I use ceraball isolation feet under my PS Audio GCHA headphone amplifier.
My ATH-A2000X headphone sounds more airy, has slightly more bass, and the soundstage increased. I don’t know why. The manual of the GCHA said: this amplifier can benefit from isolation feet. I have some Ceraballs and I tried.
Does anybody know why isolation feet better a SS Amp?
Does anybody have the same experience?
For my ATH-A2000X see http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/aud...a2000x-394223/

Regards

same reason you benefit from not running a cable across the ground, or suspending a turntable in the air etc etc, there are vibrations in the ground that alter the signal.

I can imagine isolation feet might help in cd players or turntables as for things spinning but for amps.. Meh, call it placebo.

Have you considered that there might only have been a change in your perception of the sound? It does not really make sense that isolation feet would alter the sound of an amplifier. From what are they isolating the amplifier - low altitude? Would constructing a wooden box around the entire amplifier garner more improvement, due to the improved isolation from its surroundings? I don't mean to be facetious, but I am trying to get you to consider whether the difference is real to you or not.

Isolation works well for everything. Just to varying degrees. I can hear more out of my center channel speaker now that it is on vibropods. It look hilarious to people who think I put the speaker on raquetballs. However, once the sound gets going. No complaints.

Did you have a vibration problem to begin with?

You can wear a rainjacket on a sunny day and claim that it's keeping you dry.

Flip through a catalog of various isolation devices. You'll notice that they all seem to operate on different principles, often at odds with each other. Some claim rigidity as a must, others must be soft and squishy. There are a million other variations, too.

If the rigid ones are the real way to control vibration, then the soft ones must be snakeoil. Conversely, if the soft ones control vibration, then the rigid ones must be snakeoil.

The third possibility is that they're all snakeoil. And just like wearing a rainjacket on a sunny day, they're "solving" a problem that doesn't actually exist.

Meh - I have EVA foam under my amp because my headphone amp is on my desk and uses low voltage tubes which make ping noise with vibration. I don't know if it changes the sound. All it did was lower the noise floor and prevent against ping noise.

I would say anything mechanical might benefit from isolation in a real and consistent way.

Tubes have things that move, so tube amps might benefit.
Turntables move more than anything and usually isolation is a golden rule in turntables from what I have read.
CD players I think could benefit, but IMO not as much as tube amps and turntables since good CDP's usually have a damped or isolated tray to begin with.
Toroids have natural vibration and hum, more electrical hum because of interference than anything. But they do still have a natural vibration - so isolating the transformer within your case with some rubber might lower noise floor.

Solid State amps, I will believe it when I hear it.
IMO throwing RF rejection paper in the case makes more sense.

From my understanding, cones are supposed to direct all of the vibrations to a single point and then dissipate or transfer them through the stand. The soft ones are supposed to dissapate the vibrations in the rubber itself. I use rubber/foam because A - it's cheap, B - it is consistant since I don't need a great stand to make it work the best, C - Military uses rubber and foam to isolate its highly sensitive equipment (and also float tables - but that is something way different than iso feet) and they probably put a lot of money into making sure that it was the best.

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No, I didn't. I used the Ceraballs under a Sony CDP. I sold the Sony and get a Linn. The Ceraballs changed the sound of the Linn, but I didn’t like it.
Some days ago, I needed to read the GCHA manual and discovered:
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So I tried the Ceraballs and discovered an improvement.
I placed the Ceraballs under the huge power supply.
Of course, I didn't use loudspeakers.

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i'm pretty sure they use various elastomers to isloate avionics an such, but probably not rubber. check the ear isodamp web site, as well as mcmaster carr for a host of such products.

audiophiles often use vibration control products to good effect, and there are a lot of valid products out there, along with a bunch of junk. you should let your ears decide, along with your wallet.

some kinds of components may be more sensitive to vibration effects, both self-induced and external, than others, but i think it is cavalier to assume that any category of compoent is simply immune to microphony (i mean its not like any big solid state amps have vibrating transformers in them).....

i've read that hockey pucks can do the tricks too. any reason?

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They really absorb impacts? Dunno.

I use vibration dampers b/c my home has wood floors. They are in good shape but still transfer plenty of vibrations. Now if I was in my basement with concrete floors, I would be less inclined to use anything.