As far as Townshend podiums go, for me their seismic platform was a remarkable improvement for my turntable. I was lucky to be able to talk to Max Townshend (RIP) who took the time to understand my application and send me the right tension pods in the platform. Because of the extremely light nature of my turntable, a Rega P8 at only 10 pounds, that platform was by far the best and easiest solution for me. Also, the fact that it was sitting on a credenza on top of a suspended wood floor about a crawl space makes for quite a lot of vibration. His platform actually caused foot falls because of the frequency and he was honest and said I can live with the foot falls and tread lightly, go back to inferior sound, or have nirvana by putting his platform on top of a wall shelf. I did that and it sounds like a turntable several levels above mine. Will Miller Carbon provide the same level of service? I think so, but he may set higher expectations than the modest Max Townshend and is prone to exaggerations, which by the way, I think he beleives. He always says everything matters, but he doesn't say some things matter very little and for some people, the SQ improvement is not noticeable. I know he mentioned he was retiring, but did @millercarbon retire form Audiogon? If so, how will he promote Townshend? Maybe he will try to sign up dealers?
When it came to my speakers, because of their tall, thin nature, I did not feel comfortable putting them on pods, or Townshend's other speaker solution because of a perceived instability in my mind, plus they are pretty expensive. I found a less expensive solid multicomponent platform solution that works well with wood flooring and kept the height of my tweeter exactly the same as the spikes the manufacturer provided. Once again the owner of that company, Symposium Acoustics, Peter, took the time to understand my application and was very low key about how he thought his Segue Platform would help. He also cut them to the exact size to provide equal or even more stability than what came with the speakers. They definitely sounded better, really cleaner and clearer after using the Segues, although the improvement was nowhere near that from Townshend's with my turntable. BTW, Peter said his solution would not work for my turntable without putting counterweights on my table, which would not work for me.
If found out about both companies from posters on Audiogon, and most dealers don't talk about this stuff because the profit pales in comparison to selling you a new box, and it takes more time to understand a system.
Also, you hear a lot about acoustic treatments, and was once again treated honestly by GIK acoustics, who told me not to bother with "half measures" (nod to Breaking Bad fans) as the things I was considering would not do much if anything to absorb the sound from bouncing off the walls, celing, and floor. My wife would never allow her den to become a stereo demo room.
