustic field....Amplifier or speakers no more....

My system look like trash (because of all my modifications) but sound like many many thousand dollars systems and better than most...

The word "upgrading" is a market key word, a conditioned false ingrained urgency most of the times.... Think about what you already owns and the way to improve it.... After that, few years passing, you will know how to buy a real upgrade....

Is your gear, never mind his price, giving to you his real hi-Fi max. potential S.Q. ?  That is the only important question, and most of the times the answer is no....

This is the basic audiophile problem and this is not related to any so called "upgrade".....