Speaker isolation for wooden floors

Looks ok for small speakers, a folded towel would probably give an idea of the effect. As long as it had a good nap.

Or a piece of camping mat (foam) cut to size.

 

I wonder if there is some general misunderstanding here re the difference between felt / soft materials and sorbothane. The latter is completely different; it dampens vibrations because it is Visco-elastic. It dissipates vibrational energy by turning it into heat. There are relatively few materials that have that property.

 

I have used half spheres (elastic bouncy ball material) and felt pads because I wanted the combined effect of both materials to decouple the speakers from the floor as much as possible without suspending the speakers from the ceiling or spending large amounts of cash on an experiment.
I also have 8 small Staedtler erasers (rubbers) that I may sandwich betwixt the granite slabs, but I would add a felt pad to the top and bottom of the erasers as I want to decouple, not provide a route for vibration to travel between the granite layers.

 

Yes there is misunderstanding. Damping reduces the magnitude of resonances and, for example, is normally used to reduce the displacement of the walls of speaker cabinet by attaching damping material to them. For a passive isolator damping reduces the efficiency of the isolation and is undesirable. An exception is if there is a significant amount of forcing at frequencies around that of the resonance of the isolator and the resulting amplified motion causes problems (e.g. footfalls for a turntable making the arm jump). In this case reduced isolation can be traded for smaller deflections at the resonant frequency of the isolator. Note that in a well designed passive isolator the resonant frequency should be a decade or more below the lowest frequency that needs to be isolated. So for speakers that is a resonant frequency of a few Hz.

So what matters most is the softness of spring provided by the half squash ball, sorbothane, rubber eraser, inner tube, or whatever that is used for the isolation. A slab underneath the isolator can spread the load and avoid the problem of feet lying between joists where it is springy rather than firm (springy floor -> more movement -> more power (force*velocity) transferred to floor). A slab above the isolator can add mass and reduce the resonant frequency of the isolator increasing it's effectiveness.

 

I don't really understand the jargon.

But so far, what I have done makes the music sound better.

 

If you can find a pair of Mana Sound Bases the right sort of size they would improve the sound and dramatically cut down on the bass that's getting dumped into the floor. Getting rare now though.

 

Years ago I used a paving slab on top of the carpet to great effect, I know I’ll get lambasted by the de-couple / isolation brigade (tongue firmly in cheek ) but it just worked!
I was single at the time so aesthetics didn’t matter, when I met my now wife she couldn’t believe what I’d done!
Needless to say I wouldn’t have got away with it since we met

 

My wife likes the granite slabs under the speakers. She can hear a difference.

This is the joy of having a dedicated HiFi room.

 

It made a “night and day” difference for me, our current house has concrete floors so no need to go to such lengths now

just as well ........

 

I wonder how RR's balls worked, back in March??

 

Ask Douglas Adams.

 

Yoga blocks?

cork - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001ILTMAY/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

foam - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00N8QE2BQ/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

 

Spikes onto 2p pieces on top of a pile of old magazines

(Currently a single bloke)

 

We (Mein Schatz and I) had a small session yesterday.

The wife noticed the difference again.

We were playing Madonna 'The Immaculate Collection' on record from 1990.

Express Yourself and Vogue sounded very different, they are bass-heavy tunes and the room normally joins in. Not any more.
The double granite sandwich with various material separators has made a noticeable difference.

One of the cheapest improvements to the sound of my stereo that I have ever made.



edit: I do not sell granite sandwiches.

Or egg and cress.

 

That’s certainly a cheap option. If it works. I prefer Isoacoustic Gaïa 3 under my speakerx

 

It has often been recommended that if the loudspeakers are going to sit on a carpeted concrete floor, then spikes are the answer. I went along with this for a while, not really understanding the reasoning (if there was any). When I eventually did reason it out, I decided to place a 25mm thick veneered mdf board between the spiked floor standers and the carpeted floor. Sound quality improved, especially the bass, which tended to be a bit soggy, even for vented jobbies.

For those interested, the reasoning goes something like this. The drive units push (and pull) the cabinets, which tend to wobble a bit. Spikes provide a firm enough base (sic) but don't allow the vibrations to enter the concrete floor, quantitatively. Placing the floor standers on the veneered mdf helped, allowing, at least, semi-quantitative transfer of vibrations, with the carpet adding some damping to the mdf, which has very little.

 

Yes there is a thread on the wigwam forum that show you how the DIY them, plywood platforms and springs. The Townshend ones tough reputedly good as crazey prices.

 

Sonic Designs damping feet come in different compliances to suit the weight of speaker, which probably makes them more likely to be successful.

http://www.sonicdesign.co.uk/homepage.html

 

Yup, these work really well. They came with my Larsen 8 speakers, the rear and front feet differ to allow for the difference in loading - the rear of my speakers are heavier due to location of the drivers.

 

Try Madonna's 'Erotica' for super heavy bass test