I popped in on Saturday afternoon to catch a demo conducted by Richard Rogers (Shunyata) and Paul Wakeen (Stillpoints); we had lent them a Luxman D-05 CD / SACD Player ($5k) and a Luxman L-507uX integrated amplifier ($7k), Cobra series cabling and Venom power cords by Shunyata with a rack & room treatment from Stillpoints. The acoustic panels were approx $650 each. Speakers were a piano black pair of Vivid's V1.5; their entry level, two way design, retail $8k. It took me a few visits as the room seemed to be well attended, before I could sit in a decent seat & enjoy their demo.
While I was there they played a John Mayer cut and ran the Luxman gear with stock power cords plugged into the wall. Then replaced cords with Shunyata power cords and played the same cut again. They then lifted the CD player up & placed three large Stillpoints Ultra 6 isolators underneath & played the John Mayer track again. Finally, they placed six acoustic panels around the speakers and against the glass windows behind he speakers. To show how far the sound quality had progressed they removed all of the additions & put the system back to stock and played John Mayer for a final time. Whew !
Sonically, I heard the system get quieter, and progressively more resolute with fine micro detail becoming more apparent. Tonal color improved and the system developed a nice tonal density, noticeable on Mayer's guitar as well as on the vocal. Sound-stage became better defined and grew outside the speakers. Would have been nice to hear a few complete songs to get a better feel for how the system behaved. But I appreciate that Shunyata & Stillpoints were there on a mission to demonstrate the efficacy of their products. Hats off; it was very educational.