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Does he give them a good soak in Armor All first?
...or maybe he dips them in holy water?
Today I tried putting my ears hard up against the cabinets on which my speakers stand. As some of you already know, I have marble slabs under the speakers, which I felt isolated the cabinets and the bass efficiently. Well, I was wrong, at least partly. The foam rubber I had under the marble slabs didn't work just right, because there was a humming in the cabinets when the music played. I trusted my Nano Pads to do the job under the speakers, which I have later confirmed!
I had a big envelope, the type with bubbles in it, and wondered how that would do instead of the foam rubber pieces, ie between the marble slabs and the cabinets. I cut them into fitting pieces, and placed them under the marble slabs instead of the foam rubber pieces, and alas! Not a single vibration in the cabinets! I strongly recommend this tweak! Especially for you who have box type or stand speakers, as I can't tell how it works on floor standing speakers.
I had a piece of bubble foil when finished, and I placed that under my subwoofer (which stands on an old loudspeaker to raise it 8 or 9 inches). Result: Much cleaner bass in my listening room!
Another interesting experiment is to place a glass of water on top of a speaker cabinet and observe the tiny ripples in the water that are produced by low frequency vibration that makes its way from the floor up to the glass of water. Without music playing, of course.
There is also the added complexity of determining whether damping of cabinet vibrations, or some other mechanism, has occured or true isolation from structureborne (floor) vibration accounts for changes to the sound..
As my neighbours are home right now (And they have absolutely no sympathy for my music) I can't play very loud, but there were extremely small ripples when the glass of water stood on my sub. None on my speakers (which go down to around 60 Hz)
One day I will try to play very loud, and check again
The glass of water test is for viewing the vibration coming up from the floor (when the speakers are silent). It would only make sense that the ripples will be more noticeable when music is played, esp. loud. You can place the glass of water on top of the turntable just as easily to see how well isolated the turntable is from the floor. The motion of the surface of the water can be subtle (without music playing) depending on local environmental conditions. It might be a very gentle sloshing back and forth. Nevertheless, it should be visible, even if subtle, without music playing. Also, try placing the glass of water directly on the floor.
Tried that - no ripples whatsoever. I live in an apartment on the 1st floor, and my turntable sits on a heavy shelf secured to the wall. No ripples there either.
However I bet when my downstairs neighbour slams the door shut like she always does, the water would almost spill! Glasses in my cupboards starts to dance!
Yup, the glass of water might not be sensitive enough unless music is playing...
I have been listening to several albums since this new tweak (the bubble foil), and I am amazed how much faster and more precise the bass is, both in starting (attacks) but especially in stopping. The way it descends is soooo natural. The whole soundstage has become calmer, because the cabinets have been totally silenced. I am beginning to think that this bubble foil might even work on speakers on stands, provided the speakers are heavy enough.
I have gotten used to what I believed was a great bass, but now I know what a standing bass can sound like in my room! Tomorrow when my neighbours are at work, I might try to play some tracks with a Fender bass really loud, to get an idea of how that sounds. Anyone of you with small to medium speakers should try this, really!
Keld, question....
I'd be curious to see if you get any 'bubble fatigue' over time.
Actually, not you, but the bubble wrap.
Since it is somewhat elastic, let me know if you notice any change over time that might be related to the bubbles slowly getting squashed and changing the suspension characteristics of their performance.
You could be the first to decsribe a time cycle for bubble wrap suspension!
I don't know if that could happen to them in this circumstance or not!
Is that anything like 'bubbha fatigue'? You know, something filled with air under pressure.
Geoff: Come on! No need to do that!
Buddha: Yes, I will of course keep an eye on those bubble foils. If they lose air I might try to seal them one way or another. I imagine a spray glue might work. Those 15 x 15 inches of bubble wrap each carry 45 pounds evenly distributed from the marble slabs, the speakers and the iron discs on top of them, so you might be right.
I find that chopping my fucking head off and putting it in a jar so I can look at it works wonders.
Go ahead and knock yourself out
My first post.
Speaker stands. Get the tweets to ear level.
Get a 'new' cd player. I can't believe the 'sound' advancements in CD players from the 80s, 90s, and even 2000s.
Polish your speaker cabinets!! :>)
If you have a vintage stereo, get high quality 'vintage speaker cables'. Not easy to find, but when you do you will be a very happy camper!
What sonic effect does that have?
Mark
It's like washing your car. It always drives better after washing :-)
Hey Tom,
I just washed my car and it drives the same, but my car audio system has greatly improved! can't wait to hear the results after a good wax job :)
Best results are obtained with an earwax job.
lol! :) good one.
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