Under my tower speakers -- Isoacoustics Gaia, other options?

Ok, so this is the post where I eat some of my words. I’ve been reading your posts, and others, and watching videos about the Townshend podium. I really like my speakers enough to try to bring out their best qualities. From what I am reading and seeing. -- e.g., here: https://youtu.be/IvTrtMmrfE4?t=1088 there’s a lot that could be gained by a profoundly isolated speaker. If it all does nothing, well, shipping is a small price to pay to really know that.

The other thing I am thinking is that I’m not really going to be ready to go to a "next" level speaker for a while, in part because I really think these speakers are quite a great value and match very very well even with my lower powered tubes and subs. My next speakers are going to be at least 2x or 3x my current pair, and I’m not ready to go there, yet.

With the Townshends, I can try do a real comparison with the spikes or even some Gaia.

The other thing a podium could do -- if it works well -- is know that I can move my speaker into my next (new) room (which has a wood floor on some cork over concrete) without worrying about how the speakers will sound in there. Or to a room upstairs (over suspended wood).

I’m almost over my reluctance to try the Townshends.

What I have noticed is that my old Thiel speakers which had the mineral front baffles were totally inert on that face but vibrations could be felt on the sides and back of the speaker cabinets. That tells me the speakers were transmitting vibrations from the cabinet bottom through the spikes to the floor and some amount of vibration reflecting back into the cabinets. So the Gaias which both dampen and isolate seem to me to improve the sound of the speakers by both isolating the speakers from the floor and damping reflections that would otherwise go back into the cabinets. The Wilson speakers are remarkably inert on every surface. Totally dead no matter the loudness they are playing. And yet they still transmit vibrations to the floor through their spikes as well. Perhaps the energy must go out of the cabinets somewhere. I find the Gaia Titans remarkably effective on my Wilson speakers. I would like to hear them with the new Wilson isolation spikes but my curiosity has limits. I have no doubt the Wilson isolation spikes would be an improvement. Their material development knowledge is remarkable when considering they can build an entirely inert speaker cabinet.

I think any speaker will benefit by isolation from the floor but the tonal qualities of the speaker might be altered, as I found with my Thiels and so some amount of dampening (damping) might be needed to go along with the isolation. That’s likely something to be solved on a case by case basis. Some of us engineer types are able to come up with some good homemade solutions, but I have to give credit to the entrepreneurs who develop a product for the market that has to work 90% of the time on a wide range of applications- sometimes great and sometimes not. Some people like hang gliding. Some of us like the security of an enclosed cabin.

Ok, my last sentence is not a comment about open baffle speakers; but it could be...

@hilde45,  if you do get the Towshend units please share your findings here.

@tonywinga, I ordered a set of nobsound  to compare with IsoAcoustics Oreas I have had in place under my Wadia DAC and an Oppo for a year, so am now familiar with the effect they are having on the sound of some components. Should  be interesting.

Have you heard of or tried Herbies Isolation Pods/Pucks? 
I did some testing with them and without: nothing incredible but they did at least affect and improve a few specific Frequencies from my loudspeakers when I used them underneath.  Also noticed they helped kill about 1/2 of a noise/distortion issue I have with a couple very micro-phonic pre-amp tubes.  I don't think they are 'better than' Gaia (which I think also have actual solid real world room speaker and turntable measurements), but they are really affordable, and the owner of the company is VERY communicative.