Boy, Oh Boy! Towshend!

Couple things- all things heard cannot be measured, and all things measured cannot be heard. That doesn’t mean to ignore seismographs, etc, but it is not the be all and end all.

MC is absolutely right about vibrations coming from the components or speakers themselves. That’s why vibration platforms under amps, and other components in addition to speakers work so surprisingly well. I was amazed at how something called roller blocks under my phono stage improved the sound. They drain internal noise and isolate components. Under speakers, platforms drain internal noise, so regardless of how dead your tile is, there is still distortion inside the speaker cabinet. It seems to make everything sound clearer. You may think you lose bass, but it is distortion,  and what is left is real.

if you are in the US, I recommend you speak with Peter at Symposium Acoustics. He’s been creating solutions since 1992. Roller blocks, platforms, racks, etc. He doesn’t advertise, and goes by word of mouth. You can talk to him live and he loves this stuff.

He is also refreshingly honest. When I was doing my initial isolation work on my turntable, he told me his iso platform would not address my turntable isolation issues because it only weighs 10 pounds without putting counterweights on top of my plinth, which was impossible. So I went with a Townshend platform that did the trick with their lightest pods under their platform. It worked great. When I went next to my speakers, draining the noise worked best with symposium  Segue platforms. You can add roller blocks under them if you want, but once again Peter was so honest-by saying I may not want to elevate the tweeters an  inch+ and just go with the Segues. The Segues are the same height as the spikes I removed from my speakers.

Next was the phono stage, then my amp, and the only thing left is my power conditioner, but I need one thing that doesn’t move when I touch it for when I am organizing records. Everything floats, so when I see that my OCD tendencies make me nervous. Conditioner is on top of Herbie’s Tenderfeet, which do a little, but nothing like pods or roller blocks.

I also agree with MC about not worrying about every little thing in terms of what to do when. Every time I do something, it sounds better. I am amazed. No stereo salesmen ever mention this stuff, and it is very impactful.

Peter says in his experience, believe it or not, the biggest improvement he’s seen is with CD players! Too bad I don’t use one, but if I would have kept mine and used his products, I might not have disconnected it. No disrespect to John at Townshend, but he is not the designer of the products, and when I did have the opportunity to talk to Max Townshend, it was night and day. It is not easy, especially with them being on the other side of the pond for me. He is nice and responsive, but is very salesy and tends to exaggerate a bit. Max and Peter are very scientific and set expectations very modestlly,  which makes the improvements all the more surprising. Peter will take the time to help you. He even answered a question I had about my turntable mat even though he never pursued a solution for that (he thought about it at one time, but was too busy).

Seems you have options. Having a trial period to listen to products - that's been my suggestion all along.

@millercarbon @rixthetrick 

Well, apparently Townsend isolation corners WILL isolate every single component in my equipment rack. Got it from the source!
I asked John at Townshend: "As far as the isolation corners isolating my equipment rack down to 3Hz, what about the individual components. Will they also be isolated down to 3Hz? As I cannot fit isolation pods under most of the components."John: Yes everything on top of the rack is Isolated

Me: Just to clarify, when you said "Yes everything on top of the rack is Isolated" did you mean, all 9 components within each rack shelf of the Sound Anchors rack or just the components(turntables and tonearm etc) on the top of the rack. John: Once your rack is floating on our Seismic Corners everything that is on the rack is Isolated down to 3hz.------------
So what do you think MC? Pretty economical way to isolate 9 components vs 36 isolation pods!
The isolation corners and 4 speaker bars would do the trick. John also recommended speaker bars on my sub. However my sub is 18" wide?
But I'm thinking, getting 4 Nobsound springs(if they can handle 140 pounds) would be a much more economical way to proceed if they would not affect the Townshend isolation. 4 isolation pods would cost less than half as much as speaker bars...Thoughts?
The only issue here is getting to the right rear corner of my equipment rack. Unless I pull the rack  way out away from the back and side wall(see imgur dot com slash a slash FEI0zPQ to see the rack and walls) and successfully! slide the corner back in place over the tile and grout lines, no way can the rack corner be lifted to get the spike into the small isolation corner spike hole. Even if I follow John's advice about removing all heavy components and center speaker first...It's still 300+ pounds!

Well first, John is right- as far as he goes. Yes if the whole rack is on Pods then everything on the rack is isolated. But remember it is not just isolation from the environment, it is also isolating each component from everything else. The difference is each component generates its own internal vibrations. Very important.  

So even with the rack isolated there will still be improvement isolating each individual component. 

This is not an either/or thing. Building a system is all and/and/and. And. And andandand....  Neverending and's. Usually what happens is we run out of money way before we run out of and's to do. The rack is your only option since there is no room, and it is probably better than doing only whatever few components you can. Again: do what you can. Don't sweat the small stuff! 

Nobsound can handle way more than 140lbs. It is more like 50lbs per unit, or 200lbs altogether. At 140lbs you probably only need 5 or 6 of the 7 springs.  

In terms of cost-effectiveness, the main difference is Townshend is superbly damped while Nobsound isn't damped at all. Because of this the Pods, Bars or whatever will have a lot better tone, way better truth of timbre, and improved slam compared to Nobsound. All these are much more noticeable in midrange and treble where most of this information comes from and where our hearing is most sensitive. Way down low in the bass is always harder to hear.    

That is why I added springs first where I did, and waited until later to move from springs to Pods under my subs. Will be migrating from springs to Pods under my subs next so we will know soon enough. Meantime I would say if you have to cut corners anywhere use springs under the subs and Pods, etc everywhere else.  

As for getting them under the rack, a picture's worth a thousand words. Meantime I have four choice words for you: leverage is your friend.

As I previously mentioned, I would call Peter at Symposium Acoustics and see wheat he thinks. He talks about “best bang for the buck” all the time. He might recommend roller blocks, platforms, or some combo, and if he can’t fit, he won’t force it.