Townshend Springs under Speakers

I owned for a while the Gaia 1’s and I was impressed compared to the spikes that came with my Focal Sopra’s. Focal actually uses the Gaia’s at audio shows with there speakers.

But because of mc review I went ahead and ordered a pair of the Townshend Podiums. And wow! What an improvement! Everything we want out of our speakers improved. That is; bass, spaciousness, mids, highs depth, etc.
I now use the Gaia's under my JL subs.

ozzy

MC I think questforhifi was suggesting that speakers with more rigid cabinets may benefit more from the podiums (i.e. not that rigid connection to the floor is better).

Ahh, okay. In that case then the answer is no. lol! We had some here, to be more rigid I think they would have to be solid tungsten carbide or something like that. Compared to my Moabs made of ordinary braced MDF the Podiums were about the same either way. Also these particular speakers, while the cabinets were a lot smaller and a lot more rigid and highly damped, they were so dense that together with their stands they were very close in terms of mass and center of gravity to the Moabs.    

I can see where it would make sense to think a rigid cabinet would benefit more. A speaker that is truly dead, almost all the smearing is ringing. Podiums eliminate ringing, there is almost nothing left. Should be bigger improvement than a less rigid speaker that still has a lot of residual cabinet vibration.   

Makes sense. In practice though it seems, if anything, to go the other way. But full disclosure, I have only a very few examples to go by.  

I now use the Gaia's under my JL subs.

Springs will work just as well under your subs as under your main speakers.

Makes sense. In practice though it seems, if anything, to go the other way. But full disclosure, I have only a very few examples to go by.

Certainly there have been Wilson and Magico owners that have found big improvements over spike coupling.
I think the take away is that both conventional MDF cabinets and those made from rigid exotic naterials benefit.

Same experience here with Gaia’s. I liked them better than spikes, but the Townshend Pods were a substantial level beyond the Gaia’s. Townshend helped my speakers disappear and gave my system a wonderful sense of ease that the Gaia’s could not match.