9/5/2023 0 Comments Seismac audio reviewA wrench is provided to adjust the four feet appropriately. The first is to level the podium respective to the floor. Setup is a two-stage procedure, each step equally critical. The Podiums are suitable for wood, tile, or carpeted floors. Virtually any weight of equipment can be isolated. For even greater loads, custom-design Podiums that include six or more Load Cells are an option. My own ATC SCM50 towers required the middle-range Size 3. The Seismic Podiums are available in five standard sizes with different weight-range capacities, varying progressively from less than 10 pounds up to 400 pounds (including the weight of the Podium base plate). Along with an adjustable round foot on the bottom to compensate for out-of-true floors, this also allows for easy leveling. Since loudspeakers often have a forward weight bias due to heavy front baffles and drivers, the Load Cells are hand-adjustable for height and to balance loads via a circular top ring. The Podiums are designed to move freely in all axes-up and down, left and right, back and forth. The Load Cell interior houses a steel-alloy compression spring surrounded by a flexible synthetic rubber jacket with two end plates-a movement-sensitive, air-resistant damper that dissipates low-frequency oscillation (down to 3Hz). The heavy steel platform is supported at each corner by Townshend’s Captive Load Cells that extend beyond the perimeter of the platform, providing a stable base. The Podiums arrived fully assembled and nicely appointed with a black crackle finish. Engineered “floated” floors are not uncommon in recording studios and even in some costly dedicated listening rooms. Rather than amplifying or tuning the bond between the floor and the loudspeaker by coupling with footers, Townshend aims to eliminate the interaction at the root-to sever what is essentially a feedback loop of mechanical dysfunction and spurious vibrations between the speaker and the floor or, as Townshend describes it, to break “the acoustic connection between the floor and the speaker, preventing the passage of deleterious vibrations both to and from the speaker cabinets.” I found another way of looking at it: The Podiums become a newly suspended floor over my existing one. The Townshend approach heads in the opposite direction. But it struck me at the time that the “improvement” seemed to occur in a fairly narrow band of the midbass-resulting in an amusical emphasis that once heard couldn’t be ignored. My initiation into this practice took place in the 1970s when I placed the popular Tiptoes brand of aluminum spiked footers beneath a pair of AudioPro subs, and immediately noted an improvement in low-frequency control and pitch definition. Back then, this was the accepted way to remediate resonances and colorations. My ATC SCM50 active towers were ideal candidates.įor myself, and TAS readers of a certain age, the mechanical isolation of components, especially speakers, means mass-loading them or coupling them to the floor using pointed footers or some variation thereof. I promised myself that when I finally had a stout pair of loudspeakers on hand, I would arrange to review the Seismic Podiums. My head-scratching encounter with the Seismic Isolation Podiums more than piqued my curiosity. Known for its distinctive tonearm-damping trough, Townshend Audio had, REG concluded, shown “what remarkable results can be obtained, not by flinging mass and money at the problem…but by inspired engineering.” That ’table garnered a Golden Ear Award in 2011. But Townshend Audio is also celebrated for preamps, super-tweeters, cables, and perhaps most prominently the Rock 7 turntable, reviewed by Robert E. But what exactly were they?Ī brief backstory: Max Townshend and his Townshend Audio team have built a small kingdom on the basis of innovative isolation/decoupling technologies among their products are Seismic Sink platforms and stands (reviewed in Issues 148 and 114 respectively). The brochure I grabbed called them Seismic Isolation Podiums. This was my heart-stopping introduction to premium speaker isolation, Townshend Audio-style. The loudspeakers were sitting on heavy platforms elevated at each corner by some mysterious pod-like footer. I looked down and found the cause for my alarm. But no, it merely sprung back into its original vertical position, reminding me of my Bozo the Clown inflatable punching bag from the 1960s. In panic, I removed my hand as quickly as possible ready to catch the speaker if it toppled over. Suddenly the entire speaker began rocking in place, pitching gently to and fro. I walked up to a pair of slender floorstanding loudspeakers and casually placed my hand on top of one of them-the classic audiophile move meant to gauge weight and stability. It happened on the main exhibit floor at a trade show, quite by accident.
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