Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Thread Like Summary - Isoacoustics Gaias vs Townshend for Isolation

Has anyone who uses GAIA's assessed how good they are at preventing structure bourne noise transmission to a downstairs room (ideally speakers on GAIAs placed on a suspended wooden floor in the room above)?

Even more ideally, has anyone compared them to Townshend products in this regard?

(I'm in a new flat with tissue paper floors and neighbours below, and would like to continue to use my system in the evenings without causing a huge nuisance)!

I have Townsend platforms under my speakers. They are in my opinion far more effective than GAIA IIIs for my suspended wooden floor. Got mine reduced and on trial from Emporium.

Good on you for trying to be a good neighbor!

Although I own some Isoacoustics products, they are Apertas under some bookshelves on an actual bookshelf and they seem to make a difference. Your problem - although likely to be somewhat mitigated by some isolation from the floor - is also likely unsolvable completely.

Typical suspended wooden floor construction - at least here in the US - is nothing more than a sounding board for room borne noise. Unless someone has gone to extra lengths to isolate the drywall ceiling below, as well as your floor, and at a minimum added fiberglass or other insulation in the cavity, your sound will be transmitted even if your speakers were suspended in the air. This is based upon my experience in such construction.

I now reside in a concrete prestressed slab construction multistory. I’m on the top floor on a peninsula without neighbors to either side. But when I ask the downstairs neighbor if my music ever bothers her, her response is that she doesn’t ever know whether I’m home. And I often play at 75-80 with dual subwoofers. Of course she may be attributing some of what she hears to the thumping cars on the street at the traffic light.

After a lifetime of experience, I subscribe to the asking for forgiveness rather than permission doctrine. My suggestion/advice - go ahead and try without anything at all then inquire. The inquire part creates a great amount of “pre” (and past) forgiveness for future episodes where you might push things. Giving out your mobile number and asking for a text if it’s a bother goes even further.