Speaker Decoupling Tweak

[Early B.]

Bought two butcher blocks from Marshall's ($14.99 ea.) to set undernearth my floorstanding speakers. The butcher blocks are 14" x 14" x 1.75" and have feet on them. Works great! They raise the speakers 2.5" off the carpeted floor.

My speakers were resting directly on the floor, no spikes (per manufacturer's instructions). My goal was to minimize the vibrations the bass was sending to the floor and to tighten up the bass a bit. I planned to purchase a pair of Auralex Subdudes ($49.95 ea.) for this purpose, but decided to use these butcher blocks instead.

The bass sounds like it's not on the floor anymore, if that makes any sense at all. Bass notes are a a little tighter. The butcher blocks also reduced the rattling of the flue in my fireplace during deep bass passages.

Got some more listening to do, but so far I'm pleased with the results.

[Early B.]

Here's a pic...

[zombie boy 2000]

Interesting... I use spikes even though my speakers are on a hardwood floor. My results pretty much fall in line with yours. Bass is tighter and I find that imaging improves (though this may be due to the fact that the tweeters are closer to ear level). If anything, it certainly reduced cabinet resonances.

[Early B.]

I tried spikes on the bottom of the boards, but for some reason they didn't make the boards more sturdy. And I certainly wasn't going to add spikes directly to the speakers. They'd be too heavy to re-position with spikes on them. Besides, I like the extra height on the speakers that the boards offer.

[jm1]

Glad to hear this helped. Have you thought of trying concrete sidewalk blocks under the speakers? They come in assorted styles and colors and have more mass than butcher blocks.

I have placed some gray tinted blocks under my subs as they do not have spikes.

[Early B.]

Glad to hear this helped. Have you thought of trying concrete sidewalk blocks under the speakers? They come in assorted styles and colors and have more mass than butcher blocks.

I've used concrete slabs for subs with good results. I used wood in this instance for the aesthetic value. The slabs, even when painted black, have a DIY appearance.

[SLOCOOKN]

If nothing else we know what you are cookin' tonight! :)

I sooooo want a pair of vmps towers like you have!

Do you here that?......sounds like envy to me! :)

[mulveling]

Wow, just now saw this thread - didn't know you were the one to start this trend. I've had great success with the Auralex Gramma, which is exactly the same as the "Subdude" with a different label. I wish I'd done this tweak as soon as I got my big Legacy Sig IIIs. I need to spend more time in this forum! :D

[McLoki]

I got a piece of granite from a countertop place and it worked great. Just ask for the cutouts from a double sink and they will practically give it to you. (you can have them poish the edge for you, but that will cost)

Looks nice, is heavy as hell, and works great for my SVS.

Michael

[mlhm5]

I glue and stack these under all my components. Cheap, great isolation (vulcanized rubber) and almost invisible.

http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/7300/hockeypuckchampionbp0.jpg

$1 each (http://www.discounthockey.com/icepucks.html)

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