McIntosh and Brystons: Fair comparison ?

OK let's hear about these Shakti Stones. Cost, benefit etc.
New to me also.........and you get them where?

Shakti stones are so old your grandpa may have had some. They are another pseudo-tweek that the (nearly insane) owners rave about. I put them in the same league as the infamous "Tice Clock" which was an ordinary 'tweeked' Radio Shack $29.95 clock (sold by Tice for $600)
You want stones.. pick some up off the street.. put them in a glass peanut butter jar and save money big time.
Shakti stones are about in the same league as having a phoney witch doctor put a spell on your system (the also infamous "Teleportation Tweak" in which some dude upgrades your system sound with just a phone call)

The Shakti Stones are around $200 a piece. You can order them direct here:

Shakti

They show up used here for about $125 or so. Usually get snatched up fast. Must be a lot of us nearly insane types around here.

The CBF's are $25 a piece. You can order them direct here:

Alan Maher Designs

Each product reduces the noise floor, but does so in different ways. The CBF is actually better IMO because it is more compact and can fit inside components or the breaker panel. In either case only way to find out if it works is by trying them out.

I have the Lexicon/Bryston 501 monos on my B&W 800N's. I home auditioned the Mac 501's for 10 days against them in a diligent manner. I love the Mac appearance and resale value, but must say that I could not really ascertain any real difference in sound quality--it was a wash to my ears. Considering the price difference & unmatched Bryston warranty, unless cost is not an object, the Bryston wins easily in my humble opinion---Mac wins easily in the appearance category:-)

A Shakti to the wallet I'd say, and a placebo effect at the most and they don't even look pretty.

An autoformer can lend a tube like sound to a solid state amp. This can and will make an amp smoother and less detailed like all but the best tube amps. After all sending a signal through hundreds of feet of wire is not going to increase detail. The sound derived is not necessarily a bad thing but a matter of preference.