Townshend Audio - Seismic Podiums

[matt49]

This is why I hope my investment is sound. My listening room is on the second floor of a 19th century property (no real foundations), with timber suspended floors, approximately 20m from five converging and busy train lines in SW London. When a freight train goes by the house physical vibrates to an extent that you can feel it. When a passenger train goes by the glasses and bottles in my drinks cabinet tinkle together. This happens every minute or so in rush hour. Sounds horrible doesn't it? Trust me you get used to it. All part and parcel of living in this great capital of ours! Anyway, I digress.....

Obviously the best improvement in sound quality for me would be to move house. This is not going to happen but I cannot help but think that he current situation must be improveable.

I will report back upon receipt and installation of the podiums.....

You have a drinks cabinet? Just slip in invitation in the post and I'll be round. *drinks*

 

[Al ears]

This is why I hope my investment is sound. My listening room is on the second floor of a 19th century property (no real foundations), with timber suspended floors, approximately 20m from five converging and busy train lines in SW London. When a freight train goes by the house physical vibrates to an extent that you can feel it. When a passenger train goes by the glasses and bottles in my drinks cabinet tinkle together. This happens every minute or so in rush hour. Sounds horrible doesn't it? Trust me you get used to it. All part and parcel of living in this great capital of ours! Anyway, I digress.....

Obviously the best improvement in sound quality for me would be to move house. This is not going to happen but I cannot help but think that he current situation must be improveable.

I will report back upon receipt and installation of the podiums.....

You have a drinks cabinet? Just slip in invitation in the post and I'll be round. *drinks*

Sounds like it could do with some Isolators under that as well.

 

[Superaintit]

Hi there,

Does anybody have any experience with these? There does seem to be some actual science behind this and the video (available on the page the link below goes to) seems quite compelling.

Any thoughts? They are expensive at £1500-ish a pair depending on where you get them from, but as I say there is some plausible science on show here, albeit that my knowledge of the inner workings of a driver is not extensive enough to know whether or not these could/would make any improvement/difference.

I have read somewhere that PMC use them on their larger models.

http://www.townshendaudio.com/hi-fi-home-cinema-equipment-vibration-isolation/hi-fi-home-cinema-vibration-isolation-speaker-podiums/

Decreasing speaker cabinet resonation is always a good thing. Having said that I would expect that not to be a major issue with speakers at the price/level we are talking about here. I would expect room treatment with acoustic panels to give better results for a smaller outlay.
Google acoustic panels if you're interested.

 

[Gazzip]

Thanks Superaintit but my room is already as treated as it domestically can be with acoustic panels, corner traps etc. Also good bass trapping is not as inexpensive as you suggest, so to "properly" acoustically treat a room in the studio sense would cost many £K. Not to say many listening environments couldn't do with a bit of inexpensive acoustic work before laying out for new speakers/amps/other tweaks. Of that you are right there is no doubt!

Funnily enough the White speakers in the Townshend demo video are PMC Fact 12's which are the same as mine, so perhaps they are not all that well decoupled? We shall see...

 

[Gazzip]

They arrived today but are in the office. They look very well made but the proof is in the listening... Shall install tomorrow and report back. Very exciting...

 

[Gazzip]

Okay, they are in and I have been listening to music for about two hours. Turns out they are actually quite an upgrade. Certainly more so than I was expecting them to be. Bass is deeper but also nice and tight. Soundstage improvements and cleaner midrange with less smearing. Also I can play my music considerably louder before I lose it to the room. Really rather impressive results from such a simple thing. I am dead chuffed!

 

[CnoEvil]

Good job....your improvement doesn't surprise me in the least, as I've witnessed similar before.

 

[Q5]

Glad they are working for you, I found the same with my sub.

 

[CnoEvil]

Gazzip my friend, could you comment on the sound of your Bel Canto CDP on this thread, as I have suggested that BC might be suitable.

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/which-cd-player-crisp-defined-cymbals

 

[CnoEvil]

Gazzip my friend, could you comment on the sound of your Bel Canto CDP on this thread, as I have suggested that BC might be suitable.

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/which-cd-player-crisp-defined-cymbals

 

[matt49]

Gazzip, good to hear the Townshends are working for you. I had a very similar experience with them. In particular, isolating the speakers from the floor (in my case a suspended wood floor) really cleaned up the bass. I think you're finding the same benefit.

Time for you to open that drinks cabinet! *drinks*

 

[Gazzip]

Gazzip, good to hear the Townshends are working for you. I had a very similar experience with them. In particular, isolating the speakers from the floor (in my case a suspended wood floor) really cleaned up the bass. I think you're finding the same benefit.

Time for you to open that drinks cabinet! *drinks*

Thanks Matt, it has been open for the past 42 minutes...

 

[Gazzip]

Gazzip my friend, could you comment on the sound of your Bel Canto CDP on this thread, as I have suggested that BC might be suitable.

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/which-cd-player-crisp-defined-cymbals

Will do...

 

[Vladimir]

Glad they help out your system in such acoustically hostile environment G. Enjoy! *drinks*

 

[Gazzip]

Glad they help out your system in such acoustically hostile environment G. Enjoy! *drinks*

Thanks Vlad. To be honest head-fi would probably better suit my environment but I just cannot let go!

 

[Vladimir]

You'd be surprised how well your brain EQ is managing to fix room issues. Only when you give it relief with some tweaks you realize what rubbish it was dealing with and still allowing you enjoy music.

If you record a clip with your phone of the system playing and then listen it with headphones you will hear all the issues your mind filtered out listening real-time.

 

[Andrewjvt]

Glad they work for you.

Most of us though would benefit from a speaker upgrade for that price but in your system its like a small tweak lol