Please excuse me if this has already been discussed; I've spent some time searching and didn't find anything.
There was a review by Roy Gregory in May 2018 wherein he commented that CH's internal spike system was detrimental to performance. I've pasted the text below.
I'm wondering who, if anyone, has experimented with this and if so what are your thoughts?
But as with so many Swiss manufacturers, time served at Goldmund is part of CH Precision's collective history, and it’s not possible to spend time working at Goldmund without developing a healthy respect for mechanical grounding. With that in mind, CH Precision has equipped each of its products with a spiked post in each corner that extends the height of the chassis to allow adjustment from above. These posts are wound down once the unit is in situ and then concealed by a rebated cosmetic cap in the top plate. Polymer (Delrin?) discs are also supplied to protect the supporting surface and CH recommends their use. Because all of the units share the same footprint, there’s also a suggestion that by dispensing with the cosmetic caps the posts can be used to separate stacked units while still maintaining a solid mechanical ground.
On paper, that all looks good; in practice, it fails to deliver and it’s not hard to understand why. Harsh? Let me make the case. First, nobody spending this sort of money on amplification should be neglecting proper investment in supports (at least not if they want to actually realize the performance they’ve just paid for), and even if the notion of a furniture-free stack might seem appealing, no manufacturer should be encouraging it. But more important, not only do the spiked posts fail in their primary role, even with the units stood on individual shelves or platforms, they are actually detrimental to performance. Heavy and magnetic, they don’t lock, allowing them to rattle; they have considerable unsupported length, which encourages them to resonate and being steel; they interfere with the delicate circuitry and the signals its carrying. Why go to all the trouble of machining casework out of aluminum if you are going to build a steel "fence" inside it?
The saving grace in all this is that it’s easy to demonstrate both the spike's malign influence and to eliminate it. Simply listen to the units deployed as recommended and then bypass their spikes with alternative supports (I used HRS Nimbus footers). The benefits in terms of noise floor, rhythmic articulation, focus and transparency are hard to discredit. As usual, experiment with the placing of the footers and you can gain further benefits. All of which suggests that while the corner posts pay lip service to the concept of mechanical grounding, they are neither ideally positioned nor actually effective -- just the existence and effect of those polymer discs should set the alarm bells ringing. The coup de grace comes when you remove the posts altogether; just listen to the soundstage expand while tonal colors and harmonics bloom. The conclusion is simple -- the grounding posts are best left in the boxes in which they arrive. It’s not often that a design weakness in any product is as easily rectified.
There was a review by Roy Gregory in May 2018 wherein he commented that CH's internal spike system was detrimental to performance. I've pasted the text below.
I'm wondering who, if anyone, has experimented with this and if so what are your thoughts?
But as with so many Swiss manufacturers, time served at Goldmund is part of CH Precision's collective history, and it’s not possible to spend time working at Goldmund without developing a healthy respect for mechanical grounding. With that in mind, CH Precision has equipped each of its products with a spiked post in each corner that extends the height of the chassis to allow adjustment from above. These posts are wound down once the unit is in situ and then concealed by a rebated cosmetic cap in the top plate. Polymer (Delrin?) discs are also supplied to protect the supporting surface and CH recommends their use. Because all of the units share the same footprint, there’s also a suggestion that by dispensing with the cosmetic caps the posts can be used to separate stacked units while still maintaining a solid mechanical ground.
On paper, that all looks good; in practice, it fails to deliver and it’s not hard to understand why. Harsh? Let me make the case. First, nobody spending this sort of money on amplification should be neglecting proper investment in supports (at least not if they want to actually realize the performance they’ve just paid for), and even if the notion of a furniture-free stack might seem appealing, no manufacturer should be encouraging it. But more important, not only do the spiked posts fail in their primary role, even with the units stood on individual shelves or platforms, they are actually detrimental to performance. Heavy and magnetic, they don’t lock, allowing them to rattle; they have considerable unsupported length, which encourages them to resonate and being steel; they interfere with the delicate circuitry and the signals its carrying. Why go to all the trouble of machining casework out of aluminum if you are going to build a steel "fence" inside it?
The saving grace in all this is that it’s easy to demonstrate both the spike's malign influence and to eliminate it. Simply listen to the units deployed as recommended and then bypass their spikes with alternative supports (I used HRS Nimbus footers). The benefits in terms of noise floor, rhythmic articulation, focus and transparency are hard to discredit. As usual, experiment with the placing of the footers and you can gain further benefits. All of which suggests that while the corner posts pay lip service to the concept of mechanical grounding, they are neither ideally positioned nor actually effective -- just the existence and effect of those polymer discs should set the alarm bells ringing. The coup de grace comes when you remove the posts altogether; just listen to the soundstage expand while tonal colors and harmonics bloom. The conclusion is simple -- the grounding posts are best left in the boxes in which they arrive. It’s not often that a design weakness in any product is as easily rectified.