Sorbothane under speakers

[loheswaran]

I found some deflex panels at home which I am now never gonna use for speakers coz my last speaker build was rubbish.

That said can I cut these up and use them instead of spikes under speakers?

They are made of sorbothane and I hate wasting things

[vinylmagic]

Just a little hi-jack here but on the same discussion

I have some low height heavy plate metal stands sandwiching a 125mm tube. These are placed directly on carpeted wooden floor, so I bought some sorbothane feet and placed then mon the top plate to separate the speakers from the stands

IMO they made the speakers sound boomy and lost a lot of the soundstage. Removed them and put them.under my TT, which did improve the bass



Stewart

[walpurgis]

You can stand larger conventional Hi-Fi speakers on soft or hard materials but neither will isolate/decouple within the low regions of the audio band. The weight of the speaker works against you. Use whatever 'rubbery' pad materials you like, but generally the end result will be the same, your speakers will still couple with what is beneath them at bass frequencies. You may get some discernible isolation effect with small stand mount boxes, due to the lower weight. You'd need to do a frequency sweep to find out what though.

[vinylmagic]

@walpurgis

Exactly what I thought, heavy weight items can't be de-coupled using flexible materials.
I drilled out some ply and put spikes through and placed them under the stands can't say u hear any difference than having the plates directly on the floor tbh

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

[bumpy]

@walpurgis
Exactly what I thought, heavy weight items can't be de-coupled using flexible materials.

Sorry, but I would disagree with this.

Heavy items such as speakers can be acoustically isolated by flexible materials providing those flexible materials are working in their optimum range. Too hard and they are not compressed at all and are ineffective. Too soft and they will be squashed 'flat' and will be ineffective.

Here is a product made by the manufacturers of SVS subs which can support and work with heavy subwoofers. Each foot is optimised to work with weights of 35-40lbs. You just need to select the right feet to work with your speaker weight. You wouldn't put a set of springs designed for a Fiat 500 on a lorry. This is where DIY becomes problematical.

https://petertyson.co.uk/svs-soundpa...on-feet-4-pack

[bumpy]

Sorry, but I would disagree with this.

Heavy items such as speakers can be acoustically isolated by flexible materials providing those flexible materials are working in their optimum range. Too hard and they are not compressed at all and are ineffective. Too soft and they will be squashed 'flat' and will be ineffective.

Here is a product made by the manufacturers of SVS subs which can support and work with heavy subwoofers. Each foot is optimised to work with weights of 35-40lbs. You just need to select the right feet to work with your speaker weight. You wouldn't put a set of springs designed for a Fiat 500 on a lorry. This is where DIY becomes problematical.

https://petertyson.co.uk/svs-soundpa...on-feet-4-pack

Bit of an update. SVS conform their product is made from silicone rubber.

Here is a scientific summary of its properties

"The loss modulus (tan δ)* of silicone rubber is generally low, making it ill-suited for use as a vibration insulator."

So it looks like Sorbothane wins the acoustic isolation race, but its less good at supporting weight than rubbers. May be a case of having to use more feet on heavy speakers.

[I.D.S.]

I suppose that's why Max Townshend RIP used a damped spring in his isolation bases.

[bumpy]

I suppose that's why Max Townshend RIP used a damped spring in his isolation bases.

Good point. As the Beatles song goes "meeting a man from the motor trade"

Interestingly some cars also used visco-elastic suspension. I think for a few years it was used on the original mini in the 60's, but it didn't catch on.

[bumpy]

After more than enough investigation, I have ordered 2 sets of 4 of these sorbothane feet. At 70 Duro 'hardness' they will take the weight.

Total cost is less than £70. Not very pretty, but who can see them under the floor standers?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333145988...MAAOSwo4pYJIkL

[Macca]

After more than enough investigation, I have ordered 2 sets of 4 of these sorbothane feet. At 70 Duro 'hardness' they will take the weight.

Total cost is less than £70. Not very pretty, but who can see them under the floor standers?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333145988...MAAOSwo4pYJIkL

the price is reasonable, be interested to know if they do the job.