Only if the 160 Kg is cabinet weight with titchy little drivers! If you have 12" or 15" drivers in there, the enclosure will almost certainly benefit from good feet, or some other vibration control device. My own 95 Kg speakers have twin 12" drivers and the improvement in detail and control is very noticeable. If anything volume is very slightly lowered but the improvement in detail is well worth the cost. See if you can borrow some IsiAcoustic Titan Theis (up to 145 Kg) or Titan Rhea (190 Kg) feet from a friendly dealer. They do rarely come up used, so put a watch on HiFiShark and you may be lucky!
I gave to agree. The Isoacoustic Gaias put an end to my research for effective isolation solutions
Even pianos benefit from isolation, and I think they are even heavier! https://www.facebook.com/pianoisolators/
Didn’t know Townsend had ventured into that world ……maybe even more gullible people playing concert grand pianos than HiFi buffs
This was my experience too. The speakers of the second system are on a copboard, far from ideal. The sound with washing machine feet was better than with cones, but Iso Pucks took it too a different level. Gave the Iso Pucks a try on the main system where I have proper stands and the improvement was similar. Must add that my speakers are NVA semi omnidirectional cubes which benefit from decoupling.
And cellos, it works for them too. If you think about it, many players' platforms are basically resonant suspended floors.
I think the theory is that vibrations are caused by serious ground movement, lorries etc and all kinds of things. 160 kg is puny in comparison. Why is it the gullible using isolation rather than the naive not? Whoever said "you get what you pay for", disagree, somethings work, some thing don't, some DIY is very effective, some companies take the mickey cost wise, some are more reasonable.
My reference to gullible was in the context of devices costing £100’s rather than isolation stuff in general. I have used and do use isolation but Im not going to keep certain brands etc in maintaining their fleet of fast cars, country estates etc
I think the fundamental problem is that people don't do the analysis based on what kind of floor construction they are dealing with and what kind of problems are present. For example, my listening room has a solid concrete floor sat on top of clay subsoil, and the house is sufficiently far from the nearest road (~100 metres) that subsonic vibration from traffic just isn't an issue and wouldn't be even if it was a suspended floor. So I don't need to isolate the (floor mounted) speakers from the floor - there are no external vibrations to cause a problem, and the speakers aren't going to make the floor resonate - what I need is strong coupling, so the speakers don't rock, which in practice is just a matter of standing them on adjustable feet - gravity does the coupling job perfectly well.
I have solid concrete floor, screed on top. Over spec'd foundations into chalk. Rural Hampshire. When I isolated the speakers from the floor, their performance improved noticeably. They are 75kg each. I would imagine subsonic vibrations from from many sources, many miles away.
My Urban Hampshire floors are concrete too (screed and timber over the concrete) and 19 floors up, so no traffic influence - and wind vibration is only about 1 c/sec!
