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Isolation feet and speaker stands

Interesting, but I guess there are different kind of requirements to absorb a milling machine vibrations compared to the very fine vibrations coming from a loudspeaker. If the feet are adjusted for 600kg machine vibrating like hell, it won't work as well for something much lighter. It'll probably just pass through the speaker vibrations.
 
These products remind me of the Koni's and the like from my earlier biking days, trying to achieve the best dampening at speed, without loosing the feel of the surface or making the bike too bendy. Unlike speaker supports, they could save your life though (or help you go more heroically).

I have a 7 layer damping system on my speakers:
  • 4mm silicone rubber washers
  • Rubber factory feet
  • 10mm Ali foam pads (alas, we don't have Addis Pads here, so I have to make do with other 50c ones)
  • 25mm bamboo slabs
  • 10mm nylon vertically aligned piles
  • 1mm polyester dampening mat
  • 11mm of 30kg/m3 density resilient foam (i.e. the last 3 are just a fancy way of saying 'carpet')
All up about 20 quid of additives. Typical advice would be that all that is bettered by a rigid disk with spikes (to undo all of that 'horrible', unmeasured dampening currently provided by the carpet layers), ditching the rest, and adding some feet and/or platforms over the disks (like Townshend) that would cost about half of what I paid for the speakers (more or less).

Their is very little try-before-you-buy in this part of the world. What is the chance I would find the benefits of such an expense to be marginal?
 
I've experimented with affordable solutions also. IME, either couple the speakers as rigidly as possible to something very heavy (like concrete floor) or then try to decouple them as effectively as possible. Just putting something soft and rubbery under the speakers in hope of getting them isolated, hasn't worked for me. Usually the sound gets softer and less in focus. I even removed the felt pads between the granite slabs and floor because the sound was better without anything between the granite and floor.

Sylomer is an interesting material, and very affordable: https://frankenschaum.de/PolySound-Sylo-High-End-Lautsprecher-Fuesse-Schwingungsdaempfer-8er-Set
 
stevec67 said:
All these custom feet are great and they look cool, but wow, the cost. If you are buying such a thing, I recommend that you try a few DIY options, such as rubber door stops, machine feet (look in an engineering catalogue), boards with Blu tak between the layers, folded towels, old socks (yes, I am serious) before you part with some hundreds of pounds. If the new shiny feet are better, happy days. But if you find that a rubber door stop looks and sounds just as good, and costs 50p, then you have a winner.
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The door stops idea is a really good one and worth a try
 
Iain said:
The door stops idea is a really good one and worth a try
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As are a plethora of existing products. Witness the Addis mat and rubber dots thread that came out of someone prepared to do his own engineering development work and carry out a few simple and cheap experiments. This is a simple damped spring application. Like any such system, you are tuning the damping to springing ratio to optimise the results. It really doesn't need to cost hundreds of pounds.
 
I use it, and i heard no difference, but gaia with floorstand speakers, do have a very huge difference in sq, not worth to use gaia with stands
 
Patu said:
Installed Auva 50's tonight. First impressions are very positive. They add depth and size to the sound and obviously everything sounds clearer since the room isn't playing along that much. Also I like the bass performance more than GAIAs. Auvas don't seem to take anything away from the punch and immediacy, while at the same time they add more reach to the bass. Overall bigger and more natural sound, very nice.
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Great to hear that you are very pleased with the AUVA 50's which as we both know have a completely unique approach to vibration absorption. As you have found for yourself they work very well indeed as indeed I found out myself a few months ago.
 
Ok, having set up my system, with the speakers still on absorbent feet atop the carpeting (less than ideal, I know), the bass was very slow and mushy compared to my previous house. I will definitely try the AUVA 50 now. I'll report back after I've purchased and tried them.
 
A loudspeaker has quite a job to do. It must produce pure sounds without making extra sounds itself! Quite a tall order. One of the biggest problems is cabinet vibrations. There are many efforts incorporated to try to reduce these cabinet vibrations, but they are not totally effective.

But placing the loudspeaker on 'isolating materials' only exacerbates the problem, as the cabinet vibrations have nowhere to go, and so build in amplitude as the music continues to excite the panels.

My 'cure' uses the metal spikes the Usher floor-standers came with, but pressed deeply into slabs of mdf, which rest on a carpet over a concrete floor. This has made quite a difference to the bass region in particular. And I can A/B the 'speakers, as I have the mdf under the right channel, only, as there is not enough room to place the mdf mat under the left channel, atm. The left channel stands on a slate slab. There is an obvious difference.
 
Helen Bach said:
But placing the loudspeaker on 'isolating materials' only exacerbates the problem, as the cabinet vibrations have nowhere to go, and so build in amplitude as the music continues to excite the panels.
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Depends upon the nature of the isolating materials. A bell isolated by being suspended will ring like, erm, a bell. As you say the energy has nowhere to go. However if you isolate it on, say, a folded towel, the towel will impart enough damping to stop it ringing.
 
Putting three or four 'legs' on the bottom of the 'speaker' is not going to damp much at all. In your example, the towel is damping the bell, not the support. So like damping the loudspeaker cabinet. That would work to a degree, as many 'speakers' are made of mdf or ply, but these materials are very poor at damping. Isolate the 'speaker' and the vibrations will last for a long time, and increase in amplitude.
 
interesting Helen . Last time i put Townshend `wobbly` stella stands under my summit x it made such an incredible difference to bass control and musicality

Before that i used sonoritys [ fishie on here ] incredible sonority design stands which drain away the energy i believe . with B&W 800 series

from the review

Whilst Sonority were experimenting with all the various materials and configurations, it rapidly became apparent that the problem of isolating the equipment from the outside world was only part of the story. Drawing internal resonance out of the electronics themselves was just as important,hence the upward facing conesdesigned to bypass the supported unit’s feet and couple the chassis directly to the dispersive layers of the platform.
 
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