Stillpoints and reference-level speakers

Its nice when the maker of an add-on product (Stillpoints in this case) explains how their product works. Its something that many makers of 'tweaks' cannot or will not do. This makes me want to give the Stillpoints products a try, although the prices give me pause.

I'm getting great results eliminating the stock spikes of my Zu Audio Definitions Mk 4 spkrs, and placing them on a combination of Symposium Acoustics "half" Rollerblock RMK Jrs with HDSE ball bearings, on Symposium Svelte Shelves.
Doing a great job of eliminating bass bloat, making the sound at once more airy and more grounded. Quite a feat.
And with the combination at about half the cost of Stillpoints Ultra 5s, this can't hurt!

I use stainless steel Soler Points on my speakers. They are great. The local shop here stocks many sizes, but Ed Soler is a local to the shop so it's easy to have him make them to order. The ones I had made for my speakers are about two inches at the base and about two and a half inches tall if I recall correctly. I provided him with one of the spikes that came with the speaker so he could match the threads. Spikes like mine are not cheap at $60 each, but they are proportioned perfectly for my speakers, the point is very sharp, they look great, and they work great.

Seems logical to assume that the makers of megabuck speakers would use superior footers in their designs.

One would assume so, but sadly its not always the case. Footers, or rather mechanical grounding technologies, seems to often be last on the list for speaker manufacturers regardless of price point. How many times have you seen cheap steel spikes on a 40K pair of speakers? Or an MDF box with rudimentary rod bracing and dynamat type internal sheeting? I personally believe mechanical grounding or isolation or whatever you want to call it is foundational and can transform a speaker far more than driver or cap selection. Everyone fixates on that, but it should be secondary.

I have owned Dale Pitchers speakers (Intuitive Design) on and off since 2006. He is on the lunatic fringe in this area and has incorporated mechanical grounding elements in his speakers for over 25 years. He has used Stillpoints until fairly recently. I have done a lot of experiments with them, and they are efficacious. In some of my applications, they did seem to inject a little midrange glare (and you can argue that is a byproduct of the equipment design and not the points...who knows). I personally prefer the Sistrum products under my equipment (Sp101s) and speakers (Apprentice). In my opinion, the more resonance potential in an audio device, the more efficacious or impactful they are (subs>speakers>amps, etc). Sistrum, like Dale, has been at this for a while, and mechanical grounding is their core business.

Teajay, we look forward to your review. I had not heard of the Krolo stuff before. I scanned his website, and it looks like he is an interior designer by day? He seems to use an amalgam of materials in his designs, including wood, aluminum, etc. Very aesthetically pleasing for sure, but I could not drudge up design particulars, engineering elements, etc. I assume you have access to that info?

Psag, this a thoughtful thread. Being a thoughtful guy, you owe it to yourself to fiddle in this area. Forget about price and just try it.

Agear,
Mechanical grounding is a fundamental issue and shouldn`t be ignored.Your comment about capacitors is interesting. I replaced the lone capacitor in my speaker crossover with a Duelund CAST and the improvement was immediate and obvious,it got better yet with time(it was money well spent). I`d say that placing the speakers on the Apprentice platforms resulted in an even larger margin of improvement(which is saying something!).This is good engineering/design with excellent implementation.
Charles,