Anti Vibration Devices

[cooky1257]

Music dependent, room dependent, speaker dependent, hearing dependent and preference dependent too.

If isolating a speaker is a good thing and they actually achieve that, they should improve every situation.Being a fan of generally large and heavy loudspeakers(90kg+) from unspiked Tannoy, JBL and ATC's I can't say my suspended floor has given me any trouble at all-even as I allude to upthread significantly more input into the structure than your average little stand-mount that can barely do 50hz@90dB.

 

[Clem Fandango]

I have had a lot of trouble documented on another thread with excessive bass boom and muddied mid range in my room with my Proac DT8s which was much better moving the speakers about a 1/5 th of the way into the room.

This was a domestically unacceptable position long term so having tried socks in the ports I have made some isolation stands from sorbothane hemispheres superglued to IKEA Aptitlig bamboo chopping boards onto which I have placed the speaker bass with a layer of carpet offset between them. Not expensive as chopping bears are £8 and about £20 for sorbothane hemispheres.

This has allowed me to position the speakers much closer to the wall and has reduced the bass to more acceptable levels (subtle, however very surprisingly, it has brought forward the previously recessed midrange and in particular imaging which is now amazing. The latter may reflect the increased height of the tweeter as the speakers are now about 3-4 cm higher than they were.

This may all be my perception and psychoacoustics/ expectation bias but I now no longer am thinking about selling the Proacs and am really enjoying them for the first time!

 

[eevo1969]

I use Isoacoustics Puck 76 with my Tannoys and the effect I hear is a slight improvement in focus, timing seems better. I’m more than likely to invest in suitable pucks for my subs as they do work imo.
I did have a few sets of the mini pucks for small Proac’ and they were just as good regardless of being on speaker stands or a Kallax unit.
I tried the mini pucks under my amps & sources (not tt) and noticed no change but my kit isn’t heavy so may not have the weight to “activate” the pucks? The pucks have a maximum working weight but afaik no minimum weight requirement which I find odd as I imagine that they would need to have a weight that loads them?

 

[Purité Audio]

Traditionally shuffling the speakers backwards and forwards until you find the one quarter wavelength of the problematic frequency ( the cause of the boom) was the the only way but strictly speaking speakers should be placed close to the wall within 60cm so that you don’t introduce cancellation.
A quick sweep with REW would confirm any differences.
Keith

 

[nobeone]

If isolating a speaker is a good thing and they actually achieve that, they should improve every situation.Being a fan of generally large and heavy loudspeakers(90kg+) from unspiked Tannoy, JBL and ATC's I can't say my suspended floor has given me any trouble at all-even as I allude to upthread significantly more input into the structure than your average little stand-mount that can barely do 50hz@90dB.

Perhaps there is a misunderstanding here. I am not claiming decoupling speakers fix all ills in all rooms, or that it is definitely about preventing issues with suspended floors. I am suggesting there is an audible difference with Gaia on some speakers in some rooms. Some may prefer this, some may not. It may be all about reflected energy (as IsoAcoustics hint) from speakers through spikes back in to the speaker. It may be about energy absorbtion rather than passing in to e.g. suspended floors. It may be both. Who knows? Not me. What we can see is that they have proven a reduction in cabinet vibration while showing no change in spectrum. I am quite sure that for some speakers in some rooms the best thing is to spike them in to as solid a floor as you can. For others it may well be to decouple them in some way. I am not sure size of speaker and how big a bang they give is necessarily the decider either way. Which is why I gave a long list of all the things that may be involved