The depth of the room remained the same, perhaps even slightly deeper. In terms of width, though, the musical experience demonstrated a new sense of closeness. The musicians now seemed to gather together on a tangible stage and no longer seemed to appear from some undefined location to the left or the right. The voices and instruments seemed more within grasp. All the singing seemed to gain body and substance, which I found especially impressive with the mono recordings of Ella and Louis. Kettle drums, for example, came with clearly defined contours and volume from the depths of the room. At the same time, the differentiation is clearer and more solid, far more beautiful and much neater. After lengthy listening, also over the days that followed, I consistently gained the impression that the THIXAR stands were bringing a pleasant repose to the music. They did this without the slightest sign of limiting the dynamic. On the contrary, the solidity in the music made the sound even more explosive and exciting. I had to try out something else. My music room, part of a residential building erected in 1973, has tiled floors. Footsteps come over very clearly on my system. As a test, therefore, I dropped the pick-up onto a stationary turntable and turned the volume up louder than usual. I then stamped down hard on a piece of floor I knew to be particularly sensitive. This usually results in an audible booming from the speakers. With the Silence Plus, though, the phenomenon was markedly suppressed, clear proof of the outstanding damping effect achieved by the THIXAR stand in the low frequencies.

Next I went through the same listening test with the spiked Silence stand. The result was slightly less obvious, but nonetheless similar. At high volume, the Silence Plus was superior in terms of how cleanly the sound came over.  The footstep test was not quite as impressive with the Silence. This indicates that the Silence Plus is better at suppressing disturbances in the deep register. In terms of my evaluation of the music, the two stands were not far apart in my test configuration. The inexpensive Entrance also did its job superbly but it was a bit further behind the Silence than the latter was from the Silence Plus. Taking into account the price, I would certainly have chosen the Silence stand for my turntable.

However, there is equipment other than record players. The next thing I tried was my tube preamplifier. Although less obvious than with the turntable, similar effects were clearly noticeable here, too. In this case, the Silence Plus was my favourite. In particular, the sense of restfulness that ensued was pleasantly relaxing and improved listening enjoyment. The same was true of an experiment with my Apple Mac Mini and Antelope converter that I put on the stands together. That slightly annoying factor that often seems to be attached to digital reproduction was ameliorated. This alone would make buying a stand for a quality hi-fi set worth considering. The stands also improved the sound when placed beneath the power amplifier and the CD drive. It was always noticeable that there was greater peace and neatness in the sound, while the dynamic, even in detail, was enhanced to greater or lesser degree.