Max Townshend was one of the most original and creative thinkers the world of high-end ever produced. Australian born and educated, he founded Townshend Audio in 1975. Among its initial products were a parabolic stylus for moving magnet pickups, one of the first moving coils to use a line-contact stylus, and the now near-legendary Rock turntables, which involved innovations in tuned suspensions and a thoroughly original way of damping resonances at the critical stylus/groove interface (a paddle attached to the head of the tonearm travelled across the record through a trough filled with viscous fluid). In 1978 he relocated to the United Kingdom, where he lived until his death, aged 78, on the last day of 2021.[1] He pioneered the use of cryogenics in interconnects and speaker cables, made speakers, and in the early aughts introduced the Allegri Reference, a passive linestage that may be the most beautiful sounding preamplifier I’ve ever heard.
But his most significant work, I think it’s safe to say, lies in the area of the effects of vibration and resonance on the reproduction of music in the home. He paid particular attention to the physical interface between audio components, notably speaker systems, and the floors of our listening rooms. This led him to develop a series of products called “Seismic Isolation,” which are designed to break the physical connection between speakers (and other components) and the floor.