Townshend Audio ones Through

Following MC I replaced my Gaia’s with the podiums and I was very surprised at the improvement. IMHO they work very very well with Full Range speakers and ribbon cables (In my case the wonderful silversmith Fideliums). Hard to imagine a more “live” sound. PRAT is amazing. Like others I thought I had vibration solved until these. Thanks MC

Following MC I replaced my Gaia’s with the podiums and I was very surprised at the improvement. IMHO they work very very well with Full Range speakers and ribbon cables (In my case the wonderful silversmith Fideliums). Hard to imagine a more “live” sound. PRAT is amazing. Like others I thought I had vibration solved until these. Thanks MC

Well I certainly have a "Townshend Audio Comes Through" story.

Ordered a set of Size 2 Seismic Bars with D Load Cells. It did take over 2 weeks before they shipped which was kind of a bummer, but these things happen. When they arrived, the first speaker (B&W Matrix 801 Series 2 with North Creek crossovers and 22lbs. of bass bin loading, about 150 lbs. all told) sat perfectly level with all the load cells at about half compression, perfect! Happily, the bars at maximum shortening are the perfect length for the big B&Ws. The second set didn't go so well. Long story short, one of the load cells, although labeled 'D' was in fact a C Load Cell. It got completely squished under the speaker.

So I called and left a message for John at Townshend Audio. He called back right away. He indicated that such a mistake was “extremely rare”, which, as I’m like the Grand Pooba of the FHS (Fallible Human Society), I had compassion for and believe to be true. John indicated that a replacement D Load Cell would be sent out, and sure enough, the next day I received notice that the shipment was on it’s way. He also indicated that he’d give me a discount on a future purchase which I thought was cool. Once installed, the replacement load cell made the second set of bars work perfectly, just like the first.

So, now I had a lone C Load Cell. What to do. Use it somehow. Our preamp is a 2006 Dodd Audio Battery Powered Preamp. It’s got 4 x 5Ah SLA batteries at the back of the preamp which makes the back of the preamp weigh about 25 lbs. The front of the preamp contains mostly air, along with 2 x 6N23P tubes, a couple of bypassed 2.2mF caps, some wire and 3 knobs, weighing about 5 lbs. So a really uneven weight distribution. Anyhoo, I placed the ‘C’ Load Cell under the middle of the back of the preamp and then a Nobsound spring footer (with only 4 springs/footer) under each front corner and the preamp was dead level. Sounded cleaner too. I emailed John asking him what he could sell me 2 x AA Load Cells and a Pod Cap for the lone C cell.  He wrote back that he would send them free of charge. Wow! That was unexpected and awesome!

The end of the story is that they arrived yesterday and the preamp is dead level under the 1 x C Load Cell at the center back and the 2 x AA Load Cells at each front corner. And yes, the sound is noticeably cleaner yet again! Nobsound footers are now under the turntable though destined to be replaced by something Townshend Audio…

Lotta nice folks in the boutique audio world, but I certainly view John and Max and Sue Townshend to be among the nicest.

georgehoffman60-

Following MC I replaced my Gaia’s with the podiums and I was very surprised at the improvement. IMHO they work very very well with Full Range speakers and ribbon cables (In my case the wonderful silversmith Fideliums). Hard to imagine a more “live” sound. PRAT is amazing. Like others I thought I had vibration solved until these. Thanks MC 

You're welcome. My pleasure. It really is hard to believe the effect these things have- until you hear it!

xenolith- Lotta nice folks in the boutique audio world, but I certainly view John and Max and Sue Townshend to be among the nicest. 

That has been my experience as well. Including combining one Pod with Nobsound. Played around with a lot of different combinations. One BDR Cone with 2 Nobsound springs, 1 Pod 2 Nob, 3 Pods 1 Nob, etc. Not so much to find out, but more like you did, now what can I do with this leftover Pod? lol!  

That kind of thing is how I got the idea to put them under my crossover. One of my better improv moves, for sure. Learned by playing around with them like you just did. 

Turntables are all different. Mine because of the rim drive motor works best with Pods under the BDR Source Shelf. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 Yours may work best on a Podium, or Platform, or Pods. So much depends on details. Now with a lot of experience I am pretty good at figuring this out for myself. Even now though I run it all past John. Now you know why. He's the best! 

My transactions with John Hannant over the past couple of years have been nothing but extremely positive. After reaching out to Townshend’s U.S.A. distributor and discovering I knew more about the Seismic products than did he, I contacted John.

I did a lot of figuring and planning before contacting John, and in my first order (of three, so far) asked for a set of 6 Pods fitted with the "top cap" used in the Seismic Speaker Bar, with a hole drilled in the top for a bolt to pass through. I requested that because my intent was to bolt the Pods onto the tripod-style outrigger stand Sound Anchors makes for my Eminent Technology LFT-8b loudspeaker, the stand drilled and fitted with spikes. Very similar to the stand SA make for Vandersteen speakers.

John attempted to dissuade me from not employing 4 pods on each speaker, but the SA stand has two outrigger "legs" in front (each with it’s own spike), with a fitting in the rear for a third spike. My speaker’s lateral center of mass is centered on the stand’s depth, and I figured if I got the rear Pod with twice the weight capacity of the two front Pods, the speaker/stand/Pod assemble would balance perfectly. John congratulated me on my figerin’ ;-), and humoured me by sending the Pods as I requested. My figuring was correct, the trio works perfectly!

John requires the Pods be ordered in sets of 4, and for use on components having moving parts (turntables, CD spinners, etc.) 4 is definitely the way to go (I tried 3, and that failed spectacularly; both the VPI Aries and Esoteric SACD player flopped around like a fish out of water!). On the other hand, my Townshend Rock Elite table---only about half the mass of the VPI and Esoteric, and sitting on it’s own low mass-platform (who remembers Torlyte?!)---works fine with 3 Pods.

For pieces with no moving parts (and of lower mass), 3 can work just as well, and will cost you less. For instance: my Music Reference tube power amp has all the transformers on one side of it’s side-to-side width, the tube sockets on the other. If fitted with 4 Pods, the Pods on the transformer side would have to be higher weight rated than the 2 on the tube side. Using 3 identical Pods, the amp balances perfectly. And using 3 Pods you can move them around until you achieve balance; I did that with my Herron phono stage and EAR-Yoshino line stage.

Since the Pods are sold in sets of 4 (but the weight capacity can be varied in each set)---3 sets therefore containing 12 Pods, you can use 12 Pods in 3 sets of 4, or 4 sets of 3. Figure out your weight needs, and contact John. You’ll be glad you did!