I'm sure glad that Townshend vibration isolation products are OK 'cause I just bought their whole product line for my entire system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cI6KhH-x7w |
Please read the review below from Positive Feedback: Attack of the PODs! No,
they are not from Mars! They are from London: Designed, constructed,
and shipped from London, England by the brilliant Max Townshend to
American audiophiles like us, for the best replacement of the air-filled
bladder sinks of old. The PODs isolate your gear like it was suspended
in outer space. They allow both tube and solid-state gear to bloom in
extraordinary ways. At $675 for a set of 4 Seismic Pods, tailored in
weight to your specific piece weighing from 4-500 pounds, you will
achieve resonance control you only dreamed of in the past! You can
adjust the level as well! The Pods are a sonic miracle, and the best
footers I know of in the here-and-now for maximizing the sound of
valuable audio gear. The biggest improvement I heard was with phono, specifically the E.A.R. 324 Solid State Phono Stage. I have tried numerous expensive tweaks under this mainly transformer coupled unit to enhance its sound, with only negative effect. With the Pods, it blooms and breathes like protoplasm itself has been infused into the unit. If you own a 324 and are reading this review, run, do not walk, to your nearest Townshend dealer and buy a set of Type A Seismic Pods!! You will achieve nirvana, and then some. The Seismic Pods come in individual weight capacities of as little as 1-2 pounds per Pod, to as much as 64-140 pounds per Pod, in boxes of 4 Pods. Use 3 or 4 Pods anywhere under your gear... it is not critical at all. You just want the gear level and the Pods depressed about 30-70% of travel. This is easy to achieve. It took me seconds to do under each piece of gear I tried. The Seismic Pods are more neutral than the bladder sinks of old, with less darkness and richness injected into the sound. The Seismic Pods sound like nothing at all! You may need to tweak your cables or tube-roll a bit, but it is worth the adventure. An entire layer of grunge is removed with the Seismic Pods, as easily as opening a cardboard box. The build quality is first-rate, and they look sharp under anything silver or black. Each Pod even has soft ends to prevent scratching of the gear or table. From the Townshend Website:
I agree wholeheartedly with these claims from Townshend, and find that they understate dramatically the clarity the Pods bring to the mids and highs! The Pods are a combination of air- and spring-loaded valves that are most ingenious. They are the better of two worlds of thought and practice, and a break-through indeed in support engineering in my opinion. Summary Townshend Seismic Isolation Pods are now available and are a true masterpiece of isolation technology and tremendous enhancement of sonic neutrality preventing floor born feedback. I think that they are amazing. They are priced right, and perform at many times their cost! Fabulous under solid state and tube gear, they are the best individual support devices I have heard to date. Like all devices of this nature, your results may vary from mine, but I sincerely doubt it! A keeper! My highest BUY recommendation. MSRP $675 for set of 4 Seismic Pods Please note: Different spring types are required depending on the weight of the unit being isolated. Please see the table in the image gallery. You will need to divide the max weight of the unit being isolated by the number of pods you wish to use, to determine the 'Spring Type' required. For example, if your amplifier weighs 8KG and you intend to use four pods, then you will require Spring 'Type A' as each spring type A pod can handle between 2 to 4 KG of weight. Positioned under any piece of equipment, Seismic Isolation Pods will dramatically improve the sound by breaking the acoustic connection between the audio system and structural vibrations in the room. The Importance of Vibration Isolation Vibrations affect the reproduction of sound through hi-fi systems. Although many of these are small and may go largely unnoticed, vibrations have a negative impact on the quality of sound in virtually all hi-fi components. Turntables are highly sensitive to vibration, which raises the noise floor, degrading the sound not to mention stylus jump due to footfall. With silver-disc players, vibration affects the laser mechanism and the crystal oscillators introducing severe sound-degrading jitter. With tube or valve amplifiers vibration rattles the microphonic electrodes, especially the grids. Transistor amplifiers have microphonic components, including capacitors and connecting wires which move relative to one and another generating rogue voltages. All of these mechanisms will degrade the delicate audio signal. Computers, streamers and DACs are highly susceptible to mechanical noise as they all contain vibration sensitive crystal oscillators. Rigidly spike or cone mounted speakers transmit energy into the floor radiating vibration throughout the room and ultimately, through your rack and into your equipment. This seriously degrades performance as described above. Spike and cone mounted speakers cause the whole room structure to vibrate, often resulting in an unrealistic boomy bass whilst masking subtle detail. Further, this unwanted structural vibration can seriously irritate your neighbours. The Seismic Isolation Pod is a Seismic Load Cell™ with a circular foot attached to the lower end cap for stability. The length may be adjusted by turning the top end cap, which allows easy levelling of audio equipment placed on a set of Pods. There is a soft felt protective piece on the top and bottom faces of the end caps to allow for easy positioning and to prevent scratching. The secret is to fully float your whole Hi Fi System independently from the speakers and the floor. Townshend have devised a complete solution that to allow this to be done in an optimum way. Seismic Load Cell™ The key component is the Townshend Seismic Load Cell™. The Seismic Load Cell™ consists of a high quality alloy steel compression spring surrounded by a flexible synthetic rubber jacket with two end plates. Screw threads in each plate facilitate height adjustment and provide attachment points. A movement-sensitive, air-resistance damper rapidly dissipates low frequency oscillation caused by disturbing the suspended equipment. Seismic Load Cells™ are very ‘soft’ and allow free movement in all three dimensions; up/down, left/right and back/forth. This unique solution blocks all deleterious vibration from 3Hz upwards and from all directions. As the frequency increases, the isolation gets progressively greater, ensuring that virtually no vibration can pass from and to the suspended equipment. As each hi-fi component is isolated, the sound progressively improves. The singular Seismic Isolation Pod is available with seven different weight capacities, ranging progressively from 1kg up to 64kg. Depending on the weight of the device they can be used in sets of four, eight or more to isolate any piece of equipment, of any weight from any vibration. The simplest implementation is to utilise the Seismic Pods in sets of four. It is possible to utilise three pods, but this arrangement is difficult to level satisfactorily and the effect of the weight of the cabling may also complicate matters. |
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