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Townshend Springs under Speakers

I was very interested, especially with all the talk.   I brought the subject up on the Vandersteen forum site, and Richard Vandersteen himself weighed in.   As with everything, nothing is perfect in all circumstances.  If the floor is wobbly, springs can work, if the speaker is on solid ground, 3 spikes is preferred.
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mikelavigne
2,199 posts
 
sure; the year was 1976, the speakers were Bose 901’s.

https://www.tonepublications.com/review/we-review-the-bose-901/

my daughter was 9 months old and crawling all over, so i hung them from the ceiling. hanging 901’s was not unheard of. 901’s had their attributes, and their shortcomings too. but for my lifestyle at that time it was perfect.

in the context of today’s better speakers, the 901’s sucked big time. but for me i was having the time of my life. wish i was "right there" again.


tsushima1
1,165 posts
 
Alarmingly well...  if a touch bass lite 
theaudiotweak
2,801 posts
 
from someone of like mind... Me..

12-18-2016 Springs add another boundary layer and introduce more interfering energy.  The motion artifacts of the springs and resulting inertia when driven by the voice coil of a speaker need to be overcome by the voice coil. If you suspend all speakers from either above or below you have the same retention of interfering energy. And so is your sound.  Tom
theaudiotweak
2,801 posts
 
And now this..from the Wayback machine..same as it ever was

11-02-2016 4:57pm
When energy is applied to soft spongy materials that are used in combinations with springs supporting a loudspeaker, everything supported remains in a state of continuous motion. By doing so, this negates the operational efficiency of a voice coil as the coil itself becomes subjected to this secondary flexing. Ultimately, the voice coil drives the entire speaker assembly and has to overcome the added inertia presented by the motion of the springs and soft materials upon which the cabinet rests. The constant motion and flexing with this type of isolation device manifests inefficiencies within the operational design of the voice coil. Tom. Star Sound Technologies


theaudiotweak
2,801 posts
 
said this many times before.

If you have a time aligned speaker and the cabinet is allowed to move then the cabinet motion will be at 1 or more frequencies greater than the motion of the tweeter. As that happens the speaker will never be in true and proper alignment...

In the 80s Polk Audio had a Time Aligned speaker and demonstrated with a Laser Interferometer that when this speaker was unsecured the tweeter was never in alignment with the woofer. I cannot find the printed ad..

Tom


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