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First impressions of the Isoacoustic Gaia 1’s

On my KEF Reference 5’s.

While I normally hear little to no change with “Tweaks”, I installed them Saturday evening and found immediate spatial differences. Just about every album sounded more open. I told my wife, who helped me install the Gaia’s,  that if I wasn’t wowed, I’d send them back.

The room has wall to wall carpet and pad on the floor and when  I first received the Reference 5’s, they sounded flat. I put small hardwood flooring samples under them and it helped a little.  I then put a small slab of granite under each of them and they became much nicer to listen to. I was quite surprised at the change. 
The Gaia 1’s are sitting on the granite as well and so far, I’m very happy. 

It’s only been a few days, but I’m pretty sure they are “hear” to stay.

Anyone else have similar experience’s with speaker. Isolation?

JD

128x128curiousjim
havocman
350 posts
 

bdp24, I talked with John at Townsend and he said that the pods are only for electronics not to be put under speakers because your speaker will topple and be unstable, and he said that you're the only one that has done that.

havocman
350 posts
 

curiousjim,

you can leave the plate on or off it's up to you but just make sure that you get the proper cells put on, you've got to take the weight of your speaker plus the weight of the podium to have the proper cells, if you get in touch with John at Townshend he'll help you

tcutter
108 posts
 

Have the 2 series under my W-B Vectors and the 1 series under my DBA.  Huge improvement with the 2, notable with the 1. Things just kind of locked in.

I would have liked to try the Townsend but was concerned that they would be difficult to move in my combined living/listening space.  The Gaias are attached to the speaker and merely require a slight tip to either side to place a towel under them and the speakers can then be easily slid. I think they can look a little clunky but they are certainly not ugly. Probably depends on the speaker.

curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim OP
4,765 posts
 

@bdp24 

“@curtousjim: No, the Townshend Podium does not screw into the holes of ANY loudspeaker or it's bottom plate. The Podium is just a metal plate with Pods bolted onto it. If you want to keep the Reference 5's bottom plate (I would), just install a set of Pods in place of stock spikes. You COULD remove the stock plate and set the now-baseless”
 

So are you saying I would need pods and the podiums?

That seems like major overkill to me.

JD

ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,491 posts
 

curiousjim,

The only reason I would remove your metal plate is because you said it has bumps on it from where the spikes are to go. That could be a problem with stability.

So, if it is easy to remove I would.

BTW, once the podiums are installed, it will probably scare you a bit as to how much they can wobble. One time I leaned against them while adjust some cabling and when they wobbled I thought they were going to tip so I let go causing me to loose balance, I fell to the floor and crushed a couple KT 120 tubes in my mono blocks on the way down. I’m not saying the podiums make them unstable, just be aware.

ozzy

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