Townshend Seismic Podiums

Speaker cabinet vibrations are complex and varied. Rick makes a good case for the cabinet vibrating like a balloon. As drivers pressurize the cabinet, air pressure causes the walls to flex outwards like a balloon or tire being filled with air. Then it rapidly depressurizes. These cycles cause the whole speaker, not just the baffle, not just the sides, but the whole thing to be expanding and contracting. This is in addition to the obvious forward and back motion caused by the drivers.   

This may be one of the reasons cones and spikes work better than sitting directly on the floor. Cones and spikes go in corners, which are a lot more reinforced than the middle of the bottom, which is vibrating up and down, expanding and contracting. 

None of this vibrating is anywhere near as simple as that. What we think of as back and forth, expanding/contracting or whatever, if we look closer there are waves riding upon waves. This is a lot of what Wilson and others are trying to address with their composite honeycombed unobtanium high tech materials. 

Pods and Podiums simply allow all this complex motion to occur without exciting adjacent materials such as the floor. They work by allowing the speaker cabinet to dissipate its own energy without feeding into the floor, and equally important, without the floor energy feeding into the speaker. 

However we explain it, the results speak for themselves.

Addendum: One thing I neglected to mention:

The matter of "seismic" level vibration isolation is of significance only after system transparency and resolution has achieved a "certain" level of quality. Geez, I’m reminding myself of Chris Farley’s "motivational speaker" character on SNL ;-) .

Good lord. You want them locked to the ground. Any speaker movement will smear your sound. Serious spikes, steel straps and turnbuckles may be overkill.

Dead right @pengun.  Simple really.  All said in two short, simple sentences.  Bravo.  To the rest: boing boing.

"...if your interest is piqued, try a set of Pods on your most sensitive component."

But PLEEEZE fit them carefully.