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Do equipment stands have an impact on electronics?

Mechanical grounding or isolation from vibration has been a hot topic as of late.  Many know from experience that footers, stands and other vibration technologies impact things that vibrate a lot like speakers, subs or even listening rooms (my recent experience with an "Energy room").  The question is does it have merit when it comes to electronics and if so why?  Are there plausible explanations for their effect on electronics or suggested measurement paradigms to document such an effect?
agear
agear OP
1,362 posts
 
Remember that the SS stands takes days to settle so start with those and then flip to the Townsend. You are in for a surprise given all the aspersion cast upon their humble "cone" based technology. The walls of my listening room are engineered around their technology and it crushes everything else I have heard. It has a vibratory life of its own like a tuning fork. It is not some disembodied stereo which is what most systems I have heard at shows and in homes sound like.  Imagine an orchestra without the room in play. Just plain silly.

agear OP
1,362 posts
 
An interesting test would be spectrum analysis of speaker output with and without stands.  While the Youtube video of the Townsend product is visually intriguing, it tells us nothing about changes in frequency performance and output.  

Will the spring cause cancellation of the smaller motor forces of mids and highs?  With attenuation of high frequencies, I believe there will be a perceived increase in bass output due to a change in spectral balance.  

Like using a spring as an endpin on a violin, I would assume that there will be attenuation of dB output and thus my prediction is that the SS stands will be louder and more dynamic.  I could be wrong.  Look forward to hearing your findings.  Wish I could be there as well.
folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
Hmmm, there seems to be a lot of interest in this comparison and some speculation as to what the results might be. Personally I'm not in any rush to attempt this as the thought of trying to get 250lb of Magico Q3 up onto the Sistrum spikes scares the hell out of me. Spiking Q3s alone is easy as you install each spike at a time, and installing the Townshend podia was also easy as I could manhandle them onto the platforms and then slide across (these are used sans spikes) but the Star Sound platforms would need me to get them onto upward facing spikes, no easy task without help. Seems I will need one of you round to give me a hand

Anyway FWIW my speculation is that the impact would be similar to the effect I found moving from Magico spikes (themselves carefully designed and contoured in a similar manner to the SS spikes). Contrary to what others have speculated the apparent effect of moving to the Townshend podium from spikes was to lower the perceived bass -- mainly through the complete elimination of floor borne bass transmission. The reality is that the same level of air borne information was coming through but without the overhang and boom of the floor borne transmission the quality of the bass was much improved, and the sound of for example Heather Masse's double bass now mirrored that I experience live. Bear in mind also that the Q3 cabinets are "quite" solid and well designed they should have no problem dealing with and managing resonances contained within the cabinets. Also the speculation that the drivers are somehow pushing back on and moving (via the sprung base) a 250kg mass seems far fetched -- there's actually a discussion of specifically this point on the Townshend site if you care to look it up
 
My concern then with an ideal energy channel approach such as SS deliver is where is all of this energy going? Into my floor (wood on concrete) and then dumped into my listening chair? I hope not. I can see how a full SS room where energy is then channeled out of the room would work but simply dumping energy into an uncontrolled room/floor seems problematic

Anyway while this may be an interesting comparison it may be some time before I have the time (and the extra pair of hands) to try it out -- in the meantime I'm having too much fun with my system as is and not worrying about why it works 😉 -- my next addition is going to be a new cartridge but that's another story
agear OP
1,362 posts
 
Folk, it will be an undertaking that takes a second set of hands.  Having a concrete floor is a bonus and will not cause uncontrolled room rumble. I have had speakers of a similar weight on stands with wood floors and it did not cause issues.  

Magico's are indeed well engineered (compared to a lot of speakers) but should still benefit.  My previous speakers (Mosaic Illuminations) were absolute tanks and benefited from SS stands.  

It is interesting that the Townsend stands seem to decouple the speakers from the room which I guess can be an advantage depending on room nodes, etc
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Agear wrote,

"It is interesting that the Townsend stands seem to decouple the speakers from the room which I guess can be an advantage depending on room nodes, etc."

Huh? As Townshend points out on his web site, and as I’ve pointed out as well, isolating the speakers has two advantages:

(1) it prevents low frequency vibration from getting up into the speakers and affecting wiring and electronics, RCA connectors, etc. and (2) it prevents speaker cabinet vibrations from feeding back via the floor to system cabling on the floor, electronics, turntable, CD player, what have you. That’s also, by no coincidence, what my springs do for medium-size speakers and Subwoofers.

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