Less hardness and a more natural sound is pretty much what I heard when switching to springs under my speakers and amps. Glad it is working out for you.
Townsend Platforms installed under my ARC REF10 and dCS Bartok
About a week ago I posted about installing the Townsend Podiums under my Sasha 2 speakers. An incredible improvement, but it turns out there's more!
Today I am writing about the Townsend Platforms I installed under my preamp and then my streamer/DAC. My electronics sit on 2 inch+ thick black walnut shelves with 1 inch all-thread rods, custom spikes and rubber washers between each side of the washers that hold the shelves. (not a professional vibration control shelving system, but not crap either) I installed a Townsend platform under both cases of my ARC REF 10 preamp to start. I am particularly sensitive to sibilance/ringing, but also crave a detailed sound. I have spent a lot of money and time trying to work sibilance out of my system. After the Platforms were installed the sibilance was gone. I was shocked! It seems I was finally listening to my components as designed. It was so very interesting and unprecedented I began to search for what was missing (if anything). I was in bliss the first night between the Podiums and the Platforms under the preamp, but had a strange sensation that I was listening to a kind of sonic vacuum. I don't have the words or even the thoughts to describe what I was feeling, but I was thrilled and suspicious all at once. The ringing was gone and that was cause for celebration. Anyway, the next night I installed a Platform under my dCS Bartok streamer. When I fired it up there it was...there was "air" around the voices, and decay on bells that when on and on. The sound was now complete. The sound now with Podiums and Platforms was as never before, but that sound was my goal for seemingly forever. I wanted a highly musical, detailed sound without any ringing or sibilance, a purity if you will. (I think everyone else does too!) I clearly had listener bias as I wanted this isolation system to work so I waited 7 days to write this. It's real, at least in my room with my components. A transformation of my system through isolation. The level of transformation was not conceivable to me as I read about these products on the Townsend website and within the forums, I had to hear it.
Here are a few of my thoughts in summary:
-It appears that my components are designed and built to be way better than they were able to perform given the effect of the vibrations I was subjecting them too. The Sasha 2s are way better than I thought they were, but I wasn't feeding them good stuff.
-I spent a lot of time and money trying to compensate for vibration control by buying cables, power conditioning systems, tube preamps (then tube rolling) to fix a problem that I couldn't fix with those changes.
-Vibration control, as cost effective as the Townsend products, should be the first accessory you purchase after you buy essential components, especially before cables, power cords and conditioners. Installing these isolation systems showed me incrementally how good my components actually are. Upgrading cables and PCs are now about revealing more of the music rather than buying tone controls.
-Townsend advises that the biggest bang for the buck are the Podiums under your speakers. I'm going with that it depends... on your room, components, and shelves as to what makes the biggest impact. In my case the Podiums improved my speakers tremendously, but the Platforms under my electronics cured a major PROBLEM, rather than made something already good better. My advice is to try a product from Townsend and I think you will be motivated by proof to add more.
Once again my thanks to millercarbon for his posts about springs!!! He has saved me thousands chasing done sibilance fixes! I encourage others who are trying the Townsend isolation approach to add their comments and reviews.
Today I am writing about the Townsend Platforms I installed under my preamp and then my streamer/DAC. My electronics sit on 2 inch+ thick black walnut shelves with 1 inch all-thread rods, custom spikes and rubber washers between each side of the washers that hold the shelves. (not a professional vibration control shelving system, but not crap either) I installed a Townsend platform under both cases of my ARC REF 10 preamp to start. I am particularly sensitive to sibilance/ringing, but also crave a detailed sound. I have spent a lot of money and time trying to work sibilance out of my system. After the Platforms were installed the sibilance was gone. I was shocked! It seems I was finally listening to my components as designed. It was so very interesting and unprecedented I began to search for what was missing (if anything). I was in bliss the first night between the Podiums and the Platforms under the preamp, but had a strange sensation that I was listening to a kind of sonic vacuum. I don't have the words or even the thoughts to describe what I was feeling, but I was thrilled and suspicious all at once. The ringing was gone and that was cause for celebration. Anyway, the next night I installed a Platform under my dCS Bartok streamer. When I fired it up there it was...there was "air" around the voices, and decay on bells that when on and on. The sound was now complete. The sound now with Podiums and Platforms was as never before, but that sound was my goal for seemingly forever. I wanted a highly musical, detailed sound without any ringing or sibilance, a purity if you will. (I think everyone else does too!) I clearly had listener bias as I wanted this isolation system to work so I waited 7 days to write this. It's real, at least in my room with my components. A transformation of my system through isolation. The level of transformation was not conceivable to me as I read about these products on the Townsend website and within the forums, I had to hear it.
Here are a few of my thoughts in summary:
-It appears that my components are designed and built to be way better than they were able to perform given the effect of the vibrations I was subjecting them too. The Sasha 2s are way better than I thought they were, but I wasn't feeding them good stuff.
-I spent a lot of time and money trying to compensate for vibration control by buying cables, power conditioning systems, tube preamps (then tube rolling) to fix a problem that I couldn't fix with those changes.
-Vibration control, as cost effective as the Townsend products, should be the first accessory you purchase after you buy essential components, especially before cables, power cords and conditioners. Installing these isolation systems showed me incrementally how good my components actually are. Upgrading cables and PCs are now about revealing more of the music rather than buying tone controls.
-Townsend advises that the biggest bang for the buck are the Podiums under your speakers. I'm going with that it depends... on your room, components, and shelves as to what makes the biggest impact. In my case the Podiums improved my speakers tremendously, but the Platforms under my electronics cured a major PROBLEM, rather than made something already good better. My advice is to try a product from Townsend and I think you will be motivated by proof to add more.
Once again my thanks to millercarbon for his posts about springs!!! He has saved me thousands chasing done sibilance fixes! I encourage others who are trying the Townsend isolation approach to add their comments and reviews.