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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
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Weber’s bar was a very large aluminum bar with a large number of piezoelectric detectors attached to the bar allow for six degrees of isolation as well as the ability to determine the direction from whence the gravity waves emanated. Interesting that a gravity wave the amplitude of which is only the diameter of an atomic nucleus was thought by Weber to be able to bend an aluminum bar 6 feet by 3 feet in dimension, no? If there had been more advanced isolation techniques in the 60s his bar would've probably worked.

Wiki
A Weber bar is a device used in the detection of gravitational waves first devised and constructed by physicist Joseph Weber at the University of Maryland. The device consisted of multiple aluminium cylinders, 2 meters in length and 1 meter in diameter, antennae for detecting gravitational waves.[1]

Around 1968, Weber collected what he concluded to be "good evidence"[1] of the theorized phenomenon. However, his experiments were duplicated many times, always with a null result.

Such experiments conducted by Joseph Weber were very controversial, and his positive results with the apparatus, in particular his claim to have detected gravitational waves from SN1987A in 1987, were widely discredited. Criticisms of the study have focused on Weber’s data analysis and his incomplete definitions of what strength vibration would signify a passing gravitational wave.

Weber’s first "Gravitational Wave Antenna" was on display in the Smithsonian Institution as part of "Einstein: a Centenary Exhibit" from March 1979 to March 1980.[2] A second is on display at the LIGO Hanford Observatory.[3]

cheerios

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hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5
1,832 posts
 
@kosst_amojan  Using spikes is not a one directional vibration reducing tool.  Just as vibrations go down the spike to the floor underneath, they come right back up again.  What's that getting you?  Your post also states that the decoupled speaker is "floating".  In my particular case, my stereo room is carpet+pad over concrete slab.  My speaker spikes are resting in a Herbie's Audio Lab cone/spike decoupling gliders, which settle into the carpet and pad quite nicely due to the weight of the speakers themselves.  There is no "floating" happening.  Regardless, the proof in this hobby is always in the listening.  The improved clarity using this decoupling method is immediate and consistent.  The comparison between coupling and decoupling yields results constantly favoring the decoupling.  

After realizing this improvement I proceeded to decouple both subwoofers using a larger decoupling device sourced from Herbie. Now all of the vibrations of the speakers and subs are not being transmitted into the component rack causing them to vibrate right along with the music.

If there is one lesson I've learned in all these many years, it is that vibration and resonance are the enemy of your stereo components.  This would help account for the considerable money audiophiles spend on their racks and component vibration/resonance damping tweaks. 

Lastly, you state "A floating floor is a less than ideal platform upon which to place a stereo. " Now that floating floor must be quite something.  Maglev technology on a grandiose scale perhaps?  That's something I would love to behold. And who says there are LAWS of physics?
mains OP
170 posts
 
For the believers that spiking your loudspeakers is best for performance please check the Max Townshend you tube video spikes v pods/podiums, you will without doubt decide to ditch them spikes, as been pointed out many times,
the benefits of breaking the acoustic connection between speaker and floor/room is something everybody should experience,
if you are interested in gaining better sound quality from your system isolation is a great place to start,
i found placing my speakers on the Townshend Audio Seismic Podiums gave me the biggest upgrade in sound quality i have ever experienced,
i have purchased Seismic Isolation Platforms for my electronics to increase the performance to a higher level,
I am now experimenting with Shun Mook mpingo discs and enjoying the results that they bring,
But i believe the first place to start with any form of isolation is with the speakers and decoupling or breaking the acoustic connection between speaker and floor/room is the best answer from my own experience.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Funny you should say that. Because if you had isolated your electronics FIRST rather than the speakers, isolating the speakers would not have provided much of an improvement. Why? Because the *lowest frequency* produced by the speaker cabinets that could be transmitted via the floor to the electronics is above where the effectiveness of isolation for the iso stands under the electronics is achieves 99%. AND because you are isolating the electronics from floor borne seismic vibrations, you know, the ones with frequencies way below whatever the speaker is producing.

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