Monitor Stands - Made of Stone

@soix I have considered Townsend. I spent several days trying to make a purchase with them and finally gave up. Not the best customer service experience. 

I’ve settled on Live Vibe Audio. Yes more expensive but superior to Townsend based on every review I’ve come across. 

The team at Live Vibe are incredibly talented and have decades of experience. I also love their return/upgrade policy. 

Based on this research paper (see link below) it doesn’t appear that stone would resonate in any significant manner detrimental to our 20hz - 20khz hearing range. I’m not saying stone is perfect, and different types behave differently, but when stone resonates it’s mostly at the high end and above or range of what’s audible. 

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/sv/2019/6326510/#

I imagine Acora (speakers) made of granite and considered some of the finest speakers in the world right now, wouldn’t have chosen this material if it wasn’t great for controlling vibration and resonance. 

excerpt from the research paper.

A harmonic impact force with the amplitude of 1000 N and the excitation frequency of 10 kHz and 20 kHz are exerted on the granite and sandstone with the dimension of 200 mm × 200 mm × 200 mm, respectively. The response results of rocks are shown in Figure 5. When the excitation frequency is within the range of 0∼10 kHz, the resonance frequency of granite is 6900 Hz, and that of sandstone is 8700 Hz. However, when the excitation frequency is within the range of 0∼20 kHz, the resonance frequencies of granite and sandstone are 10.6 kHz and 16.2 kHz, respectively. It can be seen that the resonance frequencies of the rock are different under different ranges of excitation frequency. As the excitation frequency increases, the resonance frequency of the rock also increases. 

@erik_squires  

Agreed, (3) points are better than (4). Not to trumpet the brand but Live Vibe espouses (3) points of contact. (3) points will always equalize whereas (4) points are prone to wobble. 

I've not tried placing weights on the top of the monitors but I love the suggestion. Easy enough to try it out. Thanks. 

I was worried about rear mounted woofers until I heard a couple models. Both the Kii Threes and the Dutch & Dutch 8c's have very clean bass and great imaging (a tell tale test for any box suffering from vibration issues). 

To be clear, I'm not experiencing any imaging or excessive vibration issues. This project is more aesthetic than anything else. I just don't want to introduce something that would be a step backwards. I would assume most objects with a decent amount of weight/mass well anchored to the floor would suffice. 

I had originally thought 1/2" or 1" steel plate would be a good material but apparently any surface that you might rightly call "plate", even a very heavy one, is prone to ringing. Take note those of you with large DACs or Amplifiers. Easy enough to test, just rap the top/side of your box with your knuckles. Thus something monolithic like a good size chunk of stone would appear to be a better option. Not perfect but better than most speaker stands I've come across. 

Thanks for chiming in folks, I really appreciate the input. Always learning something new from you all.  

@whipsaw

If you understood what I said to be an "overstatement" please know I was only sharing what others have reported after comparing the two. Unfortunately I’ve not had the opportunity, so I can’t definitely say (yet). Once the LVA gear arrives I’ll get to A/B them with a friend who own’s a pair of Townshend’s.

It’s true these two brands are marketing their products using different terminology. From what I understand there is no such thing as "decoupling". Decoupling suggests we are breaking the rules of gravity, which I find a little disingenuous. "Decoupling" was probably derived by someone in the marketing department, certainly not a scientist. Due to gravity everything is coupled to the earth. The difference between the two is a matter of speed. Townshend use the "slow" option and LVA uses the "fast" option. That is to say Townshend podiums hold on to energy longer than LVA’s cones. Springs are meant to absorb energy, dissipating it as heat, but some will always be transferred to ground. LVA’s philosophy employs brass cones which transfer energy to ground much much faster. And in audio speed is everything. Speed is resolution, imaging, realism. Ground has much greater surface area for absorption and dissipation than springs. Not to mention longevity, I’d put up a concrete floor, even a wood floor, against springs any day.

I believe Townshend’s offer a product that is efficacious and has some great engineering behind it. But after putting in many hours reading papers on thermodynamics, cymatics, and seismology, talking to representatives at both companies, reading/listening to reviews, and employing a little common sense I’ve landed in LVA’s camp.

Now I just need to find the right kind of stone for the pedestals ; ) 

@whipsaw 

I appreciate your comments. I’m by no means an expert in this field and am relying on the collective wisdom and experience of our tribe. “Any fool can learn from his own mistakes…”.

I’ve not run across any of Robert’s comments disparaging other companies. I’ve spent about two and a half maybe three hours chatting with him and he was a real gentlemen. No sucker punches or backhanded comments regarding his competitors. 
 

I was inches away from buying the Townshends but several delays allowed me to explore other options. I was on board with many others who believe the T podiums are better suited to suspended floors (like mine) and then the idea of proving a big heavy piece of stone moved me towards the advantages of spikes. 

I’m not too proud to change my mind when new information/experience or well reasoned advice comes my way. 

I’m by no means a bass head but there are certain tracks I play to test just how  subterranean my Dutch & Dutch speakers can go. With some tracks they will shake the foundation, no exaggeration. This evening I put a wine glass with a nice merlot on top of my speakers and played (Heartbeat - Wychazel). The juice was sloshing around in the glass. I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry. 

This has me now thinking I would be best served by “decoupling” and I’ve reconsidered this use of Townshend Podiums between the suspended wood floor and my custom speaker stands.

I still plan on using some kind of stone with the stands (granite or marble) to act as a front baffle in line with the baffle of the D&D’s. The superstructure will be steel. I might use Live Vibe cones/disks between the top plate of the speaker stand and the bottom of the speakers. In effect using both coupling and decoupling technologies. 

I want to express my thanks to all who’ve contributed to this thread and adding  rasa to my curiosity.