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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
dentdog's avatar
dentdog
468 posts
 
I use Star Sound under my speakers and amps, but Herbies under my rack. So very different for the two. Definitely better in each case, but It's probably system and room [floor?] dependent. 
dentdog's avatar
dentdog
468 posts
 
I use Star Sound under my speakers and amps, but Herbies under my rack. So very different for the two. Definitely better in each case, but It's probably system and room [floor?] dependent. 
glennewdick's avatar
glennewdick
1,500 posts
 
  I've always wanted to try Anechoic tile's from a submarine as they are tuned to absorb/ isolate most lower freq, very hard to come by, because they are confidential. But basically they are acoustic rubber with various sized voids that are filled with a semi hard gel. if they can keep a Sub hidden i'm sure they will isolate your audio equipment... oh well fun thoughts anyway.
toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone
840 posts
 
@kavakat damping involves reducing unwanted vibrations using extra mass or squishy materials to absorb them. Isolation involves separating the component in question from vibrating surfaces. 

Things like platforms with springs or spikes would be isolation, where the foam product you posted or sobothane would be damping. 

Isolation is important for turntables and tube gear. Maybe disc players too, I don't have much experience there, but I'd imagine the same reasons isolation works for turntables would make it effective for any spinning disc.. damping works well with SS components and some say with speakers too, though I prefer mine spiked. I did add dynamat to the inside of my speaker cabs, though, and that helped clean up the bass. That would be considered damping.
psag
517 posts
 
I tried fancy isolation devices under my TAD Ref1, and the differences were not great. With a massive speaker (think TAD, Magico), the effects of isolation devices are minimized. A well-engineered speaker does not need this kind of tweak in order to sound its best.

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