The room is long 33 feet and I listen across the 16 foot side. Front wall is full of mounted African animals. Right side is all glass, two 7 foot windows and a sliding door. YUCK.
The Grimm MU1 and the Lampizator Horizon are producing a dream digital sound. I had the full Vivaldi stack and it was too flat and analytical for my tastes. The Gryphon EVO amp was also hard won after a Naim DR NAP 300 to Parasound JC1+ to M900u Luxman to ARC 160Ms. The EVO amp is even better than adding the JC1+ bottom end to the ARCs resolving mids, but it's even more rich and engaging. The two Tube traps on the front wall made a huge improvement in imaging and timbre. Way more contribution than the $1600 cost. The three 6 inch thick 2 by 4 foot GIK panels on the rear wall seemed to make no sonic contribution, but they look good. The Rockport Cygnus have a sound that is both extremely resolving, yet with no harshness that used to be the price paid for resolution. These speakers are highly recommended.
Just to add to Millercarbon's comments. I too added the Townsend F1 interconnects and speaker wires, only because the pods made such a difference in exactly the way their website and the sales rep suggested they would. I had been in a pretty intense cable search with two interconnects and a set of SCs from Cardas and Shunyata with a retail price of 13K for three pairs of wires. They are great cables, I'm not knocking them, but I had selected them as tuning devices to deal with the ringing/sibilance that come to find out was a vibration problem solved by the pods. When I put in the F1 interconnects and speaker cables I was hearing a purity of sound, details and imaging that was better than my previous combo. As MC says they might be adressing the ringing in the cables, I don't know, but they sound great. I sold my other wires and even selling them used, pocketed thousands in savings and ended up with a better sound. I have also come to believe that interconnects and speaker wires should be from the same company. I don't know maybe PCs too. It's expensive and I thought it was both a cable marketing and magazine reviewer shill, but it turned out in my case a better approach. This is unless you have component issues you want to address using cables to tune it. Good luck and please keep us informed as you experience these products.
Yes I did have significant improvements when I put the podiums under my speakers. I had Isoacoustics on them, but the pods are much better. I am not going to write up all the aspects of the sound improvements, just know for me it was great. That said I put both of my Ref 10 preamp cases on two platforms and that for me was even better. The sibilance or ringing I had been fighting went away. I was shocked. The next night I put my streamer on a platform and that was a great improvement as well. Townsend says the biggest bang for the buck is the speaker podiums. I’m my system I would say the electronics made the most important improvements. To expand on this point I had a vibration ringing problem they fixed. With the speakers they just made a good situation even better. They are a very inexpensive tweak. Much better value than chasing expensive cables(I’ve done that too). Please share what you find. Townsend is really on to something with these pods. Last point is I didn’t understand the product line before I started buying. They sell individual pods and corner pod sets and sometimes the individual pods fit better on shelves than the platforms.
