Seismic Sink Speaker Platform
The Seismic Speaker Cradle consists of a base (A) with four feet
(B) above which are located four support pillars (C) which hold
the two cantilever bars (D), one on each side. Below each cantilever
bar are two suspension pillars (E), within which are located damped
polymer tension spring elements which are attached to the platform
(F) upon which sits the speaker.
Levelling is by careful positioning of the speaker on the platform
and adjustment of the four feet. Once in place, the whole is remarkably
stable. The speaker may be pushed way off vertical and it will
always return to upright after a few oscillations.
The
maximum load that can safely be supported is 100kg.
The
range of Seismic Speaker Stands and Cradles includes future-proof
width adjustable models or custom pairs, made to order. Please
specify the width, depth and weight of your speakers for the Cradles
and also their height in the case of the Stands.
Supporting
loudspeakers with highly compliant vibration isolation produces
vastly superior sound compared with the results when “decoupling”
with traditional spikes, cones and complicated rigid spherical
cup “isolators”.
The old idea……
Current dogma dictates that speaker enclosures must be coupled
to the floor using a "rigid" stand, and that floor standing
cabinets should be mounted on spikes, or rigid decoulpers so that
the unwanted energy in the enclosure will drain away to earth,
and the spikes will make the speaker rigid and prevent it from
moving whilst playing. However, this thinking assumes that all
components possess infinite stiffness and are infinitely rigid,
and since nothing is infinitely stiff or rigid, the ideal "stationary"
speaker enclosure is never realised in practice. When playing
music, reaction forces from the loudspeaker drive units act on
the speaker enclosure to move it backwards and forwards. This
movement is restrained by the inertia of the cabinet assembly
and the stiffness of the support stand. However, the speaker stand
bends, the base of the stand bends and so also does the floor
- especially if it is wooden! The result is nonlinear movement
of the speaker cabinet caused by the multiple resonances in the
so-called "rigid" structures around it. This in turn
causes coloration and blurring of the reproduced sound. The distorted
bass sound often heard in rooms adjacent to where an audio system
is playing is caused partly by distortion in the speaker cabinet,
but mainly by conduction through the floor and building structure.
Furthermore, neither the floor nor the ground are stationary;
they are constantly in motion due to man-made vibration caused
by road traffic, pumps, lifts, resonances in the building structure,
and especially by the hi fi system itself. This means that, with
floor or stand mounted speakers, the speaker diaphragm moves with
respect to a non-stationary base – and this generates further
distortions.
And now for something completely different..…
If the speaker and stand were to be 'suspended in space’,
the problem of semi-rigid coupling to the floor would be eliminated
and so would the resultant signal degradation. The Townshend Audio
Seismic Speaker Cradle and Speaker Stand effectively achieve this
by decoupling the speaker from the floor. The Cradle or Stand
rests on the floor and the speaker is placed on the isolated platform.
This mechanical arrangement de-couples the speaker from the floor
at all frequencies above 2Hz. The forces acting on the cabinet
are now restrained almost entirely by the inertia of the suspended
mass, which is largely linear, and since the mass of the cabinet
and Cradle (or Stand) is typically over 20,000 times higher than
that of the moving parts, there is virtually no reduction in bass
response. A further desirable effect is that since there is no
longer any direct coupling between the speaker cabinet and the
building structure, the only sound to be heard outside the listening
room is via air conduction, and this is of such low power, even
on really loud music, that the “nuisance factor” experienced
by neighbours next door to conventionally mounted speakers is
virtually eliminated. The improvement in the quality of the reproduced
sound is a revelation. Vocals become more human-sounding, bass
notes become distinct, tight, deep and lean, and silences sound
'black' because there are no longer any decaying resonances in
the background caused by vibration of the building structure.
The sound picture is much clearer and lifelike and the stereo
stage width and depth take on their true perspective. Some say
that it is the biggest improvement in sound that they have ever
heard!
