Frank Rodgers, fellow Tannoy Westminster Royal SE enthusiast like yours truly, and with Duelund external crossovers too (!) just sent me a message to tell me about his latest discovery: Track Audio Isolation Feet. I haven't tried them myself yet, but given that Frank has particularly good taste in audio, I thought it was important to tell you about his discovery so you could try them for yourself if you so desired.

Here's the story in Frank's own words:

"After our 2013 Duelund-Westminster discovery it’s hard to imagine anything else exciting. But I have something new for you. An audiophile and Tannoy owner in Ontario told me in December about the Track Audio isolation feet that he is using on his Tannoy Churchill speakers.

Over the years I have noticed Tannoy has not paid much attention to the feet of their speakers. As you know I’ve been a Tannoy owner since 1971. My first pair, the Windsors, certainly paid no attention to supports underneath. When I went to the Prestige Series in 1997 with the GRF Memory speakers, the support question still had not been addressed by Tannoy.

 

With the Tannoy Westminster Royal SE there are now supports (above photo shows the stock cone & cup arrangement), but as David King observed in his paper on his Tannoy modifications, the support itself was not its strong point. David said, “The standard support system supplied with the Westminister consists of steel cone feet attached to the cabinets with M8 treads …These sit in steel cups which have to be manoeuvred into place under the cones… Because of the nature of the supports it was very difficult to get the cups and feet locating together…” David also said, “even when the cups were fully seated into the carpet there was still some potential for rocking which is guaranteed to ruin speaker performance.” David’s solution was the fabrication of solid a “bespoke conical stainless steel support system.”

Having personally confirmed David's concern about the stock Tannoy support from my own experience, and with David’s help I obtained a set and placed them under my Westminsters with a noticeable improvement. However, it has been recently brought to my attention that the solid support works very well on a carpeted solid concrete floor which was the case with David’s system. (That's what my floor is too - Jeff) On the other hand, with a wooden suspended floor, which is my case, there is a strong argument that the support should be isolated/decoupled. This brings me to the Track Audio isolation feet. 

Track Audio is a UK based company “started when lifelong hi-fi nut Mike Butler decided to use his professional skills and knowledge to improve his own system. Roy Gregory writing in “The audio Beat” said, among other things, “The spike itself is housed in a Delrin cylinder , decoupled by one rubber O-ring round its neck and two more spaced up its shaft…the O-rings are the only contact between it and the Delrin body, which is itself located in the stainless-steel ‘hub’ by two more O-rings. The hub then screws into the main body, a locking ring of equal diameter allowing you to set its overall height.” (setting the overall height is not possible with the stock Tannoy cup & cone arrangement)

It is all there to read in Roy Gregory's December 2011 review in The Audio Beat.

Because each decoupled foot allows up to a maximum 35 kgs, and the Westminster weighs 138 kgs with only 3 stock support positions, I locally had 4 additional block (above) and female ferrules (below) fabricated and installed underneath the cabinet to match the existing Tannoy blocks.

The pictures tell the story about my installation.

With extra blocks (below).

As for the benefits, I am so pleased and satisfied with the added musical enjoyment from this undertaking that I will be bringing it to Dr. Mills attention without any reservations.

I can say that all the exciting and positive words we have been using the past several months are not out of place with the Track Audio isolation feet that are now supporting my Westminster speakers.

We now know that Harvey “Gizmo” Rosenberg was telling the truth in his article about lifting the fog from his Tannoy Westminsters with external crossovers and upgraded Duelund inductors, capacitors and resistors. On my carpeted suspended floor, with the fog lifted, my Westminsters with the Track Audio isolation feet now reveal some blue sky. Another analogy, the Duelund External Crossover exposed a beautiful picture, and the isolation feet have placed a lovely frame around it.

This pampering of my Westminster speakers with the Track Audio isolation feet, while still maintaining the Tannoy sound that has given me deep soul-stirring satisfaction and general pleasure for a long time, now ascends to a new level."

Many thanks to Frank for taking the time to write the content of this post and take the photos to share with us his results of using the Track Audio isolation feet. Very impressive, Frank!