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Townshend Audio - Seismic Podiums

Chris Harris

Chris Harris

Active Member
TOWNSHEND SEISMIC PODIUMS.
Having completed some rather nice upgrades to my system over nearly a year in the form of new floor standing loudspeakers / Pre Amplifier with Mono Power Amplifiers I felt there was one part of the jigsaw missing as I was still relying on old school spikes.

Having a number of components and cabling from Townshend Audio the Podiums were the said items to basically finish things off in a logical order. Having seen and heard Seismic Podiums at Audio shows over the years and been impressed as far as you can be with hotel listening / demonstration conditions.

But to be perfectly honest having great faith in Max Townshend's designs in the past I arranged for a set of size one's to be ordered and delivered to fit on my Neat Acoustics Iota Xplorers. On arrival and unpacked the first noticeable thing was the highest quality of finish and the wonderful engineering design of the Podiums.

So after some careful setup I really did not expect the amount of improvement after the first few tracks, which I must state the Podiums are the most impressive of all the upgrades I have made. I'm now a fully committed disciple of the ground Borne vibration - spring decoupling system.

SO WHAT ARE THE IMPROVEMENTS -

I'm hearing increased transparency and resolution which is wonderfully naturel with the absence of any blurring on instrumentation and vocals. Also lead instruments just appear in a realistic way along with backing vocals that are equally loud as the main vocals as they should be and not recessed as an afterthought.

The noise floor is very very low with darker background and silences and with stunning space and distance between members of the band for example. The overall sound is now so very relaxing almost laid back in a correct way, but with great timing in the way notes stop / start. Volume is not needed to be increased to make it more enjoyable which now makes the listening experience so absent of listener fatigue again with no blurring / glare that normally surrounds the music.
The soundstage and back to front depth is now so believable. Also i'm now enjoying albums that I had struggled with musically.

So to finalise the Seismic Podiums are an incredible product that gives a high end experience like I am sure no other add on accessory can. Just a little thinking outside the box is needed when considering the purchase of these "stands" which gave me greater musical enjoyment than I ever expected in my system and they offer wonderful value in what they achieve.
 
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A lot of people use spikes under their loudspeakers, which does a very good job of connecting the speaker to the ground and making the floor of the listening room a big driver, albeit at lower levels than the loudspeaker drivers.

Any approach to reduce the connection like Townshend Podiums, Gaia feet, Wellfloat, Stack Audio etc will result in a cleaner and less distorted sound as the excess loudspeaker energy has been largely dispersed in the isolator.
 
I bought some of those Chinese double pucks with springs on eBay for 20 quid and suddenly (after changing out the spikes) my garrard 301 is silent. Bit surprised. They look a bit cheap but they work!
 
Question for the OP: As the Xplorers have downward facing drivers, I presume you are still using the spikes to give the driver room to work but the spikes are now sited on the platforms - is that right? Any photos would be appreciated.
Thanks
Lambros
 
Interestingly I found that my speakers sound better when they are coupled to the floor beneath them using spikes and spike cups (on a wooden laminate floor over concrete). When I tried Isoacoustic Gaia isolation feet the sound from the speakers became more 'muddy/muddled'. I assume that it is something to do with how the vibrations in the speaker are dissipated and when I decouple them from the floor those vibrations probably adversely affect the speakers cones' isolation. Also it probably takes a lot of energy to excite a concrete floor compared to say a suspended wooden floor so the room affect is minimal. I had expected the Isoacoustic isolation to improve the sound (based upon many reviews) but in my room with my speakers it didn't. So, in my opinion, it's well worth experimenting with both isolation and coupling to see what works best in a particular situation.
 
alexkirkham said:
I bought some of those Chinese double pucks with springs on eBay for 20 quid and suddenly (after changing out the spikes) my garrard 301 is silent. Bit surprised. They look a bit cheap but they work!
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I bought some Cerabase knockoffs from China and will install them under the speakers this weekend. They look near identical in form and construction to the $1700/8 genuine ones, but were more affordably priced at $230/8.

If these are successfull I may try some Stillpoints Ultra knockoffs...these are still very expensive by Chinese standards....$830 for a set of 6; but the genuine ones cost $1400 EACH! Again the quality of construction looks immaculate and the internal workings look identical to the genuine stuff.
It after all is nothing more than machined steel and 10 ceramic bearings per pod, which should be possible to clone to a very high degree of similarity.
 
rontoolsie said:
It after all is nothing more than machined steel and 10 ceramic bearings per pod, which should be possible to clone to a very high degree of similarity.
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Bear in mind that there are different types of steel and ceramics. So appearing the same may not be the same.
 
Lambros said:
Question for the OP: As the Xplorers have downward facing drivers, I presume you are still using the spikes to give the driver room to work but the spikes are now sited on the platforms - is that right? Any photos would be appreciated.
Thanks
Lambros
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Yes I use the original spikes that sit on floor protectors so the same height + is maintained and and by the way my name is Chris ?? not sure about all the cynicism I only posted because of my enthusiasm for the Product I have just purchased, I may well not bother posting again.
 
awkwardbydesign said:
Bear in mind that there are different types of steel and ceramics. So appearing the same may not be the same.
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Yes, but the appearance of the bearings makes them almost certainly silicon nitride ones, which are the stiffest. About $2.50 per bearing, compared to a few cents for steel bearings.
I doubt that having extremely high tolerance bearings (which add significantly to the price) would make much-if any-difference, as there is no moving parts here.
The steel housing of course is not as stiff as the ceramics. I would imagine that the optimal steel to use would the the hardest one, possibly making it the most difficult to machine.
I suspect it is the geometry of the design, rather than sheer parts quality that are responsible for the majority of the subjective performance.

But even with the MOST expensive steel, and the most expensive ceramic bearings, the Stillpoint Ultras probably have no more than $50 in parts/machining costs, yet sell for close to $1500.
 
Chris Harris said:
Not sure about all the cynicism I only posted because of my enthusiasm for the Podiums I have just purchased, I may well not bother posting again. And I do have a name it's Chris ......................!!
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Hi Chris - kinda looked like a bot dropped your text because you wrote without line breaks, spaces, paragraphs - just to say that it does make it a bit hard to read, especially if the old eyes are naff like mine, well I only have one that sorta works ;) So don’t stop posting your findings/opinions due to one comment!

I have Townshend Podiums, probably the best accessory I have purchased in 4 decades - work superbly. Heard them under a mates B&W 800’s - the exact pair I’d head before at the dealers home but without the podiums and straight away started looking for a used pair, got lucky on eBay and the right size/loading came up half price for my Logans. Eliminated some room rattles and buzzes and improved imaging etc. worth every penny.

ATB
Gus
 
Amber Audio said:
Hi Chris - kinda looked like a bot dropped your text because you wrote without line breaks, spaces, paragraphs - just to say that it does make it a bit hard to read, especially if the old eyes are naff like mine, well I only have one that sorta works ;) So don’t stop posting your findings/opinions due to one comment!

I have Townshend Podiums, probably the best accessory I have purchased in 4 decades - work superbly. Heard them under a mates B&W 800’s - the exact pair I’d head before at the dealers home but without the podiums and straight away started looking for a used pair, got lucky on eBay and the right size/loading came up half price for my Logans. Eliminated some room rattles and buzzes and improved imaging etc. worth every penny.

ATB
Gus
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Thank you Gus I will go back on it and cut it up :D my facebook friends found it ok, glad you like the Podiums
 
I agree about the Townshend feet, but I made my own. I used an online calculator to set the resonance at 3Hz @15kg (for a 60kg speaker), and found a spring manufacturer to make me a set of 8 for ÂŁ80 cash. Friction damped (neoprene motocross fork gaiters), and screw height adjustment. My floor is solid oak glued to concrete, so the improvement is much less than with a suspended floor, but still noticeable. I watched Max's video of how damping stopped the springs resonating uncontrollably, but as it was a recording I couldn't ask him why that was needed, as music isn't at a constant frequency*. I never will now, sadly.
* I rode motorbikes for years, on and off track, and suspension damping always compromises isolation; the more the worse.
 
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