Hi Garfish. Perhaps I should elaborate concerning Vibrapods, to see if we still disagree. In the context of their price they are very good. But in the context of a system that costs more than $15k, I would strongly recommend trying Townshend CD Sinks instead - at a cost of around $200 each (I am guessing a bit as to price because I do not live in the US) - under light weight components. As it happens I do not like the effect of the bigger and more expensive Seismic Sink products (I own some but they gather dust in the cupboard). I tried Vibrapods under my tube monoblocks but found there was a very odd resonance effect in the middle of the midrange that was intrusive - hence my preference for an inner tube - a Sink product not being practical in this application. Like all vibration products, there is the potential for vibration interactions that are very different from component to component. When I first tried Vibrapods under my speakers (both Thiels and Martin Logan) I was very impressed at the improvement in soundstage and the reduction in cabinet resonance. But it took me about a week to realise that I was getting a lot less enjoyment from well recorded vocalists. For some reason there was a problem with articulation and coherence in the midrange with the Vibrapods in place. As soon as I took them out, the thrill of listening to a great singer returned. I can very well imagine that someone with different musical tastes would not notice the problem that I found. As a result of all this I have come to the general conclusion that without some form of compliance in your vibration control system, you get some nasty and intrusive narrow band resonances that often make the sound unmusically forward and which collapses the soundstage. When you introduce something compliant such as Vibrapods, Sorbathane, various polymer footers, various bladder or sprung products, you move the resonances down in frequency and they occupy a broader band. The effect is generally an improvement as it can take away what was previously an irritating edge to the sound. But having played with as many of these as I could get my hands on, I concluded that the CD sink managed to not only remove the edge, but retain dynamics, leading edge definition and coherence. Many of the others remove the edge, but at the expense of one of the other characteristics I just listed. Vibrapods are better than having only the rubber feet on your components as the "compliance" I refer to - except perhaps in the case of some (but not all) Sonic Frontiers products which use very good polymer feet (there are probably others too). I also prefer Vibrapods to Sorbothane (I have not tried the Gel version yet). But if you get just the right bladder product, the result is very much better in a top flight system IMHO.
