Townshend Seismic Isolation Podium

Close Encounters of the Seismic Kind....Interesting results / findings / opportunities due to decreased human activity:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00965-x

One wonders if systems are sounding better... 😊

Obviously THD is not a deal breaker. Who would argue otherwise?

Actually isolation is not for keeping vibration out of the speakers, it’s for keeping the vibration made by the speaker cabinets from getting to the front end electronics and cables lying on the floor. Secondary reason for isolating speakers is to reduce cabinet resonance as seen 👀 in the Max Townshend YouTube video. To summarize, you ideally would want to isolate everything.

I love my Seizmic Stand under my table.  However, I have spikes on my speakers.  I am not worried about sound traveling into my speakers, I want the bass to travel out of them.  I can have all the bass in the world and it won't affect my table.

News Flash! Cones are couplers and cones are isolators! They’re two mints in one! 👯‍♀️

I bought the Podiums for my Treo's, but the outrigger feet didn't fit in the area my speakers reside.
So, I put my Ayre KX-R preamp on it.
It definitely cleaned up the sound. Everything sounded cleaner, and more articulated.
I went and bought the Pods for my amps, but haven't gotten around to installing them, as I am waiting to get new subs- and they are going to have the Sound Bars under them.
Bob

@millercarbon 

I think the sound got worse because the cones were providing an  effective damping of internal equipment resonances.  Isolation would never have addressed that.  I agree with your observation and feel there is a place for both coupling and isolation applications.  I find BDR and Golden Sound DH cones to be very effective.  But I've also seen a nice positive impact from Gaia feet under my speakers.

millercarbon
If you understand it then maybe you’ll be able to explain it to me. Because it sure seems not to work. At all. So bad in fact that when I did a demo one time the person noticed the sound got worse the minute I lifted the CD player up off the cones. In other words the instant it was isolated and decoupled the sound got worse. So can you explain how worse is better?

>>>>>Ha, Ha! That’s funny! Good one! 🤡

Quite a bit of discussion here

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/speaker-isolation-experience-with-townshend-seismic-isolation...

If you understand it then maybe you'll be able to explain it to me. Because it sure seems not to work. At all. So bad in fact that when I did a demo one time the person noticed the sound got worse the minute I lifted the CD player up off the cones. In other words the instant it was isolated and decoupled the sound got worse. So can you explain how worse is better?