Seismic Podium (Set of 2)
Price range: £1,342.00 through £3,067.00
The Townshend Seismic Podium is a high-performance speaker isolation platform for loudspeakers and subwoofers. Using Townshend’s Captive Seismic Load Cells™, it mechanically isolates the speaker from floor-borne vibration and reduces vibration passing back into the speaker, helping deliver cleaner bass, greater clarity, more stable imaging and a more natural musical presentation.
Maximum Supertweeters
£1,265.00
The Townshend Maximum Supertweeter extends your loudspeaker’s high-frequency response from 6 kHz to 90 kHz using an ultra-light, fast-response ribbon. Designed to preserve transient timing and harmonic information rather than simply add treble, it can reveal greater openness, spatial definition, clarity and musical realism. Six-level adjustment allows seamless integration with a wide range of loudspeakers.
Description
Townshend Maximum Supertweeter
The Townshend Maximum Supertweeter is designed to extend the high-frequency response of a loudspeaker system far beyond the conventional audible range.
But that does not mean its purpose is simply to produce “more treble”.
The Maximum Supertweeter was developed around a more interesting question: how much of the timing, transient and harmonic information contained in music is lost when a loudspeaker’s bandwidth is limited?
You Don’t Listen to 90 kHz. You Listen to Music in Time.
Human hearing is commonly described as extending to approximately 20 kHz, with the upper limit reducing with age. This is normally established using continuous test tones.
Music is very different.
A cymbal strike, plucked string, piano hammer or trumpet note begins with an extremely rapid transient followed by a complex pattern of fundamentals, harmonics and reflections. Real musical events therefore contain information extending far beyond a simple sine-wave description of hearing.
The Maximum Supertweeter extends the loudspeaker system’s high-frequency response to approximately 90 kHz, with the aim of preserving more of this extremely fast musical information.
The objective is not to make the system brighter.
It is to help it behave more like the original musical event.
The Brain Listens to Timing
Our auditory system does considerably more than detect frequency. It is extraordinarily sensitive to when sounds arrive.
One fascinating example is the precedence effect.
When a sound reaches us directly and is followed moments later by reflections from the surrounding room, the brain does not necessarily perceive every arrival as a separate sound. Instead, the first-arriving sound strongly influences where we perceive the source to be, while later reflections contribute information about the surrounding acoustic space.
This ability is fundamental to the way we locate instruments and voices and perceive the size and character of real acoustic environments.
It demonstrates an important principle for high-fidelity reproduction:
Frequency tells us what is present. Timing helps the brain understand where and when it happened.
The precedence effect itself does not demonstrate that ultrasonic frequencies are consciously audible. What it does demonstrate is just how important very small timing differences are to human spatial hearing.
For Townshend, that makes transient behaviour and bandwidth particularly interesting.
Why a Fast Ribbon?
At the heart of the Maximum Supertweeter is an extremely lightweight aluminium ribbon operating within a powerful magnetic field.
Unlike a conventional dome tweeter, there is no separate voice coil attached to a heavier diaphragm. The ribbon itself forms the moving conductor.
Its exceptionally low moving mass allows it to accelerate and stop extremely quickly.
This matters because music does not consist of continuous tones. It consists of constantly changing events.
The strike of a cymbal, the initial bowing of a string and the leading edge of a piano note all contain rapid changes that help define the identity and position of the
- The Ear review
- The Audiophile Man review
- Dagogo review
- Positive Feedback review
- StereoNET discussion & owner experiences
Additional information
| Weight | 1.2 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 30 × 20 × 6 cm |
| Finish. | Satin Black, Matt Silver |
Related products
-
Allegri Reference
£11,489.00
Product Information
Description
Townshend Seismic Podium Speaker Isolation Platform
The Townshend Seismic Podium is a high-performance speaker isolation platform designed to mechanically isolate loudspeakers and subwoofers from the floor.
A loudspeaker does not simply send sound into the room. As its drive units move, mechanical vibration can also pass through the cabinet and into the supporting structure. The floor can then store, transmit and return unwanted vibrational energy.
The result is a mechanical interaction between the loudspeaker, floor and room that was never part of the recording.
The Townshend Seismic Podium addresses that problem at its foundation.
Why Isolate a Loudspeaker from the Floor?
Conventional spikes and rigid feet mechanically connect a loudspeaker to the floor.
Townshend takes the opposite approach.
Rather than trying to make that connection more rigid, the Seismic Podium uses four Townshend Captive Seismic Load Cells™ to create a highly compliant mechanical isolation system between the loudspeaker and the building.
This reduces vibration travelling from the loudspeaker into the floor, while also reducing vibration travelling from the floor back into the loudspeaker.
The objective is simple:
The loudspeaker should reproduce the music. The floor shouldn’t.
How Does the Townshend Seismic Podium Work?
Each Podium is supported by four Captive Seismic Load Cells selected according to the weight of the loudspeaker or subwoofer.
The Seismic system is engineered to have a very low natural resonance of approximately 3 Hz when correctly loaded.
Above this resonance region, transmission of mechanical vibration between the loudspeaker and supporting structure is progressively reduced.
This is why Seismic Isolation behaves very differently from rigid spikes, conventional equipment feet or simple elastomer pads.
The loudspeaker is effectively allowed to move very slightly at extremely low frequencies while becoming increasingly isolated from vibration at higher frequencies.
A small amount of visible movement when the loudspeaker is gently pushed is therefore normal. It is the compliance that allows the isolation system to work.
Relative Isolation Performance
INSERT OUR NEW ISOLATION COMPARISON CHART HERE
Then immediately underneath the chart:
Independent research into vibration isolation for audio equipment has demonstrated the importance of correctly tuned low-frequency spring isolation compared with conventional feet and other isolation approaches.
The referenced independent study did not test Townshend Seismic Isolation itself. It provides useful independent evidence for the underlying mechanical principles involved in effective low-frequency isolation.
What Does Speaker Isolation Sound Like?
Removing unwanted mechanical interaction can produce changes that extend well beyond the bass.
Depending on the loudspeaker, room and floor construction, listeners may experience:
- tighter, better-defined bass
- improved clarity through the midrange
- greater separation between instruments
- more stable stereo imaging
- clearer low-level information
- a more open and natural soundstage
- reduced structural vibration travelling through floors and adjoining rooms
Importantly, the intention is not to change the tonal balance of the loudspeaker.
It is to reduce an external mechanical influence so that more of the loudspeaker’s existing performance can be heard.
Effective on Timber and Solid Floors
Suspended timber floors make the effects of structural vibration particularly easy to understand, but Seismic Isolation is not limited to wooden floors.
Concrete, stone and other apparently rigid structures also vibrate.
The frequencies and amplitudes may differ, but no real-world supporting structure is completely motionless.
The Audiophile Man Video Review
| Isolation system | Low frequency | Mid frequency | Higher frequency | Consistency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Factory feet | Poor | Poor | Poor | Low |
| Elastomer | Fair | Good | Fair | Medium |
| Wire-rope isolator¹ | Good | Fair | Good | Medium |
| Steel springs | Very Good | Good | Very Good | High |
| Townshend Seismic Isolation² | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Very High |
Additional information
| Weight | 6.9 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 43 × 49 × 17 cm |
| Size | Size 1, Size 2, Size 3, Size 4, Size 5 |
| weight | a(5.2-10.4)Kg, b(10.4-21.2)Kg, c(21.2-42.4)Kg, d(42.4-80)Kg, e(80-128)Kg, f(128-200)Kg |
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.