Soft carpet pads, mouse pads, sleeping mats (of foam). Experiment with size, density and test. A speaker on soft pads should sway slowly when given a gentle push.
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Gaia Isolation anything in this?
- Thread starter Purité Audio
- Start date
Yes, whether cabinet vibration causes audible issues would depend on the speaker and the construction of the building, especially the listening room floor (and/or whatever the speakers are supported by).
Spikes give me the horrors (but so does carpet) so I don't use them on timber or—in my case—tatami. Positioned close to the front wall my speakers stand astride both.
Audio Physic make isolators in a range of weight classes for their speakers, constructed with two layers of fabric to locate concentric rings of neodymium magnets on which the speakers levitate. I haven't swapped them for the spikes to do any sort of comparison or measuring but maybe I'll be bored enough (and my to-do list sparse enough) to try it one day.
What I can say is that they are cool and a bit creepy: pushing the top of the speaker cabinet and feeling it move, resist and recover is eerie in a pleasant way. If I crank things right up (so ≥105 dB at 2 metre LP) I can bridge my finger across the isolator segments: the top attached to the speaker is vibrating to the touch, the bottom on the floor feels quite dead. I don't feel any need to mess around with towels or bits of rubber.
Last edited:
Witterings
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Looks like the wife's yoga matt's days are numbered then
Priceless. But dudes don't do yoga?
Witterings
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Witterings
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Have you any idea which is most likely to have the desired effect?
I've found yoga / exercise matts ranging from 0.6mm to 15mm thick
Interlocking matts like these which I imagine wouldn't be so soft
Anti vibration pads for washing machines which vary from 5 to 30mm thick
Or speaker isolation pads
chips666
Active Member
These will do the job...
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Try pushing on speakers using spring-based footers. Even more wobble. It just "feels wrong." (But might have some effect anyway).
Having some accelerometer readings would be nice.
(Luckily some of the cabinet modes present in the impedance curve.)
A good cabinet with constrained layer dampening should be fine on spikes, but I could imagine a buzzy cabinet benefiting from pad.
And a speaker on a flexy wooden floor is a different problem, which the optimal solution may not be obvious.
(It is not clear that there is one solution for all speakers.)
(Luckily some of the cabinet modes present in the impedance curve.)
A good cabinet with constrained layer dampening should be fine on spikes, but I could imagine a buzzy cabinet benefiting from pad.
And a speaker on a flexy wooden floor is a different problem, which the optimal solution may not be obvious.
(It is not clear that there is one solution for all speakers.)
Yes. Is there a how-to on doing that? I can't find much on tape accelerometers at retail, for example.
On the light end an iPhone does some of it.
On the more technical end, there are bonded on accelerometer, using bonded on with a hot wax… the into a data logger, which could be an ADC (DAC) with the preamp boosting the signal
Speaker enclosure vibrations - a few measurements with accelerometer
Have you seen this? https://www.somasonus.net/box-construction-methods
www.audiosciencereview.com
Accelerometers / Vibration Sensors - Bestech Australia
Vibration sensors or accelerometers are used in testing applications that require measurement of acceleration, vibration or shocks experienced by an object or a structure. Bestech offers a wide range of vibration sensors for testing of industrial and research applications.
www.bestech.com.au
Low Cost Vibration Monitoring, Accelerometers, Proximity Probe & Vibration Transmitters | StiWeb.com
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horsestall mat from any farm supply is exceptionally dense.
I use it between the floor and the pavers the speakers sit on on carpeted wood floor.
more than one way to skin a cat.
jsrtheta
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Not really.
jhwalker
Active Member
I recently implemented another brand of speaker isolation pads for my Revel F208s.
They were sitting directly on a laminate floor, suspended over what used to be a sunken living room (converted before I bought the house) and had quite a problem with "boominess".
The speaker isolation pads have led to what (to me) sounds like a substantial difference in the sound: no longer boomy and more articulate.
DSJR
Major Contributor
Bit of a convoluted tale follows -
I was firmly 'taught' all about using spikes on a visit to Linn some decades back. Ivor himself and his then 'number 2' did the dem using Isobariks with their stands (as I then owned) sitting on a carpet and then putting hard rubber feet under the stands to cut the rocking down (this was before spikes came along so you can see how terrifyingly far back it was). We did the comparison (no volume was changed) several times and in each case, the bass improved in clarity and later on, I found with these and other speakers that if you got the bass right, the rest improved as well. At lome and with said 'Briks close to the wall behind, I jammed a cassette box between the top edge of the speakers and the wall thus making the carcasses rigid every way except downwards. The highs definitely improved/got 'snappier' (again, taking said cases away and then putting them back) but the bass didn't appear to change. Back then, it was suggested to screw some cross-head screws through the floorboards and place the spikes located into the screw heads. That sorted it, but any extra floorboard vibration didn't seem to matter so much.. Got to say forty or more years on what the people buying the house might have thought, seeing holes in the floorboards in what was 'my' room covered in carpet, the 'pile' of which closed up once said screws were removed ages later...
So to this day, I can't understand the newish fad for decoupling the speakers from the floor and allowing the boxes to wobble around. Sorry, but that's my experience and conditioning!!! 'It's different therefore it's better!' is the cry I so often read! One chap living in a flat in a converted Victorian house with wooden floors and a sound-sensitive neighbour below did use a set of Gaia-style decouplers under his stands and rated them highly at minimising bass transmission to the flat downstairs, so i have to give credit where due as for him, the compromise of using them suits both him and the neighbour-relations
Now, I have to say that the original Isobarik stands weren't too rigid themselves. Certainly they were solid in a vertical plane and front to back was OK as well, but you could make the cabinets 'boing' sideways if you tapped them firmly on a top side edge while resting fingers on the other side. As all the 'energy' of these things was front to back and up and down, it obviously didn't matter so much initially, although much improved box-frame stands came along some years later with mdf based fillers for thre eof the voids in each stand to make them solid in all planes and the recommendation was to put an old jumper in each of the cavities to break up any refpections or whatever going on. By this time I was moving on, but the NS1000M's I replaced them with were also placed on spiced (at the bottom) stands. The idea was a simple one. The cones-n-domes of the speaker ONLY should move, but NOT the boxes and especially the front baffle! I remember when KEF started decoupling the bass drivers from their front baffles and although there were undoubted measured improvements steady state, music with forceful percussion sounded horrible on each model thus equipped with a 'phat' bloated kind of quality not really borne out in steady state response plots of the period I remember. (another music destroyer was the 'positec' protection that some speaker crossovers began to be fitted with at this time, soon abandoned)
What to put between stand and speaker bottom? I saw the severe damage done to the underside of speakers sat on top spikes and the Isobariks when placed on modified stands with nicely radiused top 'points' would actually sink up to the 'shoulder' of said points given time - UGH!!! We found some clear self adhesive 'bump-on' style feet 12mm x 3.7mm approx. from RS components (similar types can be got all over) and these stopped smaller speakers sliding off the stands and didn't squash when larger boxes were placed on their stands. being clear, they don't stain wood speaker boxes nor wooden floors if used between stand and floor but care needs to be taken with heavier speakers that said feet don't 'creep' as some do.
Lastly, one of our accessory suppliers used to sell us 'spike shoes,' two inch diameter or so nicely finished metallic discs with an indent in the top for spikes to locate in and rubbery pads to sit on the floor. Perfect for concrete but the blacking in the rubbery bottoms could stain nicely finished wooden flooring. greyish coloured rubbery pads followed and this sorted it. I think Linn did some, added their markup to it and called them Skeets from memory.
So, what does this tired old eejit use now under his 'BeeBeeCee inspired' thin wall boxes? I use aforementioned clear feet stuck on a couple of custom sized oak lamp tables to sit the carcasses on and said four poster table-legs sit straight on carpet!!! 'Sounds' ok to me but these types of ported thin wall speakers don't seem sensitive to being 'held' still while only the drive units move as the baffles may well 'flex' albeit very very slightly, the ports usually fitted adding to an organic 'bloooom' that some of these models can exhibit low down. Herself is expressing dislike of the tables now, so maybe I'll go all sheep-like and try some UK made 'HiFi racks' black wooden stands, but these are expensive (even at trade prices) and look a bit 'posh' for the sake of it. I'll have to check 'em out in more depth, but they at least will have spikes on the bottom to properly couple to our concrete floor
Here endeth the mini-essay above...
I was firmly 'taught' all about using spikes on a visit to Linn some decades back. Ivor himself and his then 'number 2' did the dem using Isobariks with their stands (as I then owned) sitting on a carpet and then putting hard rubber feet under the stands to cut the rocking down (this was before spikes came along so you can see how terrifyingly far back it was). We did the comparison (no volume was changed) several times and in each case, the bass improved in clarity and later on, I found with these and other speakers that if you got the bass right, the rest improved as well. At lome and with said 'Briks close to the wall behind, I jammed a cassette box between the top edge of the speakers and the wall thus making the carcasses rigid every way except downwards. The highs definitely improved/got 'snappier' (again, taking said cases away and then putting them back) but the bass didn't appear to change. Back then, it was suggested to screw some cross-head screws through the floorboards and place the spikes located into the screw heads. That sorted it, but any extra floorboard vibration didn't seem to matter so much.. Got to say forty or more years on what the people buying the house might have thought, seeing holes in the floorboards in what was 'my' room covered in carpet, the 'pile' of which closed up once said screws were removed ages later...
So to this day, I can't understand the newish fad for decoupling the speakers from the floor and allowing the boxes to wobble around. Sorry, but that's my experience and conditioning!!! 'It's different therefore it's better!' is the cry I so often read! One chap living in a flat in a converted Victorian house with wooden floors and a sound-sensitive neighbour below did use a set of Gaia-style decouplers under his stands and rated them highly at minimising bass transmission to the flat downstairs, so i have to give credit where due as for him, the compromise of using them suits both him and the neighbour-relations
Now, I have to say that the original Isobarik stands weren't too rigid themselves. Certainly they were solid in a vertical plane and front to back was OK as well, but you could make the cabinets 'boing' sideways if you tapped them firmly on a top side edge while resting fingers on the other side. As all the 'energy' of these things was front to back and up and down, it obviously didn't matter so much initially, although much improved box-frame stands came along some years later with mdf based fillers for thre eof the voids in each stand to make them solid in all planes and the recommendation was to put an old jumper in each of the cavities to break up any refpections or whatever going on. By this time I was moving on, but the NS1000M's I replaced them with were also placed on spiced (at the bottom) stands. The idea was a simple one. The cones-n-domes of the speaker ONLY should move, but NOT the boxes and especially the front baffle! I remember when KEF started decoupling the bass drivers from their front baffles and although there were undoubted measured improvements steady state, music with forceful percussion sounded horrible on each model thus equipped with a 'phat' bloated kind of quality not really borne out in steady state response plots of the period I remember. (another music destroyer was the 'positec' protection that some speaker crossovers began to be fitted with at this time, soon abandoned)
What to put between stand and speaker bottom? I saw the severe damage done to the underside of speakers sat on top spikes and the Isobariks when placed on modified stands with nicely radiused top 'points' would actually sink up to the 'shoulder' of said points given time - UGH!!! We found some clear self adhesive 'bump-on' style feet 12mm x 3.7mm approx. from RS components (similar types can be got all over) and these stopped smaller speakers sliding off the stands and didn't squash when larger boxes were placed on their stands. being clear, they don't stain wood speaker boxes nor wooden floors if used between stand and floor but care needs to be taken with heavier speakers that said feet don't 'creep' as some do.
Lastly, one of our accessory suppliers used to sell us 'spike shoes,' two inch diameter or so nicely finished metallic discs with an indent in the top for spikes to locate in and rubbery pads to sit on the floor. Perfect for concrete but the blacking in the rubbery bottoms could stain nicely finished wooden flooring. greyish coloured rubbery pads followed and this sorted it. I think Linn did some, added their markup to it and called them Skeets from memory.
So, what does this tired old eejit use now under his 'BeeBeeCee inspired' thin wall boxes? I use aforementioned clear feet stuck on a couple of custom sized oak lamp tables to sit the carcasses on and said four poster table-legs sit straight on carpet!!! 'Sounds' ok to me but these types of ported thin wall speakers don't seem sensitive to being 'held' still while only the drive units move as the baffles may well 'flex' albeit very very slightly, the ports usually fitted adding to an organic 'bloooom' that some of these models can exhibit low down. Herself is expressing dislike of the tables now, so maybe I'll go all sheep-like and try some UK made 'HiFi racks' black wooden stands, but these are expensive (even at trade prices) and look a bit 'posh' for the sake of it. I'll have to check 'em out in more depth, but they at least will have spikes on the bottom to properly couple to our concrete floor
Here endeth the mini-essay above...
Is the cat really being skinned?
Yes, sylomer is good. I use the Sonic Design feet, also sylomer.These will do the job...
PSSY0035125-SR110 - PolySound Sylo High End Lautsprecher Füße, Schwin, 8,90 €
Persönlicher Support: ? 0931 – 30699733 für Ihre Fragen rund um: PolySound-Akustik - PSSY0035125-SR110 - SYLO - Schwingungsdämpfer - Hear the difference: Di
It may feel wrong but physics tells you it reduce speaker movement as long as the wobble frequency is below the lowest frequency that the speaker can reproduce. Same principle for the arm-cartridge resonance. No one would place it in the audible spectrum, but rather below 20 Hz.
