In reply to:

However, if someone says that damping a component has an audibly beneficial effect, folks accuse the reporter of "misleading," or suffering from the "placebo effect."


Again, we're not talking damping, you've adjusted the topic from something obscure to something tangible. I have no problems with someone resting a CD player on some silicone breast implants if they want to place it on top of a sub, it will probably help reduce jitter errors - precisely aligned (well, compared to a phonograph) moving parts will benefit from being vibration free.

Going back to your original message... we're talking some rubber mat stuck to the inside of a chassis to "isolate your solid state components from vibrations, i.e., from kinetic energy" (your quote) some matting stuck to the top of a chassis still allows all these vibrations (even if I GIVE you that they are harmful to your audio) to enter from below, around, through the front panel, etc.

You also mention a Helmholtz resonator, which can affect tube amps to a noticeable degree - I will give you that, but does it have a noticeable effect on s/s electronics? I'll say no... tubes work off the mechanical properties of grids and plates, if you shake a tube, it changes the sound (kick a tube bass-guitar cabinet head someday and you'll think you invented the electric slinky) pick up and shake a s/s amp head, nothing. Or at least if anything does happen, it's academic... I'm sure an electron or two might go spinning wildly out of control, but if every electron is sacred, I'd be running superconductors for interconnects.

And I sincerely hope you weren't refering to the subatomic vibrations inherant in any components under power, but I'll assume for my own sanity that you weren't.

Bren R.