Large brass devices on top of power amps ?

Chalres1dad, Tpreaves also makes a good point - should any well designed piece of gear require any additional external weight to improve its performance based on vibration damping? Or is it just another product niche offering audio benefits that equipment companies can't figure out how to provide the listener for themselves? Maybe, maybe not.

It is not possible to overdamp electronics. Its that simple.

However, it **is** possible to build a system around a certain synergy, and then when the electronics are mechanically damped (which reduces a phenomena known as microphonics, known to both tubes and transistors), then the synergy of the system is altered.

IMO, its not a good idea to build a system on synergies- like using a dark sounding preamp with a bright amplifier. You really want each bit of the system to stand on its own merit. You get a more transparent, easier-to-listen-to system that way.

I've used brass weights from Mapleshade for the last ten years, and found them to be effective in reducing vibration induced microphonics--leading what I hear to be clearer, tighter sound. Granted, and not to cause any more crazy-making obsessing (guilty: an audiophile trait), do brass weights beg the question of whether or not we're "tampering" with the carefully considered "voice" of the component? I'd be curious to hear how audio designers would perceive any change (negative or positive) to their respective gear with any type of mass loading.

I wonder why someone would put an apple in every amp photo. What is the point there?