Boy, Oh Boy! Towshend!

@arthur1260I agree its best to secure the speakers and stand if using them with the Townshend podiums, bars or pods.  It is pretty crazy watching my 125 lb 20"x30" Belles float.  When I touch them they move like a suspended turntable.  It would make me nervous if they were on stands.  Definitely want to secure them.

The reason for going for bars over podiums was due to the size of my speakers they would have necessitated a custom built podium, which they will do, but out of my budget.  Picked up the bars for much less and am very happy.  They told me that the advantage of the podium over bars was that the isolation was spread out over a larger area.

@edgyhassle - I suspect (it is a guess, I will admit) that the bars do such a significantly effective job with your heavy speakers, that the small increase in performance the podiums may represent would not represent the bang for buck you have made. I think it was a prudent choice, one for which you are not suffering at all. And being able to secure the bars to the body of your enclosure (did you use screws?) would certainly give peace of mind.

It is curious to move such a heavy object with a small gesture from just the pinky finger, and for those who haven't experienced it.... They do settle down to equilibrium, and when music is playing literally appear totally motionless.

@arthur1260

FWIW, I did not have a positive experience with the Podiums and my Harbeth 30.1 on TonTräger stands. I believe that there were two reasons, the first being that the 30.1 have limitations in terms of bass reproduction, and the reduction, slight as it may be, due to the Podiums, was too much, to my ears.

The second relates to the stands themselves, and likely to any stands that are used. The Podiums are, of course, designed to decouple the speakers from the floor, but when speakers are placed on stands, there will be some vibration between them. So even if the Podiums have their intended effect, they obviously can't prevent interaction between the speaker and the stand. I do not know to what degree that latter issue is a problem, as the reduction in bass was enough for me to sell the Podiums on. 

To be clear, they are very well made, and based on the testimonials, they seem to perform well when used with (certain) floor standing speakers. But I do have some doubts about their benefits with stand-mounted speakers for the reasons mentioned, and would suggest proceeding with caution.

The Podiums are, of course, designed to decouple the speakers from the floor, but when speakers are placed on stands, there will be some vibration between them. So even if the Podiums have their intended effect, they obviously can’t prevent interaction between the speaker and the stand.

Yes, you’re right. It’s a consideration I have contemplated myself actually.
Laminating a softer material to them can dampen the ringing and also move resonant frequencies outside important frequencies.

@arthur1260 whipsaw has brought up an important point, and I’m likely to try something like https://www.secondskinaudio.com/sound-blocking/luxury-liner-pro and wrap it around the uprights, secured with tape as a proof of concept, before trying something more permanent.
I’d prefer https://www.secondskinaudio.com/acoustics/mega-zorbe-pro
however the white isn’t going to look good for me. Maybe both?

Another approach was to use a corner foam bass trap and cut out for the front leg of the stands and sit it in there to help clean up imaging, as back pressure moving around the stand mount’s bass driver will be reflected from the front edge of the stand closest to the speaker.

To mitigate the seeming loss of bass, because it won’t be transferred through the substrate, using a TMD on top of your speaker, will tighten up the bass, the bass will be punchier and have more speed.
It will require tuning the mass, and playing with the absorber material, however even without precision, benefits for modest cost and time will yield good results.
http://www.audiopolitan.com/blog/eti-amg-toppers-review/

@audioguy85 - I'll be checking out atabites, I've only used ilmenite also with good results. Cheers.