Should I add sand to the mix or leave well alone

[isuckedmandelsonslemons]

I can't believe how much pleasure I'm getting from my new system or how much time I'm spending listening to music.

I'm madly in love with my Usher 6381 speakers (thanks Andy) but I'm strangely drawn to tampering with them.

The Ushers have a compartment that can be filled with sand or lead shot. It is alleged that this will give me a better and more controlled bass.

My dilemma is that I don't think there's much wrong with the bass (either the amount or the quality) but how will I know unless I try?

So, waddya reckon. Fill 'em with sand or leave well alone?

Harry

[Reid Malenfant]

Fill them with dry sand, i think you might be surprised at the increase in bass clarity ;) It might not be louder, but chances are it'll be cleaner :)

[The Grand Wazoo]

Get yerself some balloons & some kiln dried sand from the Early Learning Centre (it pours through a funnel better when properly dried). Weigh equal amounts of sand into several balloons - not too much in each one. Put a few in the speakers & see what happens. Try with more or less - it's cheap & worth a go, surely?

Cheers

[isuckedmandelsonslemons]

I'd been warned that you lot were nutters but that proves it. I'm sitting here actually SERIOUSLY thinking about filling balloons with sand from the ELC.

I suppose there is only one way to find out eh?

[Ali Tait]

Who warned you we were nutters eh? eh?

[Alex_UK]

Make sure they are only RED balloons. Any other colour will suck the treble out. Also, 99 in each speaker would be best.

Nutters, nutters, whose callng us nutters? I'll 'ave 'em, I will! ;)

[The Grand Wazoo]

Or you could play it safe & use condoms..............

[Barry]

Or you could play it safe & use condoms..............

Best to practice 'safe sax', when listening to jazz ...........

[Welder]

Dont know why you dont do the job properly and chuck in a couple of handfulls of cement and a cup or two of water.

[Jonboy]

you don't need to go to the ELC, just go to a builders merchant and ask for kiln dried sand or block paving joint sand, this is the sand used for filling the block joints in block paving( for driveways)

I have used this to fill home made speaker stands to good effect, if its at all wet its a pain to use and won't flow

[Spectral Morn]

It is very very important as has already been said to use only kiln dried sand. If there is any moisture at all it will damage the wood work of the speakers.

Not heard of using balloons before but to be honest I think the sand alone is fine. Measure it out into equal amounts and fill each speaker with the same amount. If you over fill the sound will become too dead and sat on. Its important if you over fill that you again remove exactly the same amount from each speaker. Use a measuring jug.

Lead shot is fine in metal stands mixed with sand but it can add too much mass and the mass will be unevenly positioned within the cavity of the speaker. This can effect the sound.


Regards D S D L

[MartinT]

Hi Harry

From another Usher user: I bought 60kg of recycled lead shot from a yacht keel making company, although you can get similar from metal recycling merchants. I used a section of curved pipe to get 30kg into each speaker compartment and a right pain it was too.

The result is well worth it: tighter, deeper bass and an incredibly structural basis to the sound. Another side-benefit is that no-one would even dream of trying to steal them :)

[DSJR]

Not "massy," but I'm told that dry (!) cat-litter does a very good job with filling voids...

[Alex_UK]

Dave (DSJR) - just noticed your special title - like it! :lol:

Sorry for the interruption, Harry.

[DSJR]

It was once a "term of endearment" a long time ago ;)

[isuckedmandelsonslemons]

Well, the missus was planning to settle down to watch the X-factor drivel and I had nowt better to do so I headed down to the local Co-op for two bags of heavyweight cat litter. A fiver lighter and with my bags bulging I proceeded to divi up small plastic sandwich bags with cat litter. They have now been placed in the voids in the big Ushers and I'm now deciding what to listen to. I want smooth, rhythmic bass. I think Jamiroquai may suffice.

If this doesn't work I'll be encouraging my cat Eric to shit even more than he normally does.

[The Grand Wazoo]

Hah! it's funny you mention cat shit because I was going to warn you that if you chose to follow Jon's advice and buy sand from a builder's yard, that you should watch out for 'unusually large grains' in the sand heap.

[isuckedmandelsonslemons]

Hah! it's funny you mention cat shit because I was going to warn you that if you chose to follow Jon's advice and buy sand from a builder's yard, that you should watch out for 'unusually large grains' in the sand heap.

For many years I ran a specialist garden plant nursery. I used to buy peat, bark, vermiculite etc in bulk and mix my own compost in large batches. The compost used to be outside for a few days until I got time to bag it. I can't tell you the number of times I've been potting up plants and was overwhelmed by the smell as I forgot that the lump I'd just squashed with my fingers wasn't necessarily a lump of peat.

And you don't want to know the dead rat story.

[goraman]

NO! not just sand but a 50/50 mix of no.12 lead shot and kilm dryed white sand.
This will give maximum dampaning and mass,also use a little blue tack to secure them to the stands.

[isuckedmandelsonslemons]

After a couple of hours of listening I'm pretty sure the cat litter hasn't done anything to improve the bass. Indeed (and I might be regarded as mad for saying this) I feel it has made the top end less sweet.

Just not enough mass in the cat litter I guess.

Also the bags were slightly over-filled making them hard to get through the holes and a few of them burst all over the carpet. I'm going to have to get that lot up or Eric will see it as an open invitation to shit near the Ushers.

I'm now thinking I'll leave well alone. I was happy with the sound after all.

All of this 'I wonder if I did . . .' is bloody annoying.

[hifi_dave]

We used cat litter for years as a very effective filler but it's a case of horses-for-courses. Sometimes the damping material does make things worse, so you need to try it and see, as you did.

[DSJR]

The names we call our cats :lol:

I knew of cats named Colin, Doodie, Tootsie and another named Splodge, but at the moment, next-door's Mungo is king for me.

Sorry the cat-litter didn't work out for you. there are two things happening here. One is possible reflective resonances in the voids which cat litter would deal with, the other is the mass aspect, which in this case wasn't dealt with. Perhaps you have already good coupling to the floor?

[MartinT]

After a couple of hours of listening I'm pretty sure the cat litter hasn't done anything to improve the bass

You need a massy medium for mass loading, as I said lead shot does the business with the Ushers.