2. speakers
  3. 182136-139155

Under my tower speakers -- Isoacoustics Gaia, other options?

I have Ascend towers (45lbs each) on a concrete floor covered in thin wall to wall with an area rug on top of that. I am looking into different footers for my speakers and am curious what people with towers on concrete have tried and liked.

To my mind, something as expensive as Townshend platforms do not seem worth it, as they'd cost about a third of the price of the speakers themselves.

If you've tried Gaia III isolators or other kinds of feet for your speakers, especially on concrete floors, I'm curious to hear your observations. Thanks.

128x128hilde45
Post removed 
Post removed 
tonywinga's avatar
tonywinga
844 posts
 

https://imgur.com/MsCuC2k

 

hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
4,974 posts
 

@tonywinga 

Thanks for your reference to the video and your own DIY account. Very interesting. I watched a Townshend video and there are some more and less convincing elements to it. The vibration dampening is impressive. However, a couple of things stood out to me.

 

First, I don't usually walk around my room while listening, and no one else does, either. So that "solution" addresses a non-existent problem.

Second, while the earth's seismic activity is an interesting factor, isn't the person in their chair (and the air in the room) also vibrating, and at the same rate? In other words, if I was to dampen the earth's seismic vibration on my speakers -- but I am still not isolated in a similar way -- wouldn't I be more out of sync with my speakers as a result? It seems like an angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin issue, anyway.

prof
3,473 posts
 

Out of curiosity I sprang for the IsoAcoustic Gaias for my speakers to compare them to my own isolation platforms.  The Gaias do not completely isolate the speakers like my spring platforms but overall I thought the speakers sounded better with the Gaias.  The accelerometer showed that the Gaia still isolates the speakers- just not as completely as my spring platforms.

That was my finding too, in my set up with my Thiel speakers on my wood floors (a rug overlaying the floor).

I use Townshend Seismic Isolation Pods under my turntable platform and they totally decouple from floor borne vibrations.

I tried the Townshend Seismic Speaker Bars under my speakers and they decoupled them very well, a bit 'too well' in that I felt I lost a bit of "room feel" for the music.  

The Gaias I'm now using under the speakers split the difference: they isolate enough to get some gains in bass tightness and the speakers sounding more precise and "disappearing" but not totally at the expense of making the sound weightless.

I'm not 100% sure I'm keeping the Gaias under my speakers, I may yet end up preferring the speakers back on the floor, but for now they are staying.

 

 

More to discover