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So, newish house with bouncy wooden floors after years of solid concrete.
I like experimenting: [url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/speaker-cables-yet-again ](Speaker Cables) [/url].
I trust my ears and have an open mind.
😀
My A-level physics and tells me a material less resonant at audible frequencies (Blu-Tack, Sorbothane etc), will isolate the speaker, where a spike will couple and transmit.
It also tells me that a rigid cabinet must provide a more accurate stereo soundstage and image.
I tried to forget all that and started messing about.
🙂
In the old house with concrete floors I always spiked directly into the floor in an effort to keep the speaker cabinets/stand/floor interface as rigid as possible.
With wooden floors that didn't work - whole room just turned into a huge subwoofer.
So, let's try some isolation. 🙂
Spiked speakers on top of a granite board:
Actually a £15.99 chopping board from Tesco, with some felt pads stuck underneath - they go directly onto the wooden floor.
Result.
The speaker vibrated more, the floor less.
HiFi bollox:
Tonally accurate - a violin sounds like a violin.
Deeper and more accurate bass.
Whoo - a proper image and a soundstage. A bit less focused than when on concrete, but sooo much better than with the speakers spiked to the wooden floor.
Step two:
Remove the spikes and isolate (rather than couple) the speakers from/to the granite board.
I've only tried sticky rubber pads so far, not Sorbothane.
JML Ruggies, about a fiver a pack from Asda if you're interested.
🙂
Physical Result:
Err, wow again?
The speaker vibrates much more, the granite and the floor vibrate much less.
The bass is monumental.
I can hear stuff I've never, ever heard before.
I'll bet you a pint you can too.
It does compress and focus the image a little though - try it with one speaker, the diffence is obvious.
I am a bear of very little brain and I'm relying on 30 year old A- level physics to make sense of what I'm hearing, so all advice/opinion from sound engineers, physicists and hifi buffs most welcome.
Directional cables? 😉
Speaker cable = Crank length?
There's a damn good Venn diagram out there.
😀
Spikes are a bit shit if you have reasonably heavy cabinets.
So, isolatation between the stand and the floor. What about the interface between the speaker and the stand, should that be isolated as well?
Similar situation here after moving into a house with (sanded) suspended floor.
Large deep pile rug is the one of the most significant hi-fi upgrades I've ever made. (Mostly) sorted out the low end issues I was having with certain recordings (Aphex Syro, etc) and everything else just sounds better.
Rug was £400 though so slighty less bang for buck than your rubber pads. FWIW the speaker stands are on rubber feet, not spiked and the speakers are blu-tacked to the stands.
Interesting.
My speakers are fairly compact floorstanders (TDL RTL IIs) but sound quite 'large'.
Since moving into my current house, they have sounded pretty harsh, bright at the top end & boomy at the bottom end. I have put this mainly down to being in a larger room without any carpet. They are spiked & the spikes are sitting on 2p pieces to stop them buggering up the floor. I have always thought I should do something to improve matters, but never bothered. This might spur me into action!!
I had great success isolating our Dolce Gusto machine from the kitchen worktop (it use to make a terrible racket) with some cut-in-half squash balls.....
Hmmmm, my Wife is down in that there London this weekend, so this might give me the perfect opportunity to have a fiddle....
[i]Hmmmm, my Wife is down in that there London this weekend, so this might give me the perfect opportunity to have a fiddle.... [/i]
And after you've finished that, washed your hands and deleted your browser history you can take a look at your speakers 🙂
Lols.
TDLs are likely to be very sensitive to the room. I have a folded horn sub (pretty much a transmission-line) in a large boxy room and its seriously sensitive to position.
WRT Ruggies, they may well leech plasticiser, so beware melting your vinyl wrap! Genuine Blu Tac had always been good enough for me.
£400 rug upgrade, value? What?
I suggest cannabis. It is well known to significantly enhance musical appreciation (though it may well NOT help if you actually try to play an instrument), and you can buy a lot of good grass for £400.
£400 rug upgrade, value? What?
We were buying it anyway. 😉 Besides, it really ties the room together. I didn't say it was good value, cheaper options are available, etc
I gave the Sorbothane and Granite chopping board a go with my Subwoofer and was quite surprised at the difference it made on a carpeted wooden floor. A couple of friends also commented that it sounded more punchier even though I had not mentioned the changes.
Sub
Sorbothane
Granite
Carpet
Wooden Floor
I also tried
Sub
Sorbothane
Granite
Sorbothane
Carpet
Wooden Floor
This was way too wobbly! 😯
I also use the Sorbothane under my PS4 which cuts the noise down quite a bit!
it really ties the room together
All is forgiven 🙂
[IMG] 
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IHN - MemberAnd after you've finished that, washed your hands and deleted your browser history you can take a look at your speakers
😆
Funnily enough, there is a list of jobs round the house as long as my arm that need doing.
But, I have just had some new SLX brakes delivered for my Inbred that need fitting and I want to service both pairs of forks (Reba's on the Inbred & Fox on the FSR) and fiddle with my bar position on the road bike & fit some new bar tape (that I bought last August and still haven't fitted)!
It's gonna be a busy weekend, what with all that and 'fiddling' with my speakers!! And the DIY list too, of course!
gofasterstripes - MemberTDLs are likely to be very sensitive to the room. I have a folded horn sub (pretty much a transmission-line) in a large boxy room and its seriously sensitive to position.
To be honest this is the first time I've noticed a problem with them in all the various rooms they have been put in. I think once we re-decorate & get some carpet down, they will be fine. But, we did a quick decorate last year just to freshen the room up, so a proper re-decorate won't happen for a while! Granite chopping boards & squash balls it is - the missus will be pleased!
Big bare rooms with parallel walls can be awful.
If you stand in the middle of ours and clap you can hear the echo for several seconds! Yuk.
The upshot of this is no stereo image and a very rough sound if you turn it up.
I bought one of [url= http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Auralex_Isolation_Risers.html ]THESE[/url] for my bass guitar rig. The sound improvement is massive. The rehearsal room we use was / is a big hollow empty box with a fantastic sprung wooden floor, great for dancing, terrible for sound, especially for bass. The sound is now really tight and punchy, it gives a more accurate tone now compared to the boomy big box that it was.
I've struggled for years to get a sound that was consistent, spent thousands on upgrading kit chasing the impossible. £80 lump of high density foam and MDF and hey presto.
I made a version of the auralex thingy for my sub. Got a piece of high density foam on eBay and used an offcut of ply, covered in stretchy car carpet. The isolation made a big difference to the quality of sound on a suspended floor. I really must try a similar experiment with my speakers.
I used a granite chopping board and with cut-in-half squash balls to isolate my sub from a wooden floor - worked a treat.
Then used something like [url= http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?9906-Blue-Horizon-Spike-Shoes ]these[/url] under the floorstander spikes. Same principle - hard top, rubber underneath
If you really want to test it you should have sat in the same chair with a blindfold and asked sue to switch around the speaker mounts 🙂
You are right to do this with budget options though, the differences are tiny IMO
The speakers sat on two layers of offcut carpet squares would be my choice as per Sam and bigblackshed solutions, they'll do the same job