Best Isolation Device for Speakers?

My wife sister Mount pair of spring on her tennis sneaker and we all better for that.

BTW @fsonicsmith you have a lovely, carefully assembled system there. I'd be curious what effect some speaker isolation would provide in your setting. Maybe you should try a lower cost option like the Herbies footers - or have you already?  

BTW @fsonicsmith you have a lovely, carefully assembled system there. I'd be curious what effect some speaker isolation would provide in your setting. Maybe you should try a lower cost option like the Herbies footers - or have you already?  

Very kind words, thank you. I bought five sets of Gaia footers of all sizes for my amp, preamp, and yes, my loudspeakers. I rotate my Devore O/93's with a pair of Spendor D7.2's. Gaia's (without any screw-in posts so as to not alter the speaker" did some really odd things with my Devores. It was not unlike going to a concert under the influence. I would also describe it as a slightly euphonic but ultimately disappointing form of distortion. I heard what I perceived to be more depth and soundstage at the expense of bass solidity and truth of tone. To use another analogy it was similar to unloading a fine MC cartridge to the point where it is under-suspended. 

Contrast that with the Spendors. I feel the Gaia's installed with the threaded posts do provide mostly positive results. "Mostly" because there is still just a little lack of definition as compared to using the factory spikes (which are of the ubiquitous "arrowhead" variety). Is it a coincidence that the Spendors were designed to use some time of spike with female thread inserts whereas the Devores are built with wood blocks to couple the enclosure to the floor? I don't believe it is. Then again, someone might think I am letting that distinction in design have a bearing on my subjective impressions. I don't think so but I will accept the possibility of the design differences having a bearing. How can John Devore's personal advice not have a bearing on my subjective impressions? 

Btw, I don't think the Gaia's are all that great under my ARC Ref 6 and Ref 150SE. They don't hurt but don't help. 

whereas the Devores are built with wood blocks to couple the enclosure to the floor?

Yes its likely that Devore accounted for the effects of their chosen coupling method in the sound profile of the speaker - much like some designers account for the effect of a grille in the voicing. Decoupling may then result in undesirable effects like you found.

Shows that you can't make blanket assumptions when there are so many different design (and room) variables in the mix. In any case it looks like you've given the decoupling methodology a fair hearing. 

Given all the positive feedback for the Gaia footers I was perplexed when I didn't get a positive improvement after installing them. The ATC plinths have threaded inserts and I was careful to align the logos of the Gaia per the instructions - the speaker positions were marked and duplicated after install.

I have my suspicions as to why - the already mentioned height difference was one. The other was the bass traps I had in the front corners of the room at the time. These had a positive effect with previous speakers - but I subsequently found that the bass traps were robbing the big ATCs of some bass heft (the SCM100s have a taut, neutral bass alignment but go fairly low in room). The effect of the bass traps and the slight balance change of the decoupling (less room interaction) probably contributed to my negative impression. Not sure where the Herbies came in the subsequent timeline but the Podiums were installed after the bass traps were removed.