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Isoacoustics Orea vs Townshend Seismic Pod on Components

I installed a set of Isoacoustics Gaia 2s on my speakers about a month ago and was extremely pleased with them. I'm now curious about the Oreas.

My components are currently placed on a good rack with Finite Elemente Cerabase footers at the bottom of the rack. I was wondering if individual isolators such as the Orea or Seismic Pod placed under components can further improve sound quality. I've read contradictory comments about the Orea. Some say they brought an appreciable difference when placed under components such as DAC or amplifiers. Some say they bring nothing to the sound, zero difference.

I would appreciate experiences on the Isoacoustics Orea or the Townshend Seismic Pod, or the comparison between the two products. The Oreas look better than the Pods to me although the latter may be costlier.
ryder

Showing 4 responses by arafiq

arafiq's avatar
arafiq
1,712 posts
 

@ryder  I ordered the Nobsound springs, arriving tomorrow. I have a few questions …

1. Which component stands to benefit the most? Dac, amp, or streamer? Eventually I might get more sets but want to start small. 
 

2. My amp is the Audio Hungary a50i. It’s about 55 lbs and like many tube amps, it’s much heavier in the back due to the transformers. Is there any specific configuration I should start with?

3. Do I place the springs under the existing footers on my component or underneath the chassis itself? If in case it’s the latter, do I need to remove the factory installed footers?

Thanks in advance. 

arafiq's avatar
arafiq
1,712 posts
 

Thanks @astolfor . I received the spring this morning. So far, I’m not really liking what I’m hearing. There is a slight bit of ringing which is causing fatigue. I placed the springs directly underneath the chassis. Three springs each in the front footers, four each in the back. Maybe I need to remove one spring from each footer?

arafiq's avatar
arafiq
1,712 posts
 

@astolfor ​​​​@jerryg123 -- thanks for your feedback. I'm going to reduce the number of springs per footer and see if it makes a difference.

@astolfor What do you mean by the least amount of springs? Does that mean I should start with a single spring?

arafiq's avatar
arafiq
1,712 posts
 

@ryder ​​​​@astolfor -- thank you for helping me with the adjustments. I finally settled on 2 springs per footer in the front, and 4 springs per footer in the back. All footers are directly underneath the chassis. Happy to report that there's definitely a subtle yet noticeable improvement. If I have to sum it up I would say everything seems to have tightened up a little ... better imaging, bit more resolution (I'm hearing more into the music if you will), and tighter bass. It''s like someone wiping an already clean mirror with windex. You get that extra bit of shine that you didn't know was missing. It's amazing how simply changing the spring configuration can have a noticeable improvement in SQ.

The differences are not night and day, but they are easily discernible. You can't ask for more from something that costs so little. 

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