Stillpoints and reference-level speakers

Pkoegz,
You should compare both SP and Star Sound products directly and then decide based on listening. This is superior to citing articles of someone's opinion. Contributors to this thread have actually compared and the majority have selected Star sound as their preference. So just listen and determine which is better in your system. There's no better solution than hearing for yourself.
Charles,

Glory I have had many different footers on many high end speaker systems. The magico q5's come with extremely well made and no doubt expensive spikes. If you think brass is the answer by all means enjoy. I have had spikes on tt's, on all types of stands, etc., don't like them. Don't believe in their "science". Here's an article that makes my point. Think as you wish, I prefer real science, engineering and independent thought.

Which footers have you tried? The Magico footers are aluminum no doubt.

I am a man of "science" as well. One of the central elements to any science is experimentation. You should try the Starsound products (stands not the footers) and report back. It is a company with a team of engineers involved. No soggy pseudo-science. BTW, the SS products do not work by "isolation." Your panties are bunched up in part due to semantics....

Agear, generally when you hear people claiming to be scientists they really are engineers, who think we know everything about how nature works. I once was majoring in EE, when the discussion of Ohm's law came up. I was an undergraduate assistant in physics lab and said that I had noticed a normal distribution in student results in measuring current flow in various circuits. The professor said that the students measurement were just not accurate enough, but my physics professor said that there were other factors that we had yet to account for.

I must admit that I just dismiss those who make claims that engineers know all there is to know. I fully expect that individual tastes in music reproduction leads them to different buying decisions.

I look at footers as tuning devices. As such, the appropriate type of footer--whether it is designed to tightly couple the speaker to the floor or whether it is designed to decouple the speaker from the floor and dissipate energy in the device--depends on the specific system and room characteristics. For example, coupling to a poured concrete floor is entirely different in effect to coupling to a suspended wooden floor (where coupling could make the floor act as a sounding board).

Because there is no one singular "right" approach in all circumstances, it would not make sense for the designer to build in multi-thousand dollar footers or speaker platforms when that might be the "wrong" approach in a particular application.

I use Symposium platforms under my speakers. I have heard experiments with the same platforms under other speakers in someone else's system where that was NOT the way to go. With all such tuning devices, experimentation is the way to go. I cannot think of any such devices which universally improve sound--components, environment, personal taste all matter; if it alters the sound, it can alter it for good or bad.

Larryi, in principle I agree with you but I only one time found a device where the Stillpoints don't improve the performance of a component. It was on a HB Cable Designs Acrylic PowerSlave. I used them on three turntables, five amps, four preamps, and four dacs or universal players. My experience with the Star Sound Tech. Apprentics, completely different concept devices, is limited to one pair of speakers, two amps, three preamps, and a pair of external crossovers. I have heard no instance where they didn't greatly improve the sound. They have a different sound than the Stillpoints, however.

I have piles of other platforms and feet around, that were each somewhat different, but could not compete with either the Stillpoints or the Star Sound Apprentics.