Best Isolation Device for Speakers?


Has anyone had a chance to directly compare different speaker isolation tweaks? I am wondering because of the recent thread on the Sistrum stand. I know that many of these things have been discussed in other posts, but there is not alot of direct comparison among them. I suspect that most of these are excellent, so if anyone has some information on their specific sonic impact, that would be helpful. I have a pair of Thiel 7.2s. Some of the ones I am considering:

Aurios Pro
Sistrum Speaker Stand
Mana Speaker Stand
Stillpoints
Audiopoints

Thanks,
Rob
rtn1

Showing 5 responses by tobes

whereas the Devores are built with wood blocks to couple the enclosure to the floor?

Yes its likely that Devore accounted for the effects of their chosen coupling method in the sound profile of the speaker - much like some designers account for the effect of a grille in the voicing. Decoupling may then result in undesirable effects like you found.

Shows that you can't make blanket assumptions when there are so many different design (and room) variables in the mix. In any case it looks like you've given the decoupling methodology a fair hearing. 

Given all the positive feedback for the Gaia footers I was perplexed when I didn't get a positive improvement after installing them. The ATC plinths have threaded inserts and I was careful to align the logos of the Gaia per the instructions - the speaker positions were marked and duplicated after install.

I have my suspicions as to why - the already mentioned height difference was one. The other was the bass traps I had in the front corners of the room at the time. These had a positive effect with previous speakers - but I subsequently found that the bass traps were robbing the big ATCs of some bass heft (the SCM100s have a taut, neutral bass alignment but go fairly low in room). The effect of the bass traps and the slight balance change of the decoupling (less room interaction) probably contributed to my negative impression. Not sure where the Herbies came in the subsequent timeline but the Podiums were installed after the bass traps were removed. 

 

After years of using spikes etc I've become a fan of decoupling speakers.

Under my ATC SCM100 towers I've tried Herbies Giant Gliders, Isoacoustics Gaia and the Townshend Podiums. The Podiums produced the best results, but they're also the most expensive. For whatever reason I wasn't so impressed with the Gaia footers, but the Herbies produced good results and allowed very easy speaker movement making positioning a breeze. 

Townshend Podium

@celtic66 I've read many reports of ATC owners getting positive results with the Gaia footers, so my experience is more of an outlier. The SCM100 towers required the expensive Gaia 1 model and maybe I was just expecting more given all the positive scuttlebutt. The other factor is that I sit fairly close - speakers in roughly a 2.5m triangle with the listening position - and the Gaia do raise the speakers significantly more than the Podiums or the Herbies footers. Perhaps that effected my impression? The Podiums were about 50% more expensive than the Gaia, bought direct from Townshend in the UK.

Worth mentioning again that fine adjustment of speaker position with both the Podiums and the Gaia is a bit of a pain - at least with my fairly heavy speakers. The Herbies made fine adjustment easy. I recommend the Herbies gliders - or some other furniture glider - to establish best speaker position first before installing either the Podiums or the Gaia. 

@fsonicsmith said:

 The point being that you can tweak away forever but it won't solve the inherent deficiencies of pistonic drivers. You will hear differences that might strike you subjectively as being "better" in the short term but over substantial time you are unlikely to think that your system is suddenly the nadir of home music reproduction.

No-one said any of these tweaks will overcome shortcomings of speaker design. My understanding is that that the isolation products allow your speaker to work with less feedback and 'singing along' from the room. It sounds that way, with more low level detail and better imaging/soundstaging among the benefits. As always YMMV.

FWIW I think speaker positioning and some attention to room treatment are more fundamental than these isolation products - though the later can certainly elevate a system where the former have already received due attention. 

BTW @fsonicsmith you have a lovely, carefully assembled system there. I'd be curious what effect some speaker isolation would provide in your setting. Maybe you should try a lower cost option like the Herbies footers - or have you already?