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Has anyone had experiences good or bad with speaker isolation or isolation in general ?

hi
i have been enjoying buying and listening to hifi for some 35 years now and have seen many items come and go.I have also been interested in the audio cable discussions and i agree that cables do make a difference how much of a difference is a very individual, and a system dependent situation. There has been nothing that has got me so excited and improved the sound of my system that has ever made me want to really share it with fellow audiophiles until i started to try various isolation products.With so much choice from affordable to very expensive i found the hole subject very confusing and i did not know where to start. After trying lots of various products all shapes and sizes with very different results i decided to read reviews which is something i do not usually do to get some advise.I read a review on the Townshend audio seismic podiums they are isolation platforms that go under your speakers .This company is very famous for isolation ideas and have been around some 50 years based here in the UK they also had a factory in the USA back in the 1980s. I contacted Nick at Emporium hifi  and he agreed to install a pair for me so i could have a listen. My speakers are sound-lab dynastats which i use in quite a small room but with the adjustments give a nice sound. After installing the podiums we both sat down with jaws hitting the floor these podium things completely transformed the sound of my system to absolute perfection. After all this time trying various products under my equipment i have now isolated my speakers and the sound quality is exactly what i believe we all are chasing, my sound-labs are now transparent no more bass problems i have just got one big 3D sound stage the dynastats are now very open with deeper much better bass everything is perfect. I now believe isolating your loudspeakers is the first port of call i was so impressed by the Townshend audio seismic products i now sell them as i have never come across anything that has given my system such a great upgrade , the sound is the same as before but now its just so much better its playing deeper bass but tighter much more resolution and no boom , the midrange is so much more human sounding realistic and spacious with the top end so refined and perfect , is anyone using podiums and had the same experiences i would love to hear from you thank you john 
mains
kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
Hifiman5: "Lastly, you state "A floating floor is a less than ideal platform upon which to place a stereo. " Now that floating floor must be quite something.  Maglev technology on a grandiose scale perhaps?  That's something I would love to behold. And who says there are LAWS of physics?"

A "floating floor" is the term used to describe an isolated floor. A floating floor is a requirement of THX certification. The floor at GM's metrology lab is a floating floor. Floating floors can be designed to fulfill many different uses, including acoustic demands. In fact, my kitchen, dining room, and hall feature floating floors on concrete, but I'd never plant speakers on it. They're nice because they don't get cold on the slab. 

As for resonance passing upward through the spikes, I'd like to see some actual accelerometer or laser interferometer measurements. I'd be stunned if the shadow of refection could be demonstrated to be acoustically significant. The speed of sound through a steel rod is exceptionally fast. 

Sorry, but I'm just not seeing the technical merits to what folks here are trying and it runs counter to the intended implementation of the Focals I'm playing. Beyond that, I've never had positive results arise from loosely coupling or deliberately decoupling speakers from a floor. When I spiked my ancient ESS speakers to the wood floor in my old place it was the imaging equivalent of putting my contacts in to see. Even my little Jawbone Jambox sounds vastly better when that thing is clamped to a rock solid surface instead of being allowed to vibrate freely. I don't think I'll ever be a believer in this religion. 
mains OP
170 posts
 
hi,
Please check the Max Townshend video spikes v Podiums on you tube, the Podiums are somewhat of a new product maybe a couple years old now, here in the UK they have received great reviews, the 3 top sounding rooms at the Bristol in the UK all had there speakers on Podiums,
If you try them under your speakers and your system sounds so much better then they have done the same to your system as they did to mine, its difficult to comment on something unless you have tried it, i believe there are other ways to break the acoustic connection between your speakers from the floor/room,but I found the Townshend Seismic Podiums achieved this for me, the newest edition to the Townshend Seismic Isolation technology is the Piano bars, used by owners of Grand pianos, they are also receiving great reviews and magnificent customer feedback, please check out the Townshend Audio website in the UK many vary famous musicians have had them installed.

hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5
1,611 posts
 
@kosst_amojan
Religion plays no role in my preference for decoupling. It works in my environment and experience. I adhere to no dogma about it, I just think it is something people should experiment with and let their ears be the judge. My guess is that the creator cares little for my audiophile preferences.

Might "science" be your religion?
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
If decoupling, and I mean competent decoupling, didn't work and and didn't keep most seismic type vibrations from getting up into the electronics then LIGO - long distance interferometer gravity wave observation - would not have been successful last year in detecting and observing gravity waves. LIGO would have done so a long time ago if it could but the sensitivity of the experiment required development of exceptionally robust isolation systems.

As has been pointed out already, resonant frequencies of cartridge, tonearm, platter of turntables as well as the resonant frequency of the laser assembly (spring mounted!) of CD players and the Fr of all the various electronic elements in components require relatively robust isolation devices, too. That's precisely why audiophiles discover that more expensive iso systems are superior to the usual DIY inner tubes and tennis balls. It's because their resonant frequencies are much lower and therefore more effective at 10-12Hz or wherever.
kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
@hifiman5  Buddhism is my religion. The Buddha said to try things for yourself and determine their worth and take nobody's word for anything. I simply haven't been able to demonstrate to myself that decoupling speakers produces benefits on any scale. I'm a bit curious what people are hearing because what people here are trying to accomplish is exactly the opposite of what I've tried to do, and what I thought was conventional wisdom.

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