Footers under new speakers

 

 

As I’ve indicated before… I tried and abandoned the Townsend Isolation Bars for my speakers. 

 

The way I see it , we audiophiles are constantly looking for the next upgrade and more “ insight” into the recording.

 

And the other thing is that once you become an audiophile one of the things you often get a new perspective on is bass:  nobody wants to go back to the dreaded “one note bass” that’s so many of us grew up thinking was awesome in crappy systems.   And so audiophiles chase  and chase ever tighter bass, and wanting the speaker to disappear including in the bass region as much as possible.  I also went that way…at one point evening out the bass response in my room using dual subwoofers, a great crossover and room DSP.   I abandoned that because I found my speakers more pleasing without it.

 

And then I tried tons of different footers and materials underneath my speakers including the Townshend product.  

 

And yes, I got more of a  disappearing act from the speakers, tighter and more holographic bass.

 

But in the chase for ever more  holographic tight bass, I found I lost with me is highly valuable:  a sense of density, punch and salinity to the sound.

 

The more I made my speaker speakers sound  “ invisible” the more they reminded me of an electrostatics, which I abandoned years ago because I found the sound a bit too ghostly.

 

That’s why I ended up trying to find a halfway point between tightening up the bass and improving the sound of the speakers in my room, while not losing that density and punch.  Which for me was a combination of materials which included is acoustic Gaias and a custom made marble bass, as well as carpet spikes.  Carefully dialled in that combination got me what I want.

 

But of course, I still totally understand. Peoples enthusiasm for the Townsend products (I still use their pods underneath my turntable).  

 

And if somebody were looking to improve base response and have their speakers disappear more, if they can afford it, I would say the top choice would be Townsend.

@hilde45 

I’m sure you recognized a typo in there, but…

that sentence should read: “a sense of density, punch and SOLIDITY to the sound.

@trecool99 

@buellrider97 

I tried a  TON of different footers and materials underneath my loudspeakers. First under my Thiel 2.7s, but I tried even more under my Joseph Audio Perspective 2s.

 

I tried to soft footers , spikes, various pucks, Springs, and MDF platform I built which sandwich some sorbothane  isolation material, I raised height with cedar post caps, hockey pucks etc. and I tried all sorts of variations and combinations. 

My speakers sit on a carpet which is laid over a wood floor.  The spring footers essentially is isolated the speakers pretty much totally from the floor. But when I found, I didn’t ultimately care for the results I realized that I wanted some level of coupling to the floor, and yet still some gains in the sound from the speakers. 

I consulted with some people who actually worked in resonance control and they pointed out that even if you’re working with something like a granite bass, you’re not totally getting rid of vibrations or resonances - you’re essentially just pushing around resonances to different frequencies.  So I could play with that.   And that’s what I was doing I felt essentially finding a combination that I liked, and that I felt improved the sound.

It was fascinating because depending on how I oriented the same materials, it would change the sound.  For instance, and one combination I had the speakers on a sheet of granite, below the granite was a hockey puck on each corner, then the thin isoacoustics carpet spikes, and those carpet spikes were going into another hockey puck which was on the floor.  So essentially below the granite at each corner or two hockey pucks sandwiching spikes, and the last thing the “ floor saw” was the rubber hockey puck. 

That was more isolating from the floor - produced more of a disappearing speaker act for the bass, a really big airy sound.  Though a little lighter in tonality than I wanted.  

But if I simply reverse the materials at the bottom , made it a stack of two hockey pucks sitting on the iso acoustics spikes, so the spikes were going directly into the floor, then that clearly coupled everything more to the floor, and it changed the bass character and the overall tonality.  Bass was a little bit richer, puncher, and rounder and the overall tone slightly darkened and got amazing smooth and “ free of hash.”

I liked the higher and more open and realistic soundstage with the speakers raised something like 4 inches.  But with certain combinations, it was a little bit too airy and bright.  With other combinations, I could get a little bit too dark and lose a little bit of “ golden glow” tonality I like from my CJ amplifiers.  

Once I tried different combinations and found things to like in each, I kept going until I got the best combination of all:  

Joseph Perspectives with Isoacoustics Gaia on the back.

The front is raised on the supplied Joseph outriggers and spikes (there was a problem and that I couldn’t take off the spikes to put Gaia on), but those front spikes go into hockey pucks in the front, which raised the angle perfectly.

All that is a top a granite platform I had built : two one and a quarter inch slabs with sound damping material in between them forming a sandwich (damping material used for cars). It’s incredibly dead to the knuckle rap test.  

And then that granite platform is sitting on  hockey pucks at each corner, and the hockey pucks are sitting on the Isoacoustic carpet spikes into the rug/wood floor.

With this combination, the speakers are raised something like 6 inches high , which gives a huge, expensive realistic sound stage size.  And yet the sound is not light weight at all - it has the golden glow, but incredibly smooth and free of any hash or grain whatsoever, really “ black background”,  the bass is really punchy and warm but at the same time the tightest bass I’ve ever had from these speakers - it changes chameleon like with recordings.

And the speakers totally disappear.

The speakers are about 8 feet apart , and I sit between seven and 8 feet away, at this point, I’m sitting 7 feet away.  

And I use a curved diffuser in between and behind the loudspeakers which adds some more sonic density to the images. 

My pal who reviews ultra audio gear for soundstage came over for a lesson once I had everything dialled in and he was shocked.  Like as soon as the music started, he said “WTF? How did you do this?”   He said the sound was so incredibly expensive and immersive but with incredibly palpable sonic images, bass that energized the room but which was really tight, and upper frequencies that were “ just buttery smooth like I could listen all day no matter how loud.”

He felt it was one of the best systems he’s heard.  That was satisfying to hear.  

Anyway, after that long description, here are some photos you can click on .  Certainly doesn’t look like anything special:  

https://i.postimg.cc/HnBN1TFF/IMG-3862.webp
 

https://i.postimg.cc/Hk7K8wgj/IMG-4289.jpg
 

https://i.postimg.cc/fbZCgfNV/IMG-2401.jpg