Speaker stand musings

[YNWaN]

OK, choose to believe that if you like.

[awkwardbydesign]

Decoupling and absorbing are different things. It won't really be doing any absorbing as there just isn't going to be enough of it. As far as decoupling, the effectiveness will be frequency and amplitude dependant.

True, they're different, but my point is that they are both different from transmission. And similar in that. But I don't understand why there isn't enough vibration to be absorbed; isn't that the point of Sorbothane? Vibration to heat, and Rexton said it becomes sticky when warm. I assumed he meant it got warm in use; vibration to heat.
On the point of needing an escape path for vibration, then how or why do Max Townshend's Stella Stands work? I use a homemade version with heavy speakers and they stop vibrations reaching the floor, which means the floor is not excited, which makes for a cleaner soundscape.

[YNWaN]

Decoupling and coupling (or transmission as you put it) are two sliding halves of the same. All methods of joining will have an element of decoupling and coupling, the proportion of each dependant on the joining method used.

The issue isn't that there "isn't enough vibration to be absorbed", the issue is that there is too much vibration, not too little. The conversion of vibration into heat is significantly less efficient than you may think and the Sorbothane will not be perceptibly changing temperature because of this process. Sorbothane is, essentially, an over-damped polymer spring - if the load it is asked to support is too low, or too high, it will be under, or over, compressed and its isolation (decoupling) properties will be very much less (just like a spring in compression).

I would have to look at the stands you describe, but my experience indicates that any decoupling of the speaker from the floor gives a negative result compared to rigid coupling. Where this may not be true is if the floor is of poor construction or is very flexible (flooring grade chipboard perhaps, for example). The drive units energise the cabinet, primarily through compression of the internal air volume, but also directly. If the cabinet is isolated, this vibration is more prone to feeding back into the drive units effectively acting as low level echo - sorry, could say more but no time, have to go.

[awkwardbydesign]

The issue isn't that there "isn't enough vibration to be absorbed", the issue is that there is too much vibration, not too little. The conversion of vibration into heat is significantly less efficient than you may think and the Sorbothane will not be perceptibly changing temperature because of this process.

Ah, I misunderstood your statement. So you meant there wasn't enough ABSORPTION. That makes more sense, so the Sorbothane is mainly coupling, or not, depending.
So Rexton, what are you doing to your Sorbothane to get it hot? Should I ask?

[synsei]

Perhaps Andrew found its G spot???