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
@toddverrone the classic mass on spring approaches (or active variants on same) are totally applicable to audio. Every component in your system down to the cables reacts to vibration and finding ways to reduce these vibrations will reduce the noise level in your system
Stands, footers, cable elevators they are all tools to deal with these problems and the effects are very audible. As @geoffkait points out the entry costs don't have to be large if you start off with some appropriate springs so why not give it a try and see what you find out?
Oh, I'm talking specifically about the incredible methods they use at LIGO. I've already got my speakers on spikes, put dynamat in my cabinets, have my turntable on a spring suspended maple platform, heavy tiles on my class d monoblocks and my tube pre on an inner tube suspended platform, soon to be springs.
Todd---a set of the Ingress Engineering Level 2 roller bearings are only $120 plus shipping, the higher performance Level 3 $175. A set of them plus springs should be all you need. The springs provide vertical isolation, the roller bearings isolation in all other planes. Each does what the other doesn't.
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