For what it's worth I wrote this for myself a few years ago. OK, I'll get shot for my subjective views but I thought it might be helpful:
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Isolation Experience
I followed the thinking in this article:
http://www.barrydiamentaudio.com/vibration.htm
In the end I used mostly Symposium products - Rollerblocks and shelves - under my gear and speakers.
When I was experimenting with this stuff I was listening for improved percussion. My thinking was that these are the most delicate sounds so any improvement in detail would show better isolation. I did find a tiny improvement using rollerblocks under my CD Transport and amp, but couldn't detect anything with them under the DAC and equaliser. Svelte shelves under the speakers did improve things too. At one point though I was getting tired of trying to pick out miniscule improvements and so just bunged on a CD and sat back to enjoy the music. What I then noticed was that it sounded a bit louder then usual - I know the exact volume to play each of my CDs - and in addition, things like rhythm guitar and piano sounded clearer. In fact this was exactly how Symposium describe the improvements to be gained from their gear. Ultimately it seems to be about 'less smeared transients', something I didn't really understand at the time:
'A musical note consists of '....
the attack, sustain, and decay of a sound. Attack transients consist of changes occurring before the sound reaches its steady-state intensity. Sustain refers to the steady state of a sound at its maximum intensity, and decay is the rate at which it fades to silence.' So the transient is the first thing you hear and is very noticeable on percussion (e.g. bongos), piano, and plucked guitar for example.
Each transient will consist of a number of frequencies (known as harmonics) and in order to get the proper effect they should be heard at pretty much the same time. In other words, when they reach your ears at your listening position they should ideally be heard together in one sharp ‘thud’. If these frequencies arrive spread out over time the transient is said to be ‘smeared‘. You don’t get that ’thud’ but a longer 'thudddd'.
I should add that I found a similar improvement with a better power supply but that all these benefits are small and expensive to get. They are the icing on the cake and should be the last part of the good listening puzzle. If I had my time again, the order of doing things would be:
1. Get good gear with sensible connections/cables.
2. Position speakers in the room with care to get the best sound.
3. Use room treatment to smooth out the influence of the room, with perhaps DSP/EQ to finish this job.
4. Look at racks, support shelves, feet.
5. Look at the source of electricity.
I found that the first three, especially 2 and 3, have the biggest impact on the sound - the proverbial night and day! Until you get this right it's not worth spending money on the rest. Even buying upgrades on your gear should take second place to 2 and 3.
Once you have extracted the best performance from 2 and 3, you can consider 4 and 5. These have different and much more subtle effects. I have to admit that spending thousands on this is probably not justified, although I did!
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Anyway, it seems to me that if you want more accurate, sharper, transients, you should aim for all the harmonic frequencies of the note to be heard at the same time. In the first instance that means preventing lots of reflections in the room so reducing decay times. My solution - copious amounts of room treatment plus EQ.
