Quote Originally Posted by Macca View Post
The more I get into this hobby the more I think that probably isn't true. I mean we can all tell a poor sounding system from a good one. But once the sound is good it starts being more a matter of personal choice and psychology. A lot of psychology. The one exception to that is imaging. Some good systems image absolutely unbelievably well, and some don't. But I think the reasons for that are verifiable and have nothing to do with whether or not you have isolated your laptop with stillpoints.

I go to the odd show and you see these systems with racks costing several grand, isolation platforms and feet under everything, cable lifters, the works. And the sound is poor. Then you go in another room where they have used none of that, just plonked it all on a table and hooked it up. And it sounds great.

I should have added valve components to my list of things that will benefit from isolation from vibration, bit of an oversight on my part there. When I had a valve phono stage I did use some Audio Technica sprung feet under it. Although I couldn't tell the difference and if I didn't already have the feet (part of a job-lot eBay purchase) I wouldn't have gone out and got any.
I agree, if there is something seriously wrong with the way a system sounds, no amount of cords or vibration control is going to sort it out. I got into it with someone on another forum about this, a man said he had a woefully underpowered amp driving some giant speakers, and wanted to know if there was a tweak that could make it work! Someone suggested that an expensive power cord would fix it, I begged to differ. Name calling ensued.

The sound of any system needs to be intrinsically right before you can appreciate the small benefits that tweaks can bring. I have yet to hear any tweak that made, “Night and Day”, differences.

Russell