Townshend Audio speaker podiums...three ways to install
Looking for some input from those who might have experience with this product or those well versed in speaker isolation principles in general.
Yesterday I received the podiums for installation under my Avantgarde Duos (with sub 225s). I bought these direct from Jim Smith about 20 years ago so they are not the current style sub cabinetry but the style they sold for many years where the sub, then tweeter horn and then the midrange horn are all mounted/suspended to/from three outboard vertical metal support rods, two located on the outer edge of the speaker and one on the inside edge. I initially had these speakers supported on four large carpet piercing spikes that were threaded into the bottom of the sub cabinet in factory fitted inserts, thus supporting the entire assembly and the metal frames off the floor. To this day, this is the best bass articulation I have heard from the speakers and would have never made a change except there was an unsolvable problem with floor shake (raised floor...carpet over ply decking over joists supported on concrete block piers). I finally talked myself into a change after Jim Smith said that decoupling was the way to go and told Jim to please get me some Grand Prix Audio Apex footers but they couldn’t deliver on the thread size AG specified. So I made a slight change in direction and ended up where I am today with Stillpoints Ultra 5s on the optional Ultra bases (wide decouplers) and they have performed beautifully at curbing the floor shake but the price being paid is a slight loss in bass articulation. With the Stillpoints, they are screwed into the bottoms of the metal support rods so now the the speaker’s weight is held up by three Stillpoints via the rods with the sub supported an inch above the floor vs. four brass spikes directly into the bottom of the sub.
Enter the podiums. It seems I have three different ways to deploy them. First, I can remove all isolation hardware from the bottoms and simply place the sub cabinet bareback, if you will, (Townshend’s word) on the podium itself. Second, I can leave the Stillpoints in place and lift the speaker so fitted onto the podium. Third, I can remove the Stillpoints, reinstall the brass spikes and lift this assembly onto the podiums with the spikes tips sitting in brass cups. The last two solutions will result in an upward repositioning of the driver centers by approx. two inches but can be accounted for.
So bareback, the decoupling approach Stillpoints or the coupling approach spikes...any insights would be appreciated.
BTW, John @ Stillpoints has voiced his opinion and I likely will go with it but I would rather not reveal it now so as not to have any influence on the thoughts of others.
@millercarbon ...you have been officially cold cocked by the feather. I Just communicated with John earlier this evening and he may pop up on this thread to reveal his thoughts on the matter. The tips of the spikes would be placed in brass cups which would rest on the surface of the podiums. @steakster...I have carpet sliders at the ready. Wish I could say the same for high school muscle😞 |
Okay...was finally able to round up some muscle to help and we had the installation party yesterday after lunch. With one helper it took about three hours to get the job done to my satisfaction once all the requisite fine tuning, futzing about and rechecking this and that were completed. I did end up going the bareback route. It was what John had said to do and was the concensus here at AGON. Besides, it turns out that the podium was about an inch too narrow to accomodate the speakers with Stillpoints fitted so that made the choice a whole lot easier. First, I was somewhat concerned that these podiums were going to take up a large chunk of real estate in my living room and possibly be a visual distraction. What a relief to discover that this concern was totally unfounded. The size three podiums are the perfect match size wise for the footprint of the sub 225s and I really love the way the assembly appears in room. If I didn’t know better I would say that the podiums were made by Avantgarde specifically for this speaker. I know, this is all fine and dandy but how do they sound? Frankly, it was with some trepidation that I cued up the first track. I was really concerned that the sonics would be just marginally changed, maybe not better at all, just different and other such negativity. After all, things have been pretty darned satisfactory up til this point and it didn’t feel like there was that much more to improve upon. Yet, literally, within 5 seconds I knew they would be taking up permanent residency. Based on one listening session of about six hours listening to vinyl entirely (if interested you can look up my system here under my user name) here is what I can tell you about the podiums. Deployed as they are in my room they are absolute bass monsters. I just didn’t expect the increase in impact, upper bass/lower midrange power and presence and, most significantly to me, bass articulation. Even better, the increased articulation and detail unraveling continued right on up through the higher frequencies. There is more definition and clarity and, to borrow a term from the estimable Mr. Fremer, the presentation as a whole is better "organized". Overall, the sonic landscape has a greater sense of body, density, gravitas, meat on the bones...choose your descriptor. The overall heightened transparency also yielded slight gains in image solidarity and placement. This was subtle but, nonetheless, apparent. And nary the tiniest smidgeon of glare, tizz, iciness or sizzle anywhere up and down the scale. All this from a metal plate and some springs, mind you. These are my initial impressions after one session and I’m sure that in due time I will take further measure of the contributions of these devices and will dutifully report my findings. Several have asked for my comments early on so I wanted to offer up something to get the ball rolling. I wonder what those fractal speaker cables sound like😁 |
