Townshend Seismic Bars

[Jwg1749]

As regulars will know, I've been a naughty boy. I recently relegated my D200 to my second system, having found the ‘destination’ power amp for my Martin Logan Montis: it’s the Sanders Magtech, and the combo is utterly glorious. The Montis sound smooth as silk, with all the immediacy and the vast soundstage that MLs conjure up.

I demoed the combo in my study, which has pretty good acoustics, at the top end at least: it’s carpeted and the walls are lined with books. It sounded fantastic.

But the main system is destined for the living room, and when I moved the Montis and Magtech in there last week, I was a bit disappointed. The top end was a bit harsh and spitty. I put it down to the room’s dry acoustics. There’s nothing on the walls, the floor is bare boards and the furniture is leather (all of which will in due course change).

In the meantime I thought I’d try out the Townshend Seismic Bars under the MLs. The idea was to insulate the speakers’ bass cabinets from the suspended wood floor, so as to prevent boom and and also to protect our neighbours!

What I hadn’t expected was that all the harshness and spittiness would go. Wow! I’ve got my lovely smooth system back!

I’m not sure how to explain the improvement. I can only think that the speakers were interacting with the wood floor in some way: maybe they weren’t stable enough, or maybe vibrations from the bass cabinets were being amplified by the floor.

Anyway, I’d recommend the Townshend Seismic Bars to anyone who has floorstanders on a sprung wood floor.

Matt

[Confused]

We still love you Matt! Being naughty is fine if it truly makes you happy!

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One question, you love the Montis, have you ever heard the latest (last couple of years) big Quads? I head them almost by chance recently, and was totally amased by just how natural they sounded. I doubt they could pump air with rock or electronic suff. But, possibly the best low (ish) volume sound at any price. And I mean any price. I'd love a pair as a second system, if I had the room.

[Jwg1749]

Cheers!

No, I've been meaning to hear the Quads for some time, if only to satisfy my curiosity, but I've never got round to it. I don't think I could ever take them seriously as a main speaker, partly because of their enormous width and partly because you really need a sub with them.

By all accounts, the ML panels are as good as the Quads, and the MLs have the double advantage of being slim and having an integrated LF driver.

[Confused]

Actually, the amount of bass they could deliver is one thing that supprised me! Although the demo music was not that demanding in this respect. I doubt they could chest thump!

[amabrok]

Anyway, I’d recommend the Townshend Seismic Bars to anyone who has floorstanders on a sprung wood floor.

Matt

Matt thanks for sharing.

actually i have been lately experiencing a bit of harshness with ML Montis on the high freqiencies, and of course i was attributing this to the sub-optimal acoustics of my listening room (big glass windows and bare porcelain floor, couldn't be worse ) which will hopefully change soon as we may move out to a new place.

however your post intrigued me, and i am seriously considering to try it and see what this may bring me.

I have a question though, why did you choose the bars and not the platform? and have you tried any of their other isolation products, i may also consider the pods for the Devialet

[Jwg1749]

actually i have been lately experiencing a bit of harshness with ML Montis on the high freqiencies, and of course i was attributing this to the sub-optimal acoustics of my listening room (big glass windows and bare porcelain floor, couldn't be worse ) which will hopefully change soon as we may move out to a new place.

however your post intrigued me, and i am seriously considering to try it and see what this may bring me.

I have a question though, why did you choose the bars and not the platform? and have you tried any of their other isolation products, i may also consider the pods for the Devialet

I chose the bars because the nice lady at Townshend (Sue) told me they would work well with the Montis.

Concerning your HF harshness issue, it may well be the room, but it could be the amp. (Sorry!)



Matt

[amabrok]

I chose the bars because the nice lady at Townshend (Sue) told me they would work well with the Montis.

Concerning your HF harshness issue, it may well be the room, but it could be the amp. (Sorry!)



Matt

Thanks Matt.

I was almost sure that you will make the amp remark

Of course you have the advantage of trying the high voltage amp which I don't but I still believe (based on auditions at my local dealer with much better room acoustics) that Devialet is capable of handling the low impudence of ML

Also I tried a pair of Jamo Concert 809, a traditional electrodynamic speaker of course, with my home setup and they presented some harshness at the high notes as well.

So I'm glad that I still believe it is the room not the amp

[wikeeboy]

Do the seismik bars only work on hard floors?

I have carpet over suspended wood floors, and would love to try these..

[Jwg1749]

I couldn't honestly say. Best thing is to phone them and have that discussion.

Matt

[f1eng]

Do the seismik bars only work on hard floors?

I have carpet over suspended wood floors, and would love to try these..

The Townshend products are the only truly isolating products I have seen on the hifi market (as an ex noise and vibration control engineer).
As long as the correct ones are chosen for the weight of the speaker it will be correctly isolated from the floor. Whether you like the effect of not having the floor vibrating much is another thing...
They won't have any effect on the room acoustics.

FWIW to isolate over the full audio bandwidth the static deflection of the product on the isolator is around an inch. Most deflect a tiny fraction of that so don't isolate at low frequencies at all.