Townshend Audio Seismic Podium - new breakthrough in sound reproduction!

For more than 15 years of messing with High-End audio I came to conclusion:

(2 rules in 1)
You don’t know how good your speakers are until you treat them with right power of Double the Power Handling of your speakers (min./optimum) through the Single Crystal Silver speaker cable.

But looks like I've been missing one more rule:

"You don’t know how good your speakers are until you isolate them from the floor." -- Jason Kennedy (Hi-Fi+ magazine)



Townshend Audio Seismic speaker Isolation tap test
Max Townshend demonstrates Seismic speaker isolation on PMC Fact.12. The stomp test and Tap test show how vibration can enter the speakers through ground borne vibration and from the resonance of the music itself. The seismographs show how the Townshend Podiums, bars and pods can prevent vibration from entering Hi-Fi equipment.
Townshend Audio Seismic speaker Isolation tap test »

(From Hi-Fi+ review)
"The effect of putting a speaker on the Seismic Podiums is quite dramatic. I did the demonstration to the guys from DALI recently when they brought round a pair of Epicon 8 speakers for a forthcoming review. They couldn’t quite believe the improvement in coherence and timing it wrought, and the extent to which the sound is able to escape the boxes. Then there’s the bass, which is suddenly incredibly articulate, three dimensional, and powerful. This is true of every speaker that I have tried on these bases, and the irony is that the sound is faster and more fine detailed than it is with spikes. There is none of the edginess and emphasis on leading edges that spikes produce, yet there is greater immediacy. In all honesty, I’d say you don’t know how good your speakers are until you isolate them from the floor.


Given the thirty plus years of spike indoctrination that we have been treated to, this is a hard pill to swallow for many, but when you find out that Alan Sircom is using Townshend Podium under his Wilson Duette IIs and Paul Messenger, one of the earliest and most fervent spike enthusiasts, is also using Townshend Isolation under his Bowers & Wilkins 800 Diamonds, it makes you realize that anyone who really listens will appreciate their benefits. I took a pair of Podia to a friend with Wilson Benesch Chimera speakers a few months back; he didn’t like the bronze adjusters that the earlier models featured, but loved the sound and had to get some. It seems the bigger and more revealing the speaker, the more it benefits from isolation. My friend’s system literally came alive when we put them in; it opened up and started to do stuff that you wouldn’t believe achievable without a major component upgrade.


"... for anyone that’s genuinely interested in what’s on the recording, on hearing more music, they represent a major breakthrough in the pursuit of high fidelity, and that is what this game is all about. But don’t take my word for it, get a demonstration, see the light, and hear the difference!"

Please read entire review:
Townshend Audio Seismic Podium »

So, guys, the Triple Speakers Rule:

You don’t know how good your speakers are until you treat them with right power of Double the Power Handling of your speakers (min./optimum) through the Single Crystal Silver speaker cable and isolate them from the floor.

P.S.
I was very enthusiastic about this stuff until I saw the price tag, but on a bright side it would be easy to tell my wife that it costs $400 to keep her happy.

 

So what is the price tag for the speaker platforms?

 

Please read Spec in the review - I'm afraid to tell it loud.

P.S.
It's not a Platform, but Podium. They have platforms too.

 

Price: from £1,400 or $2,032 US

 

Solution for a sub and lighter speakers:

Seismic Isolation Bars
Seismic Isolation Bars for speakers / sub-woofer - Townshend »

 

These are MUCH cheaper.

SoundPath Subwoofer Isolation System »

 

lol. $50 of sorbothane will get you close enough, perhaps even better.

 

I'm such a loser. Won't work on my Focals.

 

I don't know, when I brought my new house my big heavy speakers were then on padded carpet and didn't sound right. I added brass billet spikes, which resulted in cleaner mids and vastly improved bass. Ah, the glorious sound was back.

 

What do you mean? They were built in Focals in mind (up to 500 pounds).
Did you see the pictures with Grand Utopia?

 

They should improve sound farther over the spikes. If Wilson started to use them, it tells me a lot. He was spikes-crazy guy.

 

This price is killing me for the pair, but it is for one piece.

 

I could be for sub, but not for heavy speakers.

I have B&W N802 (150lb each), not-leveled hardwood floor over the concrete and neighbor under it.
It's ideal solution for me - 3 birds in 1 shut:
They could level the speakers, improve the sound and isolate me from the neighbors.
But the best part is: they do not raise the speakers much (just 3/4"). It does not change the original geometry and looks beautiful in living room.
They have cheaper alternative Seismic Platform, but it lifts the speakers high and looks ugly:

Townshend Seismic Vibration Isolation Platform »

 

Easy to produce your own probably cost £12. Find how here Attention Barry Diament and other speaker isolation gurus! », I posted some info, think it's the last one

 

Incredibly bad idea, one of the main things you want to do is take energy from the speaker, Sobothane designed to stop energy. One way to test my hypothesis, place a Bamboo chopping board between your speaker and stand and experience a worse sound

 

Edit:

 

Edit:
Looks like it's a price for a set of two (kind of relieve).

 

I use Symposium Svelte platforms under my speakers (and gear) and they have an effect that is probably similar to Townshend's products (indeed I compared his isolation pods with Symposium Rollerblocks and found they gave similar results).

I would say these products are all very expensive and are only worth buying if you have got near your end of buying equipment. My guess is that spending this sort of money on improving speakers or source would have a bigger impact.

To me, once I understood it, the description that they 'reduced smeared transients' is correct. The effect is subtle but cumulative - adding more of these types of products increases the benefits. They might be costly but using such platforms and roller blocks seems to me one of the few ways of achieving this sort of benefit - improving the electricity supply and cleaning CDs are the others.

Townshend will let you trial his products (in the UK anyway). You could also experiment initially with Barry Diament's bicycle inner tube method. I tried this under equipment and it does work although I found Symposium shelves better and more practical.

 

Just read the theory behind the design and noted with interest their energy drainage property. This gels with my observations, however your putting all that energy into your floor and then through your electronics. Trying to convert as much mechanical energy to heat (inner tube), will benefit your whole system.

 

sorbothane allow better isolation

those products are true rip off

 

Maybe but some of them work, Sorbothane is going to reduce energy into the floor. This will help with energy into electronics but it's not really the way to go. Much better to try and remove it from your speakers as well.

 

In the video, they compare spikes vs their platforms. Spikes are the absolute worst as it COUPLES the speakers to floor while in any situation, you want to DECOUPLE. even using tennis balls would show great improvement vs spikes. so thei example is very weak.

I use sorbothane under my speakers as well, one could use appropriate spring mass loading. They isolate down to under 30hz.

Its not rocket science how to isolate speakers from stands or floor and products such as these (townshend) are vastly overprices and may work less good then 50$ sorbothane.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////



Here a discussion from a acoustician talking about such stands in the pro world like ISO acoustic stands:
"But let's do a rough run of the numbers so you have a better idea of what's going on.

First you must calculate the stiffness of the decoupling (elastic) layer. For that you use the equation s= ES/d where Eis the elasticity modulus (Young's modulus) S the surface and d the thickness.

Half A tennis ball being fairly softer/ more elastic than the Iso Acoustics stand with less contact surface (just tip of the half balls) and the interface can be considered to have more more thickness you necessarily get s (tennis ball) < s (Iso Acoustics stand).

Which means the 3 half tennis balls are less stiff than one ISO Acoustics stand. That's a clear hint at better performance already.

From there we can calculate the resonant (or natural) frequency of the system which is:

f(0)= (1/2Pi)sqrt(ES/Md) with M the total mass (here, speakers).

The Mass M being a constant (speakers) only the stiffness s we calculated higher matters.

Since we know the factor s for the half tennis balls was lower, it mathematically implies that the natural frequency for the tennis ball will be lower.

Which means the half tennis balls start decoupling from a lower frequency, calculated at f(e)=sqrt(2)xf(0).

Tennis balls are more efficient.

I'll happily run an accelerometer test if any ISO Acoustics stands user can lend me stands for a couple days. But I have little doubt as to the outcome.

One of the other factors that also must be taken in account in calculating such systems is called "Foundation Compliance" (Impedance, mass, spring characteristics, insertion loss etc) and will dictate if the support on which the decoupling interface is resting (stands or a table top / furniture) will in fact increase or decrease performance of the decoupling system itself.

Ideally you want your support/foundation as heavy and stiff as possible.
Amphion... Beautiful - Page 78 - Gearslutz.com »
"

 

Given how cheap it is to implement Barry's ideas and you have the equipment why not try and report back. Out of interest where would you be taking your measurement(s)?

 

I never said that, so I have been misquoted.

It is not difficult to agree with most if not all of these points, though.

 

Closed cell foam is inexpensive, works, can be cut to size. All this without audiophile pricing. As for electronics, only microphonic tube gear & T/Ts are audibly affected by vibes, regardless of mfg "white papers" - even the soft double ply ones.