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.
128x128edgyhassle
@millercarbon
I understand and thank you. So now there are several considerations about the rack isolation. And what is most important. For me, it's my 2 turntables, and their tonearms and cartridges and my tube phono drive(which there is room for pods). I don't think my Vertere turntable motor drive that supplies the 33 and 45 rpm signal to the turntable motor needs additional isolation. Or at least expensive isolation? Maybe springs? The t.t.'s are up on top and have their own suspension systems. They may be ok...No room for anything with my Classe Processor unfortunately. Only an 1/8" or so.... For my DVD/CD player, only about 1.5" or so room. Currently with an air bladder platform with a leak undeneath. So not functional. Might as well remove it.

As far as the Nobsound's, I was only considering those for the Sub. If I only use the sub for home theater(or low volume bass add on for 2 channel), would the springs be satisfactory enough?My Mezzo's bass is really good. But maybe with proper isolation, the sub might be worth using fuller in 2 channel. I don't know. I never turn it up more than 5% or so.

Leverage will work(a dolly) under the accessible front corners and left rear corner pretty easily. Getting leverage to the right rear corner will be super tough. I wonder if I can get a car jack to fit. There's about 1.5" of space below the base bars....I only need to raise each corner about 3/4".

So the isolation corners will isolate my rack components from my speakers and maybe my sub. Fingers crossed that my turntables well designed suspension systems mitigate their own vibrations.

After the isolation corners, then it's a question of where to place Pods. Or maybe Nobsound springs? They are 1.49"(I cannot find information on how tall the Pods are) so they will just barely fit under my Marantz DVD/CD player. Are they worth putting under my Node 2i streamer box? Or Rowland center speaker mono amp? Or P.I. Audio UberBuss power conditioner? Or Dish network satellite box? Or my Rowland Model 12 monoblock amps?

I just pumped up the Townshend Seismic Sink that was under my Basis turntable and it has not sunk. Yet. Let's see tomorrow.

My system currently sounds so great now.

With isolation- I feel hot and cold(can't explain).... Yeah down in my soul yeah(can't explain).

My review mentions something similar. A lot of familiar music has bits I was looking forward, expecting a certain sound, only to be underwhelmed. That could account for your cold feeling. Took a while to realize the expected sound was all added harmonic resonance and/or hardness from the old stuff. When every instrument sounds more like its natural character, sax is more clearly sax, guitar more clearly guitar, on and on, none of them sounds colored just clear, then you know it is good. That is probably your down in the soul part.

All of the things you are talking about will work great. It does little good to worry much about which will be better. I am a low-hanging fruit kind of guy. I would think more about which will be easier. The rack sounds really hard, turntables easier, and yes Pods will be better, turntable suspension notwithstanding. 

Your rack space is so tight you might want to do the rack in spite of the effort. You know what a house jack is? Screw jack? So you get a couple great big nuts, short length of threaded rod, make a custom screw jack sized just for this one task. Pretty clever, eh?😁
Leverage will work(a dolly) under the accessible front corners and left rear corner pretty easily. Getting leverage to the right rear corner will be super tough. I wonder if I can get a car jack to fit. There's about 1.5" of space below the base bars....I only need to raise each corner about 3/4".
Even if you don't have a trolley jack to lift it, I recall it was plenty heavy (I haven't scrolled back up to see) speaking of leverage, maybe you could use a simple bar and block with the help of a friend to lever it up, chock it, get your isolator under it and remove the chock?
Be sure and if you do use some lever bar with a block as a pivot point, use something soft not to scratch the underside of your pretty and expensive rack.

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@tvad 
Thanks for the air shim link! wow. That would be perfect as there is barely enough room even when the rack is slid out a bit for me to get back there. The rack itself is 300 pounds so I'll need to remove the 100 pound center speaker first. But lifting a corner might be easier and I just need to lift like 3/4" I'm psyched.
As far as my speakers, no room for podiums so I'll get the bars. I'll tilt the back forward, remove the spikes, and put one bar under and then tilt the speaker backward, remove the front spikes, and put the other bar under. This way I can keep the position the speakers are in now. But those sliders are so inexpensive I may get them just to have handy. 

@millercarbon
"I feel hot and cold(can't explain) yeah down to my soul yeah(can't explain) is lyrics from the Who's I Can't Explain! 

I am going to ask John at Townshend how tall his pods are as I only have 1.5" for certain components. But honestly, would the Nobsound springs give enough vibration control to individual components? Lets say 75% of what the Pods would do?

I don't know if I want to spend $1100+ on speaker bars for my sub.  Springs might have to do. 

Buying isolation platters for my turntables that already have suspension systems.... Gotta think that one over. 

Pods would raise the height of the tables. Had custom acrylic dustcovers made for both. They might not fit over all the way down with pods. And 4 pods on 4 pods seems unstable. 






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