Biggest audio hoaxes

hilde45-

@bdp24 Are the Townshend products very helpful even for those of us with concrete floors covered with a short rug? My floor feels very stable, and while I respect the idea of vibration control enough to try it, I wonder if my rig is very susceptible to the kinds of vibrations these products help to mitigate?

Concrete is just as "susceptible" as you put it. Yes even slab concrete poured on the ground. I lived in a basement like that, it was very easy to feel vibrations from one person in one room coming through the floor right under the wall into my room. If I can feel and hear it then for sure it affects the sound when amplified a hundred times.

Think of the old-times movie trick of the train robber putting his ear to the track. This works because sound travels through even something as solid as 6" thick solid steel. 

You play your speaker, it sets the concrete to vibrate, it rings, and yes it settles down very fast but for that small fraction of a second until it does it is smearing fine detail. Here, watch https://youtu.be/BOPXJDdwtk4?t=120 Solid concrete floor. See?

The speaker is going to move on its own due to mechanical force of the drivers if not opposed dual mounting. Locking into the concrete will reduce that movement. Thanks for posting another hoax.

Anything with quantum, fractal, or hysteresis in its name.

@millercarbon thanks for the explanation. 

I run my speakers on both concrete foundation in finished room with thin dense carpet and pad and others. No isolation needed below speakers or sub in the room at foundation level. Others yes. My sub and speakers even face the turntable within several feet and no problem. I have an Auralex Subdude I bought for the sub in another room so I use it but not really needed. Detail soundstage and imaging to the nth degree. No mud or haze. It’s a ideal setup from a vibration perspective. First time ever for me. So I am going to disagree with MC on this. No need to add any isolation much less expensive options. Ymmv but a waste of money in my opinion. Of course neither is it likely to hurt if designed to do its job well so no harm likely either other than to bank account.

Also the speakers appear to wobble on the Townsend stands in the video.  Are they supposed to do that?   That’s different and would definitely impact the sound not necessarily for the better overall I would expect.