PowerBase + StillPoints [or other isolation]

Questions for those with PowerBases under their equipment:

  1. Do you maintain the OEM feet on your equipment that sits on the PowerBase?

  2. Do you remove the stock feet?

  3. Do you use another third party isolation device such as HAL or Stillpoints on top of the PowerBase?

Thanks!

My answers below.

  1. No, I remove the OEM feet when I can (easily accomplished on all the components I use except the massive cast iron feet on my Denon components).

  2. So yes I do remove the feet on all but the Denon universal player that I use in the system.*

  3. Yes, although sound is improved without the use of additional isolation components I have experimented with other items, mostly different Herbie’s Audio Lab footers (Tenderfeet and Iso-Cups), VooDoo Cable Iso-Pods (new variety) and one set of Aurios (wish I had more to play with). I have found the best sound with the Aurios under the Denon and the other components sitting on VooDoo Cable Iso-Pods.

*These cast iron feet are very effective at isolating the component; I find other isolation feet create a slight improvement, but it’s just that, slight.

Thanks Lon. Appreciate the insights. I have been very happy with Stillpoints under my amps, more so than IsoCups, but because I have a bunch of those around, I may experiment first with them.

I’m sure StillPoints are great. I am using the VooDoo Cable Iso-Pods which I think are somewhat inspired by Aurios and StillPoints, and when they are running a special a decent price and work really well. With the Iso-Cups I really like using a gemstone “ball” Herbie used to offer, Deep Moss Quartz–it gave the best results for me with the Iso-Cups.

I have a number of those balls. I noticed on Herbie’s site that they don’t seem to offer the IsoCups any more. i haven’t dug around enough to know why. Do you know?

That’s interesting, I don’t know why that is. They seem to list some older ones:

http://herbiesaudiolab.net/special.htm#iso

Which you can access from the “All Products” page but I wonder if they really have those.

May be a materials problem perhaps.

Thanks for that link.

I keep the factory feet but use Sort Kones to support the DS DAC, so the OEM feet are not in play. My system is in a loft and the floor is shaky, to be blunt. The addition of the PowerBase made a big reduction in leading edge bite and led to enhanced listenability. Adding the Sort Kones between the DAC and PB enhances the individuality of instruments and voices in space, to my ears. If I had to choose between the two methods of isolation I would take the PowerBase, hands down, in my system.

Thanks, wglenn. I installed a PB under my preamp and it made a noticeable difference. I contemplated using different footers in addition to the PB but wasn’t sure it could make much difference. I will experiment!

Thanks wglenn. I plan to use both the PB and the Stillpoints, with the OEM feet removed [if I can].

The feet on these components are easy to remove. Just takes a Philips screwdriver.

lonson said The feet on these components are easy to remove. Just takes a Philips screwdriver.
Right on the PSA stuff, but I have several pieces of non-PSA gear I will just need to turn over and see how easy it is. I know there are multiple Stillpoints adapters for different threadings. Just may take a while to get them all right.

I caved this evening and put in the order to upgrade my P5 units in the speaker system to P10, and for the BHK monoblocks. Should be interesting to compare against the Veritas.

Wow. Big move. The P10 feet. . . I haven’t figured out how to remove those! I just put my VooDoo Cable Iso-Pods in behind the feet, still lifts the chassis off the feet.

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