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Has anyone had experiences good or bad with speaker isolation or isolation in general ?

hi
i have been enjoying buying and listening to hifi for some 35 years now and have seen many items come and go.I have also been interested in the audio cable discussions and i agree that cables do make a difference how much of a difference is a very individual, and a system dependent situation. There has been nothing that has got me so excited and improved the sound of my system that has ever made me want to really share it with fellow audiophiles until i started to try various isolation products.With so much choice from affordable to very expensive i found the hole subject very confusing and i did not know where to start. After trying lots of various products all shapes and sizes with very different results i decided to read reviews which is something i do not usually do to get some advise.I read a review on the Townshend audio seismic podiums they are isolation platforms that go under your speakers .This company is very famous for isolation ideas and have been around some 50 years based here in the UK they also had a factory in the USA back in the 1980s. I contacted Nick at Emporium hifi  and he agreed to install a pair for me so i could have a listen. My speakers are sound-lab dynastats which i use in quite a small room but with the adjustments give a nice sound. After installing the podiums we both sat down with jaws hitting the floor these podium things completely transformed the sound of my system to absolute perfection. After all this time trying various products under my equipment i have now isolated my speakers and the sound quality is exactly what i believe we all are chasing, my sound-labs are now transparent no more bass problems i have just got one big 3D sound stage the dynastats are now very open with deeper much better bass everything is perfect. I now believe isolating your loudspeakers is the first port of call i was so impressed by the Townshend audio seismic products i now sell them as i have never come across anything that has given my system such a great upgrade , the sound is the same as before but now its just so much better its playing deeper bass but tighter much more resolution and no boom , the midrange is so much more human sounding realistic and spacious with the top end so refined and perfect , is anyone using podiums and had the same experiences i would love to hear from you thank you john 
mains
cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,700 posts
 
I have had excellent results with Symposium platforms under my speakers.
kennythekey
593 posts
 
Thanks, guys. If we can take a brief moment to get away from the springs, my bouncy floor can cause foot falls that can cause my rack to slightly wobble. If I throw a party, forget about it!

Without moving the rack, I want to tie the top rear outside corners of the top shelf to the front wall behind the rack. So, hard maple 2x4" rail across wall directly behind top shelf with maple 1x2" boards connecting the top shelf corners to the rail. BTW, maple because it matches my rack. My isolation/non-isolation question is, should I use any damping material where the 1x2" members are connected to the rail on the wall and top shelf? I was checking out Acoustical Solutions isolation pad that you can cut into individual 2x2" squares. They are a 3/4" sandwich of rubber- cork-rubber.

The more general question is, do I want to limit vibrations from the wall coming into the rack due to the direct connection, or do I want to isolate those vibrations? I have heard both opinions.
Kenny
toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone
840 posts
 
Obviously, springs were a popular topic. Ha!

@kennythekey my first guess would be to rigidly mount it to the wall. But that’s just a guess without having any experience of how wiggly your wall is, etc..

In general, I’ve had the best success with a rigid rack and a floating platform for my turnable on that. But since your floor is bouncy, it would make the most sense to try and tie as rigidly as possible to the wall and use isolation under the rack legs, since that is where the problem is.

I think putting foam between the wall coupling would only reduce the effectiveness of tying into the wall.

Incidentally, will pieces of 1x2 be strong enough to be effective? Again, not sure how heavy your rack is, so they may be more than adequate. They certainly would not be on mine!
kennythekey
593 posts
 
Thanks, toddveronne. The title of this post included general isolation, so why I threw my rack into the mix.

The wall is a bearing wall that sits on the foundation wall, so it's not wiggly! The rack can only rock forwards and backwards, so much more stable side-to-side. If I stomp/jump in front of it, I can get the stylus to skip. Otherwise, not a problem, so it's a safety issue.

The 1x2" pieces will be rigid if I directly tie them into the 2x4" rail across the wall. Another A-gon  member recommended this over dampening material in-between, but my dealer suggested the dampening. The positioning of the 2x4" changes if I use/don't use the dampening, so I'm trying to avoid a re-do. When playing music, if I put my hand on the wall, I can feel the vibrations, so do I want the vibrations transferring to my rack or not is the question? It seems, that a small consensus so far supports the direct approach, and to solve vibration issues by isolating the components, instead.
Kenny
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 

kennythekey
The wall is a bearing wall that sits on the foundation wall, so it’s not wiggly! The rack can only rock forwards and backwards, so much more stable side-to-side. If I stomp/jump in front of it, I can get the stylus to skip. Otherwise, not a problem, so it’s a safety issue.

As fate would have it it’s not only floors that are the problem but also walls and ceilings, they all transmit seismic type vibrations. Unsuspended floors might be more problematic, what with trampoline effect and greater susceptibility to seismic type vibrations, including footfall and mechanical feedback, but even cement slabs and bearing walls on rigid foundations are moving, just not with the same amplitude usually. In areas like Las Vegas where there is rather strong Earth motion you can feel the vibration on the walls with the palm of your hand. Most places you can’t feel it with your hand but it’s there, especially the very low frequency stuff, the stuff below 10 Hertz. That’s because the entire building is being moved and shaken by the Earth’s crust motion and anything else around like wind or traffic or subways. And it’s being shaken and moved in 6 different directions due to the way physical seismic waves travel along the surface of the Earth. Thus, the house is moving up and down, to and fro, back no forth as well as twisted, etc. Most of the energy of the Earth crust motion is down around 0 to 3 Hz, but there is still a lot up to 20 Hz and above. This of course means that in order to escape at least some of the seismic type vibration one needs to decouple from the physical surroundings entirely, including walls. Furthermore the effects of seismic type vibration don’t necessarily manifest themselves overtly, e.g., needle jumping from the groove, it can be more subtle and insidious. You don’t know what you got til it’s gone, like the song says.
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