Stillpoints and reference-level speakers

Wrm, your assessments are spot on. It still remains a chicken and egg scenario though, and that's why people should always experiment first.

Granny, you need to call Robert. The apprentice has a lower center of gravity and they now offer the threaded inserts. It will not be a problem although its a two man job.

Of course, you could always settle for less.....but what red blooded audiophile would!

The whole debate regarding mechanical grounding or isolation is interesting. Th ave audiophile brain still seems to be stuck in the 50s where speakers and equipment gets plonked on the carpet and/or ornamental wooden rack. I have read relatively recent reviews in magazines where equipment was stuck on a chair or on the ground in a poorly laid out room.

John Atkinson alluded to the history of vibration management in speakers here: http://www.stereophile.com/features/806

I have tried StillPoints Ultra SSs and Ultra Fives under three different speakers and often tried three versus four. The speakers were the Tidal Contrivas, the BMC Arcadias, and the LSA1 Statements. The latter are monitors and the SPs were used under the stands with the SP OEMs under the speakers.

My conclusions were that all speakers were improved with the SSs but never with the then available version made with aluminum and four were clearly better than three. Then Ultra Fives came along. The Fives are clearly superior to the SSs but are so big as to discourage use under components. Again four are clearly better than three. I use SP Component Stands under my monoblocks and my turntable with first SP SSs and later SP Fives mounted on the Component Stands. The SSs were good but the Fives are dramatically better. The same is true under my Bergman Sindre turntable.

I should note that four are much better if you take great care to be sure all four are equally in contact with the component or speaker. And yes, five are even better.

Finally, there are the Ultra Minis. They are quite small, effective, and cheap. I cannot hear any difference compared with the SSs. Comparing the Fives with the Minis is difficult given the size of the Fives. As the Fives have 5 of the SP technology in them, I doubt four Minis would be in the same league as four Fives. Maybe twenty Minis would rival four Fives.

Glory, I have sought Sistrum stands and their new BackStage stands to no avail. Other than that IMHO no other isolation device is even close to the StillPoints. I have boxes of points, rubber like footers, string suspension systems, Nuance shelves, etc.

Tbg,
What do you mean you have sought them to no avail? Are you saying that Robert won't sell them to you?

Roxy54, I want to try them and possibly to review them. I have had people I respect say they are better than the StillPoints, but I will be surprised if they do.