I hear what you are saying. I was very sceptical at the time too.

However, this was done (not quite as sa double-blind) blind: the audio guy didn't tell us if he had added the isolation pad or not.

Both myself and my girlfriend could tell the difference in the audio shop and also at home.

Now I admit that I may now be biased based on the fact that I did buy the pads (although he ended up giving them to me for free - long story), but I'm willing to stake my reputation (not that I've got any) that for some reason the isolation pads did improve the sound stage and range.

I'm no audiophile (but trying), but I definitely know what I heard.

The CD and Amp were brand new (i.e. out of the box the day before) and had been on for 24hrs+ (so the power supplies /DAC were settled too).

Perhaps by adding the pads we were altering some cabling but we repeated the excercise a number of times (more than half a dozen), every time with the same result - better sound stage and range from the isolation pad, so this seems an unlikely result from anything which is transient.

The audio guy mentioned about some theory papers that had been written on the subject, so I'll give him a call and see if he can dig them out.

Cheers,

Paul.

Paul Haigh, 6GB, Blue
Reg: 4120 - Serial 00254