The Isolator: the latest rip-off?

Santana and Rpw - Did you compare the results of your $150 piece of foam to a 25 cent piece of foam bought at a hardware store?

I would be interested in the results of a double blind test here, as "best thing I did for my humble analog" would surely show its effects through whatever theoretical holes of the test methodology.

Agree, the pricing for that little piece is crazy. Ok, opinions about pricing is different, but it is ugly, too. I mean, really ugly.

How about just adding Mass to the arm & seeing how it works. Blue tack or some other & then comparing. quite a lot of people believe added mass in the headshell area will aid the sound. I tried it & worked very well. Especially if you are using a low or medium effective mass tonearm. A high effective mass arm would yeild different results although your results might vary.

People who have not auditioned a product should not be allowed to condemn it. Most polymers do not look as if they have any special attributes, but they are designed to perform a certain function.

Judging a book by its cover can be a waste of everyone's time.

Opinions about efficacy aside, those who are amazed at the price should first try to make something like this themselves. As somone who has worked a long time making Fine Art sculpture editions, I can guarantee you'd be amazed how much time a seemingly simple object can take to fabricate. I gained an entire new understanding of why Black Diamond Racing products cost so much when I fabricated carbon fiber shelves and mats myself. I have no trouble believing that there are one to two hours labor involved in each "Isolators" manufacture. What do you pay your auto technician, plumber, or electrician for labor? Fifty to ninety bucks an hour. You have to remember economy of scale in manufacturing specialty items. It's a fallacy to compare pricing of a mass produced items with something made by one guy in a small workshop.