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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
rzado
175 posts
 
Hi mains,

I have found significant improvements by adding isolation to my last two pairs of speakers.  Specifically, on a lark, I put Finite Elemente Pagode Master Reference stands under my Avalon Eidolons (with spikes coupling the speakers to the stands to give enough breathing room for the woofer port), and found significant - and unexpected - improvements in detail resolution, reduced distortion, expansiveness of images within the soundstage, and tightening of the midbass down.  I am now using Tidal Contriva Diacera SEs, which require the use of isolation footers - I replaced the default footers with Stillpoint Ultra 5's, and again was very impressed with the benefits of the upgrade.

I have used Townsend's isolation products in the past, and was generally happy with them - I still have a Seismic Sink Stand in storage with which I should do something.  However, for component (as opposed to speaker) isolation, I found other products to provide superior performance (particularly lab grade isolation tables).
kavakat1
110 posts
 
Toddverone

thanks for the explanation. 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Isolation generally refers to mass-on-spring techniques but can also be magnetic levitation, filament suspensions, roller bearing assemblies, negative stiffness, I.e., any technique that attempts to decouple the component from the room structure and the seismic I.e., low frequency vibrations that would otherwise be transferred to the component. Since there are six, count em, directions of motion for seismic vibrations, including three rotational directions, cleverness of design of the isolating system has its rewards. Even a thick granite slab has some benefit for isolation inasmuch as its inherent stiffness resists rotational forces. The Townshend Seismic Sink was one of the very first audiophile isolation devices, the Big Bang as it were was the Vibraplane Stand circa 1996 and Shannon Dickson’s landmark article in Stereophile magazine 1996 on the dodgy subject of vibration isolation, "Bad Vibes."
mains OP
170 posts
 
geoffkait/passionforaudio
hi
i mention this company because in the UK they are easy to audition and are the best i have tried , stillpoints, nordost clearlight audio and symposium are other ideas i have tried but they did not do enough in my system to warrant buying them and the prices were very high , buying products blind from the USA is something i have thought about doing but as everything is so system dependent its to risky also we have to pay import duty and taxes, BFly audio are also being highly praised in the UK they are from Germany but there design includes sorbathane which i have had not very good results with, i did try the pro base two under my cd player which was very good but it changed the mid bass to much in my system i felt a loss of resolution so i returned back to importer.
melbguy1
1,438 posts
 
I previously owned a pair of Marten Coltrane Alto speakers which came with a stainless steel stand with integrated Black Diamond carbon cones & BD carbon cups. That combination was effective.

My current Magico S5 Mk2’s have outriggers and standard factory stainless spikes & cups, however Magico now offer optional ’S Pods’ which have integrated cones with a constrained layer design using a copper substrate & stainless spike which threads through the cone, thus maintaining Magico’s philosophy of coupling the speaker to the floor. That’s why Stillpoints have had mixed results on Magico speakers as Stillpoints as they’re designed to de-couple the isolated component from the floor.
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