Where to use Isolation devices

Sean34, the Sort Kones are actually a coupling device that is in fact the opposite of an isolation device. The coupling devices, in theory, provide a path for any vibration to leave the equipment while isolation devices should isolate the component from the surrounding environment. Having said that, they are used for the same purpose. I have three sort kones and believe that I hear a difference as well.

I wish I had two identical CD players that I could setup identically for an A/B test that didn't involve the delay of installing and removing them.

I think an idea setup just might be a chunk of marble or other heavy inert platform that is sitting on isolation devices with the component on coupling devices on top. Should be the best of both worlds, in theory.

I agree, it appears that the right combination of coupling and de-coupling devices gives the best result.
I am going to try this approach with speakers as well, that's spiked speakers with Boston Audio tuneblocks for speakers under them.

I tried herbies rubber cup and black ball footers under my Modright Sony 5400ES and did not like the results. I then placed black diamond racing cones into each of the herbies cups and wow this improved the SACD player ten fold. It got rid of the slight brightness of the black diamond cones yet kept the detail. I placed the herbies balls by themselves under the separate tube regulated power supply and am pleased with it.

Thanks Mceljo for the clarification. When I heard the Sort Kones, they were under a very high end Meridian cd player and the top of the line JM Lab Utopia's with some sort of expensive SS monoblocks. There was a lot of resolution and detail, so it was pretty easy to identify the difference.

Sean34 - I also heard a demo using Focal Utopia speakers (I think it was the Scala). It wasn't a perfect setup because it was during an event where there were a lot of people in the store, but I could convince myself that there was a difference. What I told the salesman was that I could hear the A/B difference, but I doubted that I'd ever notice if they were not installed and nobody let me in on the secret.

When I did some A/B stuff at home I can easily describe the difference that I hear. On one particular CD there are areas about half way to the center from each speaker where I can almost hear things overlapping without the kones, but with them installed everything has air around it. It sounds like snake oil to me when I say it out loud, but it's my placebo and I'm sticking with it.

Ironically, I installed foam corn pads (i.e. donuts) on the bottom of the SACD player to prevent it from sliding off of the kones and I swear it sounded worse than without. That's an even harder setup to A/B, but I took them out. My theory is that the foam pads were providing a level of damping that was directing the vibrations around the kones.