Well, initial reaction after a bunch of swapping sessions (...somehow, that doesn't sound right) leads me to conclude that the my lame pine wood blocks win over the ESD foam risers. My observations follow. This is based on power cord elevation only. I briefly tried the risers under speaker cables, but actually didn't like it. For some reason, no matter what I've tried, my sc like laying on the floor. I have maple hardwood floors on a raised foundation.
1. I have a delicate 'glare' problem. I probably need to treat the room more, and/or adjust my speakers, but I've recently JUST (I mean barely) cured this glare issue at certain frequencies that I've been dealing with for close to a year. The ESD's made the glare more pronounced. The wood smoothed it out. That right there is pretty much enough to go with the wood, even if the wood almost smoothed over the highs too much (which it doesn't).
2. There was a difference between the ESD's right-side-up or upside-down, where the cable was resting on the 'bottom'. I actually preferred the latter. The former seemed to soften the highs and muddy the sound a bit.
3. This one is a little weird. i've also been dealing with a balance issue (...I know -- I need to adjust my speakers. Probably this weekend). The sound pulls slightly to the left, so I adjust for that with the Balance control. The ESD's actually exacerbated the pull. I have no idea how power cord elevators would do that. And conversely, the wood brought things back in line. huh?
So, I'll probably hang onto the isolators because they were $40 shipped; not even worth sending back. I may try them under everything once my speakers are adjusted. I'd be surprised if everything suddenly 'opened up' with the risers in the new configuration vs. my observations here. But since BALANCE was actually affected, who the hell knows? This hobby drives me crazy.
