Townshend Pods under TT Don’t Do

Same effect as sitting on a waterbed! Remember those? The best base for a TT is a rigid platform. Either light or heavy mass! I have my Ariston RD11 on a 18" x 20" pane of 1/16" glass supported by four 1" hardwood cubes.

Yeah well I figured I'd try it and fail. When planning the plinth I didn't have the footfalls, then had to move house and now I do. I can definitely attest to DJ turntables "waterbed" floating in properly built NYC clubs and that really helping with vibration control. Maybe the heavy mass will be enough anyway, I've no shortage of that.

@jasonbourne52,

Not at all.

Max Townshend's original Seismic product (the Seismic Sink) was an inner tube (or two, or three, depending on load rating) between two metal plates. For years I used them, only replacing most of them when Max introduced the Seismic Pod. I had tried the Mod Squad Tiptoe in the 80's, and was amused that there were people who considered it (and it's imitations) an isolation device, rather than a coupler, which it of course is. As are spikes.

The first time I heard of the idea of inner tube isolation was in the Frank Van Alstine newsletter, published in the mid-80's on. He suggested the inner tube be placed between two cement paving stones, or their equivalent. The Seismic Sink used damped steel plates, the top plate folded over to hide the inner tube. Bright Star made a similar product, using painted MDF in place of the Sink's steel.

A single inner tube doesn't take into consideration the mass distribution of a component (for instance the transformer side of a power amp), so can be somewhat unstable. The Seismic Pod may be used in combinations of different load ratings, to balance an uneven mass load. Very flexible.   

The biggest inner tube I ever used, the outside diameter was about 5 feet. Four or five of us laid on it and went down the Paradise Run at Mt Rainier like some kind of hovercraft. All of us beautifully isolated from the violently undulating snow berms down to but a few hertz. Yes the fundamental frequency was that low. And you wouldn’t think it, but in this case I am happy to report, with plenty of amplitude!