Boy, Oh Boy! Towshend!


OK, I have elevated my belief in isolation.  For the first time I feel I have entered the Hi Fidelity zone.  About 3 weeks ago I purchased the Townshend Speaker Bars.  My muddy bass cleaned up, I have better imaging, clarity, precision, speed and focus.  My buddy who is not not into HiFi but has followed my adventures, was blown away.  He said, "OK, now I get why you do this."  Best money spent! 

Denon DL160 (re-tipped by Soundsmith) > Thorens TD150 > McIntosh 8900 > ALK Extreme Slope in Klipsch Belles.  Just another step in the long journey, but a Giant Step for my enjoyment.  My system took a large enough step forward that I am drawn into listening to all of my 2K plus albums again just to enjoy them in a new way. Great people to deal with too, even with Brexit messing things up.  Highly recommended!
I am not associated with them in any way, just want to pass it on.
edgyhassle
@rixthetrick

Thanks again...My center channel speaker is only playing during 5.1. In 2 channel, it is silent. And yes, it must stay there.

The largest bass driver is the Sub with the spikes in the left corner. It has a corner bass trap behind it. Plus there are 3 GIK Acoustic panels above the couch on the back wall.

The stand is covered in an inert, matte finish. The turntables sit on MDF wood plates decoupled, but epoxied, to the rack.

The rug, I don't know. I was advised to put one there vs. having bare tile. There are no vibrations in the room, which is 36' long, 12' deep and 24' high. The acoustics in the room were pretty good even before I added the GIK panels.

The glass table, I'm not sure, but you might be on to something there. I keep stuff on the table to diffuse but it still is glass.

I guess I circle back to my original question. Will Townshend isolation products make an appreciable and remarkeable enough difference to justify its cost. Esp the ones under my 140 pound speakers.

Putting Nobsound springs under the Basis t.t. pods and Vertere MG-1's feet, that would be an inexpensive try but I'd be a bit afraid of instability, esp. under the very expensive Vertere MG-1.
But I am curious vs an expensive isolation platform.





@vinylshadow - Contact Townshend and ask them about their return policy, ask them about results on your particular model speakers, by customers.

I suspect the only people who could honestly answer that with any authority are those who have actually done it with your model speakers, which I have not.

Townshend Audio make a well engineered product, by most accounts many speakers like yours have had significant and impressive step up in performance. I cannot tell you with absolute certainty, or express experience with your speakers, to do so would be conjecture. And I don't know what your expectations are for that matter.
I'm not trying to be obtuse or combative, just trying to be forthright.

If it is in your budget, based upon my experience with isolation, it is a worthy investment with high reward to risk ratio.
Placing yourself in a situation where you can back out of the experiment with nominal risk (return policy in place) for your due diligence, would be advisable.

At an educated guess, I think trying the two main speakers, with the subs off just to determine if it's going to be a winner, will have you very impressed. Again, at a guess.


@rixthetrick
Thanks. Good idea. I also emailed my contact at Focal and asked for his thoughts.
As a curiousity, I downloaded the Hamm Seismograph app from Google Play. Figured I'd try what they did at Townshend. One think about those videos, I'm worried that if someone accidentally bumped hard into my speakers, they'd tip over!

Is turning a subs volume all the way to 0 the same as turning the sub off? Or by leaving the sub on even with no volume, its crossovers get in the way of the floor stading speakers crossovers? Or maybe the crossovers are set in stone in my Classe processor....

In any case, just goofing around. I'll do some more legwork. I appreciate your feedback.
I'd be very surprised if Focal had used Townshend products, and be even more surprised if in Europe where they make and sell a lot of Focals, that someone hadn't purchased the exact model of your speakers and used Townshend under them.

I would email Townshend Audio and ask them if they have any feedback from customers who use your speakers.

Depending on your subs, disconnecting the RCA connections, or power will suffice. It's just to stop them vibrating the room and undoing all the good isolation Townshend will provide. Then put the subs on isolation if it works.

Speaker bars where you already bolt the feet under your Focals, that's what I'd do first. No modifications to the speakers, and stability for safety of the speakers, should be a great way to start off.
vinylshadow, There will be no stability problems with Townshend. The best by far but also most expensive will be to put the turntables on Townshend Platforms or Podiums. Either one will be a superb base for a turntable. But you will probably be able to get almost as great performance for a lot less money from 4 Pods. 

The way the Pods work the top part is threaded into a plate on the top of the spring. The plate is very secure and so anything treaded into it will move and be isolated but will also be stable. It will move freely but not fall over. This will be the killer performance value way to go. Podiums or Platforms will be even better but maybe not quite as good a bargain. Unless of course you value the looks of one over the other, looks do count for something you know.

The stone bargain in cheap is Nobsound. These should also be stable enough but there is a simple solution in case you are still worried. Simply take some nice looking wood, acrylic or Corian and make your own bases for the springs. The springs fit perfectly into 1/4" holes. Do a test to see how many springs you will need, then cut your pieces to 3" or so diameter to be however stable you want, drill em and put together. 

I have done this to make extra ones from my leftover springs. Works great. These are not as good as Townshend. Not even close. But incredibly good for the money, so good there is nothing to recommend above Nobsound until you make the big jump in both price and performance to Townshend.

The main drawback to Nobsound is the lack of damping. Townshend has this dialed in. So with Nobsound a lot more depends on how willing and good you are at tweaking, experimenting, trial and error. Townshend are set and forget, once level you are done.
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