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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
toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone
840 posts
 
Question: how unstable are some of these things making your speakers? We have a playroom in our basement and kids have to walk right past my right speaker to get to the playroom. I'd love to experiment with these things, but I can't risk a child bumping into or leaning on the speaker and knocking it over. It would crush my gear rack..
folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
@toddverrone how unstable? It depends what your speakers weigh. Mine weigh nearly 300lb so it's going to take some force to move them even though they freely wobble a couple of cm from side to side on the spring base. Actually as they're no longer spiked but instead are fully supported across the entire base I suspect it would take more force to knock them over the when they were on spikes. Anyway if your kids cannot knock your spiked speakers over I'd suspect they're unlikely to be able to knock over ones on a seismic podium
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
It’s really a center of gravity issue. A very heavy subwoofer with a relatively low center of gravity would be more stable on a springy type stand or feet than tall speakers that weigh the same but with higher center of gravity, all things being equal. Employing a wide arrangement of the springs by placing them under a board the dimensions of which are much greater than the footprint of the speaker goes a long way to bolster lateral support and might be the only way to do it sometimes.
toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone
840 posts
 
Alas, I can't really get much more width than how wide my speakers already are.. again because of the need to keep space for the playroom entrance. Right now my speakers are spiked through carpet into a concrete slab...

Anyone have any idea if springs and/or roller bearings would be an improvement over spikes on a concrete slab?
jhills
616 posts
 
toddverrone, it's my professional opinion that coupling using spikes, etc would be best on a concrete slab unless there is an extreme source of outside vibration such as heavy road traffic.
I was, for many years, a Field Analyst and multi-plain balance specialist for The Westinghouse Corp. The same principals apply, weather it pertains to high rpm machinery such as turbines or large rotating machinery such as scrubber fans or to audio performance. Frequencies and Cycles are directly related and impact their connective apparatus and structures the same. Aside from out of balance, the major cause of failure or disruption of rotating machinery or any of it's coupled apparatus or connective structure, are resonant frequencies and their harmonics; looseness or wear anywhere in the chain and outside interference. All the same applies with audio and the solutions also the same. Dampening adds mass and can reduce vibration by eliminating the problem of resonance. If there is looseness anywhere in the system including a flimsy cabinet, shaky floors or loose parts it becomes a problem causing vibration and serves to amplify outside sources of vibration. It has been my experience that, when everything else has been addressed, if the floors are very solid and the cabinet/rack and stands are solid - coupling using spikes, etc is very affective. If the floor, cabinets and other structures are not solid or there are outside sources of vibration, then isolation devices would probably work best. Instead of blindly spending allot of money experimenting with what worked in someone else's system, evaluate your own system and structures.
Good luck,
Jim
 
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