Suspending the player in midair would still allow it to vibrate, but it would not transmit those vibrations to other objects ... it'd be isolated. This may or may not be a good thing. There are some acoustic isolation/decoupling products that do what midair suspension would do (but to a lesser extent) and there are some acoustic coupling devices that do the opposite. All of them claim to improve sound quality.
I was thinking about something using some thin cables ...so technically it may not be totally de-coupled from the room unless I can run the cables in from outside or something.
Have you considered setting up a HTPC James. You could rip your music to a lossless format, store it on the harddrive and not have any skipping problems.
Movie soundtracks would be a little more difficult. But with a highspeed DVD drive it should only take a few minutes to copy a movie to your harddrive before you watch it. Then delete it when you're done.
As your hearing goes though, I fear for the structural integrity of your house :p)
I do not have my stereo blasted to 180dbs all the time. I like high SPLs but its only occationally and high SPLs in small does are perfectly safe. I am probably pickier than the average HTer as far as SQ goes as well so if it wont go loud cleanly then it wont go loud at all.
Furthermore alot of the problem has to to with the fact that my rack sits in a closet that collects alot of bass , I never had this problem before moving my gear into the closet.
Its mostly the cheaper players I have had that skip, Ive been thru around 5 players in the last few months that skipped. Currently I am using an older Sony ES player that sounds fantastic but it is really prone to skipping , probably due to its age. My Denon DVD-2200 is the only player that has not skipped but I do not use it for redbook CDs.
James maybe try a cut up mouse pad as an isolation device first...I have small squares under all my devices as its dirt cheap and seems to work alright in stopping vibrations from my IB which is right beside the gear rack.
There are devices for isolating CDPs that use neodymium magnets set to repel each other. These effectively 'float' the device on a cushion of air.
One could certainly make one of these given the good availability of neodymium magnets. Or one has a spare $350, one can buy them. GR-Research offers one called "The Levitator", other places offer them under different names.
the problem with the levitator like all non semiconductor based floating (or any other magnetic device) is that the magnets do not balance the device and there is still a physical coupling between the base and floating upper section (see the aluminum posts? those keep it centered).
I worked on something like this myself and I gave up after I was unable to get the magnets to balance themselves out via polar orientation.
To me, having centering pegs just goes against the whole idea behind the device.
The balancers were not aluminum posts, but instead were fishing line? Perhaps there would be a need for more than two "posts" but still. Go back and experiment Brett, tell us how it goes.