The Unmentioned Rack

Posted by: jimlevitt on 24 October 2001

In all the discussions of racks over the past couple of years, one model is conspicuous by its absence: the Townshend Seismic Sink Stand. It's readily available in the UK, gets great reviews whenever any of the mags give it a listen - even in group sessions against some of the usual suspects. Townshend's rack isolates all the components placed on it through the use of an air-bladder system, supposedly all the way down to 2Hz. This is very different from the usual "spike it" approach.

Has anyone tried the Townshend Stand? Not the one-item Seismic Sink, mind you, but the four or five tier stand? If so, how does it stack up in musical or sonic terms against the Fraim/Mana/Quadraspire/Hutter/Isoblue/Base/Sound Org/Target etc, etc?

Please, let's try to keep this civil, boys...

Posted on: 25 October 2001 by jimlevitt
It's just that rack discussions around here tend to degenerate rapidly, and bring out the worst in all of us. If we can maybe make it through the first page of responses in good humor, we'll all be better off.
Posted on: 25 October 2001 by Frank Abela
Last time I heard one of the original SSS stands was a couple of years ago. The effect it had then was astonishing. Aesthetically, its looks were suspect (my partner left me in no doubt that her answer would be "NO!"), but its performance was unbeatable at the time in my view.

I think sales may have been let down a bit since it was a 4 or 5 tier stand without much extra scope for expansion (other than buying another one) which is a bit much considering the price (£1100-ish at the time). Many customers want something nice to look at with built-in future-proofing. The Townshend wasn't really capable of doing this.

The original SSS stand (still available I believe) was a double-pendulum affair on two air bearings (two seismic sinks effectively). The latest (and much cheaper) versions have a single seismic sink in a simple single pendulum solution. The original had better isolation properties but is a lot more expensive to make. That said, it had the ability to give isolation from frequencies right down to 2 Hz. There was a good technical reason why it couldn't go lower to do with size (something about the pendulum only fitting in a church).

The effect was much lower noise floor, deeper silences, clean but not hard sound - and very obvious against the competition at the time. Be interesting to try against a Hutter or a Naim Fraim...:)

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

Posted on: 25 October 2001 by John C
I tried my turntable (NA Spacedeck) on one and it seemed very effective, but only during an in shop demo.I also tried a suspended TT, an AudioNote TT2 and felt that it had some detrimental effects on that, sucking away some of the dynamics, so I wonder how an LP 12 would respond. The chap in the shop told me not to be ridculous and that it was the very best stand available. He was probably right. They come in anything from 2-6 tier versions now and in comparison to mana or Fraim are probably no more expensive. I was slighly put off by the need to reinflate every so often as I have experience with this problem at work with microscope isolation platforms (maybe I should take one of those home and try it?)

John

Posted on: 25 October 2001 by Greg Beatty
...not only isolate from the outside environment (down to 2hz), but also deal with equipment vibrations?

Does the design of the FRAIM do this? I believe it does but am curious to know.

- GregB

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