Under my tower speakers -- Isoacoustics Gaia, other options?

A couple of years ago I watched a Peter Townsend video demonstrating his speaker platforms.  He showed that even on concrete floors his speaker isolation platforms make a difference.  He showed it empirically using vibration transducers. Concrete is a plastic.  It moves and responds to vibrations.  However, I have not had my stereo on a concrete floor in several decades and so I have no experience to share in that regard.  

Anyway, after seeing Townsend's video I built my own isolation platforms for considerably less using specifically designed springs from McMasterCarr and wood butcher blocks as platforms.  I specified the spring rate to give the speaker + platform a natural frequency of 3 Hz.  That isolated the speakers from the floor.  I'm on a suspended floor and it was a dramatic improvement in sound quality.  Using accelerometers I found the speakers were completely isolated from the floor.  Unlike the Townsend platforms I had no adjustability.  It was a pain positioning the platforms and the speakers to be both level on the spring platforms and in the right position in the room.  

Out of curiosity I sprang for the IsoAcoustic Gaias for my speakers to compare them to my own isolation platforms.  The Gaias do not completely isolate the speakers like my spring platforms but overall I thought the speakers sounded better with the Gaias.  The accelerometer showed that the Gaia still isolates the speakers- just not as completely as my spring platforms.  But I think that the dampening in the Gaias helped with the higher frequencies.  I ended up keeping the Gaias and I use my spring platforms under my Home Theater sub woofers.  They make the bass sound amazing.

https://imgur.com/MsCuC2k

I believe isolating the speakers from the floor prevents the floor from being a passive radiator.  That helps clean up the bass and sharpen the images. 

Spikes affect the sound. I have heard it firsthand. I used spikes on my Thiel speakers for years. I could hear the difference between the speakers sitting on the floor vs on spikes. Imaging improved. But when I put my speakers on tuned spring platforms it took them to another level. The same thing happened when I put my amps and preamps on tuned spring platforms. In fact, the increase in detail and resolution was so great that at first it was distracting me from the music. I could hear hum in mic cables, talking, footfalls- things I had not heard before in recordings. I almost put things back to the way they were before, but I finally adjusted to the new level of resolution and transparency. I can’t go back now that I have heard what tuned isolation can do. I no longer have anything resting on spikes.

Spikes do not isolate. They might sink vibrations or whatever the claim is but using an accelerometer I do not see any real change in vibration levels myself. Springs isolate and rubber dampens. Just look at a car suspension. It is a combination of springs and dampers- rubber and viscous dampers.

Funny thing is being an engineer I still went along with the prevailing winds. Since I could hear a difference with my speakers on spikes I assumed spikes were a good thing for all of my stereo gear. Why did I check my engineer brain at the door for so long, I wonder. For example, back in 1979 I was shopping for my first turntable. I remember looking at a Philips belt drive and a Garrard DD turntable. The Philips had a suspended table while the Garrard was fixed. But the bouncy Phillips looked so 1960s to me while the Garrard looked nice and modern. It wasn’t until 1992 when I brought home my first Sota Turntable that I realized how important isolation was to the sound. Even then I did not think to apply that principle to my other gear using mainly Sorbothane pucks for damping.

It is not a simple solution. Spikes impact the sound of components, isolation and damping are effective but like room dampening- too much of a good thing is bad. I learned that first hand too. Even my Sota Turntable can be sensitive to the type of platform it rests on regardless of its remarkable isolation. I learned that as well. One thing about the audio hobby- anyone who assumes to be an expert and scoffs at the various tweaks and setup configurations be it mechanical or electrical will almost certainly be humbled at some point.

I'll add that when you use the Nobsound spring footers on your components, they need to be tuned to maximize the isolation.  Do that by using only enough springs in each footer to have about a 0.100" gap when under load.  So the footers are still floating- don't let them be grounded under load but provide the lowest Fn possible. My preamps, for example are heaviest in the front where the transformers sit, so I have one more spring in those front footers vs the footers in the back.

Thank you.  Unfortunately, I have not found $1 solutions but the spring platforms for my Thiel speakers were pretty reasonable.  The price of 8 springs and two butcher blocks was not too costly.  I designed the springs for the load of my speakers and the spring rate to achieve a Fn= 3 Hz and ordered them from McMasterCarr..  I counter drilled the butcher blocks to a depth to leave just a small amount of travel when loaded and to support the springs so they remain vertical.  I also stuffed some foam inside the springs for damping and added rubber feet.  I used the same springs on my amp stands to isolate the amps from the floor.  My amps are beasts but not quite as heavy as the Thiels so the Fn (resonance point) is about 3.5 Hz.  I bought the Nobsound spring footers online.  These are clever little devices that are perfect for stereo components.  These footers hold up to 7 small springs which allows you to tune them for the weight of the component that you are isolating.  These are inexpensive but very effective.   

Now, like I said before, out of curiosity I bought the Gaia footers for my Thiel speakers to try them out.  While they did not perfectly isolate the speakers from the floor like my tuned spring platforms, they did improve the sound of the speakers.  Enough so that I kept them and put my spring platforms on my HT subwoofers.  Wow, did that make quite a difference.  Life begins when you isolate your subwoofers.  

So last summer I bought me a pair of Wilson Sasha DAW speakers.  They sound good.  They come with the Wilson spikes which I used.  Wilson now offers their version isolation spikes made from their X material.  I have no doubt that they are effective but they are an additional 10% cost of the Sasha DAW speakers.  Therefore, I bit the bullet and bought a set of Gaia Titans.  If you think buying the Gaias hurts- try getting a set of their Titans.  The Wilsons will give you all the bass you want.  I could feel it in the floor even after set up per the Wilson method.  I found the Gaia Titans improved clarity and imaging.  The floor doesn't vibrate like before with the spikes but the furniture, pictures and windows still shake and rattle. I had to put sticky tack on all of my pictures to keep them from rattling.  

Ok, my last sentence is not a comment about open baffle speakers; but it could be...

What I have noticed is that my old Thiel speakers which had the mineral front baffles were totally inert on that face but vibrations could be felt on the sides and back of the speaker cabinets. That tells me the speakers were transmitting vibrations from the cabinet bottom through the spikes to the floor and some amount of vibration reflecting back into the cabinets. So the Gaias which both dampen and isolate seem to me to improve the sound of the speakers by both isolating the speakers from the floor and damping reflections that would otherwise go back into the cabinets. The Wilson speakers are remarkably inert on every surface. Totally dead no matter the loudness they are playing. And yet they still transmit vibrations to the floor through their spikes as well. Perhaps the energy must go out of the cabinets somewhere. I find the Gaia Titans remarkably effective on my Wilson speakers. I would like to hear them with the new Wilson isolation spikes but my curiosity has limits. I have no doubt the Wilson isolation spikes would be an improvement. Their material development knowledge is remarkable when considering they can build an entirely inert speaker cabinet.

I think any speaker will benefit by isolation from the floor but the tonal qualities of the speaker might be altered, as I found with my Thiels and so some amount of dampening (damping) might be needed to go along with the isolation. That’s likely something to be solved on a case by case basis. Some of us engineer types are able to come up with some good homemade solutions, but I have to give credit to the entrepreneurs who develop a product for the market that has to work 90% of the time on a wide range of applications- sometimes great and sometimes not. Some people like hang gliding. Some of us like the security of an enclosed cabin.

I have the Oreas under my Turntable platform.  They do some isolating but mostly dampen vibrations.  Works good for my Sota turntable.  (Putting a second set of spring footers under a Sota is not a good idea.  The double spring system would be unstable.)  I tried the Nobsound footers both directly under my preamps and DAC and on platforms that the preamps and DAC sit on.  I found that better because the feet on my equipment are designed to dampen vibrations.  You can see them on my system page.

Remember to tune the footers to your equipment by using as few springs as possible for each footer.  If you are in-between- ie one less spring is too little and one more spring is too much, don't be afraid to add a mass to your component to increase the load.  The lower the spring rate, the lower the natural frequency of the system.  Fewer springs gives a lower system spring rate.  Lower is better.  And the higher the mass, the lower the natural frequency.

Oh yeah. Thanks for the correction.  I was listening to The Who just the other day. 

I finally figured out how to post a picture.  This picture shows my spring platforms that I made for my speakers which I now use on my HT subwoofers.  Trickle down.

I cut wax paper into squares and placed them under the Gaia’s on my speakers until I got them into their final position.  I probably could have left the wax paper under them but I could not rest knowing the wax paper was there.  Did the sound change when I removed the wax paper?  Not at all.   

I watched the video, well I jumped through it.  Their comments about the Isoacoustics Gaia feet were that it improved the sound but the mid range became harsh sounding.  They seem to attribute this problem to the Gaia feet but I'm thinking the Gaias just uncovered another problem.  Think about when the speakers are on their spikes some smearing or smoothing of the sound covers up their mid range harshness problem.  Perhaps it is a cabling issue or their DAC.  That's the fun of this hobby- one change leads to another.  And so it goes...