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Cliff
12-05-2011, 10:56
Thought I would share a couple of tweaks which I have discovered and which help get me closer to my music.
One is very cheap and recent, the other not so recent and not so cheap, but both are very pleasant surprises.

I love my single-driver speakers, which I have had for 3-4 years now, and probably will have till the last, but I have always struggled a bit with their feet, thin little threaded spikes which give a fast, tight coupling to the floor and are essential to the speakers' performance. The floor tip is pointed or spiked, but a rounded "cap" is provided presumably to protect floors.

Once I moved to my new digs, I quickly discovered that even with the use of the caps, the speakers were creating little divots in the wood floor, but also that I was getting a good bit of floor sound from the speakers, and that vibrations were traveling through the suspended wood floor, through the spiked coupling into the speaker body. If I put my hand on the speaker wood base, for instance, I could feel vibrations from the clothes washing machine in the next room. Not good.

So I experimented with interfaces between speaker spikes and the floor.
I am a firm believer in the salubrious qualities of natural materials in audio systems, particularly wood. First I tried thin birch bases under the speakers, and it sounded good, but i had problems with warping of the many pieces I had. Next moved on to audiophile brass coupling discs. But still got too much floor sound and a tilted up frequency response.Up next were thicker birch platforms/ bases cut down to appropriate size. These were very good. Gone seemingly completely were floor vibrations and "floor sound' in the bass. It really seemed I was hearing the speakers and music much more divorced from the room sound. Plus they were very flat, no warping problems.
Ultimately, though, I became concerned that they were too thick, raising my speakers too high, and were maybe doing too good of a job.:scratch:

What i came up with is little, round wooden discs of about 1 1/4 inches in diameter and a few millimeters thick. Goldilocks!
I first found some on the internet and then went to my local crafts store where I got two packs of 6 for a couple of bucks.
They work like a charm. They are very flat and smooth, and I place each spike on a disc minus the protective spike caps for a solid coupling which doesn't affect the height very much, looks pretty good and sounds the best yet.

I am including a pic-- and highly recommended these for light to medium weight speakers which employ spikes and are used on wood or other solid surface floors.

Will mention the other tweak later, this one got a bit long.

Cheers, Cliff

zanash
12-05-2011, 12:57
interesting as you have paralleled my same research ....if you can call it that ...

my speakers martin logan aerius i's come with nasty little button feet threaded in the usual holes . These didn't last long ...and were swapped for threaded spikes ...these had to be good as everyone knows you have to spike everything !...not !

so off these came and I built some threaded door knobs [ hard wood from wilco.....bliss nirvana ..well not quite

seening some articles I tried using the behringer roomanalizer thingy ...had that in place for a year ..then I discovered aurelex foam ...in particular mopads ...so to check if they were any good out came the behringer ...and its not gone back ...I've cured all my room ills by sitting my floorstanders on the mopads ...they even till the panel hybrids to the right angle ....

moral ..don't believe in the herd mentality get out there and try things ...

oh yes big bubble wrap works quite well too ...when you want to isolate rather than couple !

colinB
12-05-2011, 15:55
Interesting experiment. I feel vibrations through the gappy wooden floor and know that cant be right.
Tried some spike cups that did nothing. I will try the wooden spacers.
I can also vouch for the Auralex foam.
I saw some scraps on ebay and stuck it on some ply wood. I basically copied the subwoofer platform they do. Putting the sub on top was a big improvement.

Cliff
12-05-2011, 16:33
Good wood part 2: The Auralex Partscience Space Array.

These are diffusors made of some wood or other which I can't remember right now. But they are very light and yet strong. Properly installed they float about 1 inch or so out from the wall on foam cubes which are supplied with the necessary hardware. These are NOT cheap ($600 for 2, unfortunately), but are very effective and just sound very good/right to me.

Drywall is not very good acoustically, at least to me. It sounds, well, bright.
I think plaster imparts a similar, although maybe less objectionable, sound.
When the space array are placed at first reflection points, especially over drywall, an immediate reduction in artificial brightness is noticed along with a warming, but not darkening, of sound. They create a more natural and spacious sound. Plus they look cool. When i had some people over and had a set of two of these on the wall behind and centered between the speakers, one person commented that they really liked our "wood art".

In the past I haves used acoustical products from Room Tunes, ASI, Echo busters, and some others. These are my favorites by far. I am getting two more to use in my new set up, but ouch! on the price.

Cliff
12-05-2011, 16:54
Hi ColinB,

Suspended wood floors can be a challenge, can't they?, but ultimately I prefer them. And the more bass your system makes, the more of a challenge it can be.
Unlike the brass discs I tried, the wood ones seem to impart vey little sound of their own, except for a very little bit of warmth.

And I agree with Zanash, trust your ears and not the herd-- unless the herd happens to be right, for a change.

Cheers, Cliff

Thing Fish
12-05-2011, 18:01
I always enjoy wood...:eyebrows:

Alex_UK
12-05-2011, 18:18
Well, since I had my wood floor fitted I now use feet intended for office furniture!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Adjustable-Feet-M8-8-pack-Chrome-Caps-desk-furniture-/320685569272?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4aaa5974f8#ht_500wt_922

Described as "rubber" but actually, they're hard plastic - I've put cork pads on the bottom, and works really well. Need to finalise stands once we've bought new sofas (need to get the height right, natch!) but these are doing fine in the interim.

Alex_UK
12-05-2011, 18:23
I always enjoy wood...:eyebrows:

And I so resisted "wood" jokes! :lol:

colinB
12-05-2011, 18:36
I feel inspired to try some cone feet from Russ Andrews.
If i buy cable elevators please ban me from the forum.

Thing Fish
12-05-2011, 18:37
I'm not as restrained as you Alex...;)

Cliff
12-05-2011, 20:46
"If i buy cable elevators please ban me from the forum."

I had cable elevators in the past. They actually work.:eek:

Permaban?

Alex_UK
12-05-2011, 21:02
:lol:

The Grand Wazoo
12-05-2011, 21:19
Did you ever try the wall stand-offs?

Thing Fish
12-05-2011, 21:20
I find aligning the wood in my woodchip wallpaper helps. Takes months picking them all out and regluing them back though...!

Still what price sonic perfection eh...?

Cliff
12-05-2011, 21:31
I am assuming that wall-standoffs are audio related--I think I have of something like that.
Never heard them...ugh, used them.
But I did use polycrystal cable elevators for my speaker cables and for a long run of interconnect I was using at the time. They lighten the balance, placing more of an emphasis on speed and air.
When I used them with Nordost SPM speaker cable, all digital DCs and horns, and SET, man, was that system fast!
I was also using Argent Acoustic room lenses at the time.
I was WHACK!:eyebrows:

Cliff

The Grand Wazoo
12-05-2011, 21:36
No, I apologise, I was merely perpetuating the long term AoS joke about keeping cables off walls. If cable wall stand-off's do exist, I'd really rather not know about them!

Alex_UK
12-05-2011, 21:39
No, I apologise, I was merely perpetuating the long term AoS joke about keeping cables off walls. If cable wall stand-off's do exist, I'd really rather not know about them!

:lol: Walls are not the problem. Skirting boards are the nemesis. Evil barstewards, skirting boards.

Welder
12-05-2011, 22:00
It works out a lot cheaper to hire in a Buddhist monk to levitate stuff ;)
Works for me, cept I had a trainee last time and all the bass went orf :doh:

Didn’t matter how I tried I just couldn’t balance all the kit in the air and get comfortable.
I tried the Bonsai trees trick, but all them negative waves made the leaves fall off. Spose if I had played something other than the usual pop shite I like things might have worked out better, but hey, we’re supposed to be enjoying the music


I used to be an audiophile but I’m alright now……………..:eyebrows:

The Grand Wazoo
12-05-2011, 22:31
:lol: Walls are not the problem. Skirting boards are the nemesis. Evil barstewards, skirting boards.

But how can that be? Skirting boards are made of wood....and wood is our friend, is it not?

chelsea
13-05-2011, 21:32
Is it not better to de couple from a wooden floor?
I used to use blu tak then paving slab the speakers.

colinB
13-05-2011, 22:31
Is it not better to de couple from a wooden floor?
I used to use blu tak then paving slab the speakers.

I use partingtons half filled with sand on spikes on Atacama cup things and get a lot of vibration through the floor. I use blu tac under the speakers too.

Thing Fish
13-05-2011, 22:37
Seems to me there are no rules when it comes to perceived sound.

Some decouple, some don't.

Some clamp, Some don't.

Some direct, Some belt.

Some analogue, Some digital.

Some Valve, Some transistor.

Bla bla bla bla bla..........

Basically the rules of sound club are -

1. There are no rules.
2. There are no rules.
3. There are no rules.

If you like it you like it.
If you don't then you don't. Simples...;)

colinB
13-05-2011, 22:46
Can be an expensive business trying things out when theres no difinitive rules.
I did just make a subwoofer platform for a tenner that made a big difference so im feeling pretty smug at the moment. It sort of cancels out some of the expensive mistakes ive made in the past.

colinB
13-05-2011, 22:57
Sorry i forgot i mentioned my platform already. Memory is going a bit:rolleyes:

Cliff
13-05-2011, 23:26
Is it not better to de couple from a wooden floor?
I used to use blu tak then paving slab the speakers.

In my set-up the spike is coupled to the disc and the disc decouples from floor, somewhat.

As far as absolutes or rules for audio, I can think of a few.

Wood sounds better than concrete or most other materials.

NOS tubes always sound better than tubes produced after about 1980.

Paper speaker drivers sound more human that exotic material drivers.

Tweeters suck.

Analog is more satisfying than digital, for music.:)

Cheers,
Cliff

Rare Bird
14-05-2011, 07:48
Seems to me there are no rules when it comes to perceived sound.

Some decouple, some don't.

Some clamp, Some don't.

Some direct, Some belt.

Some analogue, Some digital.

Some Valve, Some transistor.

Bla bla bla bla bla..........

Basically the rules of sound club are -

1. There are no rules.
2. There are no rules.
3. There are no rules.

If you like it you like it.
If you don't then you don't. Simples...;)

+1

Cliff
14-05-2011, 08:51
Andre, I can't get your agreement on even one of my axioms?

What about "tweeters suck"? Surely that isn't controversial.:eyebrows:

Rare Bird
14-05-2011, 11:06
Depends which tweeters

Cliff
14-05-2011, 11:43
You are right: that axiom needs amending.

I don't like tweeters, and nobody (should) like tweeters that sound like tweeters.

I think that is better.

colinB
14-05-2011, 13:22
Agree on paper cones. Always gone back to them as they sound the most natural to me.