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
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