Using protective discs under brass footers

Markpao- Think you should have bought some addtl maple shelves to protect the maple shelves that are protecting your rack's shelving! Just joking. Wish I could afford your setup, but I could barely afford the new rack. I just took delivery of Bearpaws for my VPI Classic from Eden Sound and have a lot of Audio Points sitting in my drawer. When my rack arrives, I'll definitely have to do some testing.

I have a friend who uses Audio Points and a Mapleshade Samson rack; his gear sounded better with the saucers but if I remember correctly we used them point upward with the saucer under the component rather than downward into the shelf. You can try the Audio Points either way, they will sound different; one gives more coupling; the other more isolation. This is of course not an option with something like the VPI; the Star Sound brass cones made a significant improvement on it and I would expect the Bearpaws to do something similar. I used the saucers under it also but if you are just worrying about shelf damage you could used a government approved copper disc; AKA a penny.

Rockyboy-
I use the platforms for addition isolation since I have 3 components side by side on each shelf. It just happens to work out well that I don't have to worry about those holes in the rack shelves.

By the way, what rack did you purchase?

I had a set of brass saucers stashed away, so I dug them out.

I replaced some cheaper, gold-plated saucers I'd been using under the points for my preamp just a few minutes after reading Stanwal's post.

Same track, same volume level, sound is more focused and smoother, no kidding, I must be nuts!

Markpao -
Bought a Steve Blinn 3 shelf rack with matching amp stand; all with 2" maple shelves, except for 3" top shelf for my VPI Classic. Hope to see it in a week or two. I'll be collecting pop cans along the highway for the next 5 years in order to pay for it.