Here's something that is worth mentioning. A chap recently wandered into the shop and asked if I was interested in trying out some speaker and equipment isolation spike kits from a Scandinavian company he was representing. Experience has taught me never to say no to any offer for anything - no matter how strange.

Having long championed the cause of equipment and loudspeaker isolation for improving sound quality, and also having experienced the opposition (usally from "er indoors, and long the lines of 'making holes in my carpet/floor etc.") the design improvements offered by Soundcare were immediately obvious. The cup and cone spking assembly whcih, on paper, offers the appropriate sonic decoupling with the advantage of total surface protection, is shrouded in a couter case, making it look just like one of those chunky feet so beloved of Japanese equipment manufacturers.

What is even more cunning is that the set designed for electronics has the ability to replace the existing equipment feet by means of simply unscrewing the originals, and screwing the isolators back in their place. Marvellous! There are also smaller feet available for stand mount or shelf mount speakers, and screw-in replacement feet for floorstanders, which are available in every thread size you are likely to come across. Internally they look rather like a Nordost Pulsar Point, but the cosmetic shroud keeps the top section captive, making them rather easier to position.

I took two sets of SPike 2 and a pack of Superspikes home and tried them out. The spike 2's were inserted under my LS3/5a's (which normally sit atop Stands Unique carbon fibre isolators) without any detremental effects - which means that they were obviously pretty good. The Superspikes first bolted onthe bottom of a Trichord Geneses CD Player, and then a Helios 2 CD Player. With the Genesis, the improvement in sound was immediate, with a noticeable tighter focus to the bass and greater overall clarity. I'm also getting ecstatic noices from the owner of a very large pair of floorstanding speakers, so the benefits seem to be reasonably universal as long as you don't interfere with a built in isolation system. Placing the Superspikes under the Helios 2 was actually detrimental because it short circuited the player's own mechanical ground.

This is only a taster due to shortage of time, but first impressions are extremely positive, and I will be investigating further. In the meantime, if you want the sonic benefits of mechnical isolation without altering the appearance of your equipment or damaging the surface it sits on, then the Soundcare products are just about the only worthwhile and affordable game in town.