Make Your Own Isolation Wedges

[Tornado Red]

I don't want my tv any higher with my present shelf system than it is now, so built a bridge over top and am housing the center channel there. Recently upgraded my stuff (Monitor 75t's, DSW 550 sub, and now the M-25c center). I had isolation wedges for my old PSB 100, but of course they were too small for the M-25c. I had some left over "plucking foam" from hard shell Pelican instrumentation cases at work. You can pluck off little cubes to fit what you want, or it cuts easily with a box knife. Yet it's quite dense and it nicely supports the 17 lbs here as you can see (though I did make these ones 3" wide vs 2" for the PSB). I guess the only advantages to making my own were that I got the exact length, width and angle I needed for my set up. The angle is easy to conjure up using the bridge height, my sitting position and the distance between them. Pictures are: 1. Inital make up 2.How they perform on the bench 3. A little flat black spray paint on the exposed surfaces 4. In place. Nice little project for a Saturday morning with a blizzard outside...

[hochpt21]

Nice work. Looks like a great solution for your setup.

[htrdln]

not bad at all

[Tornado Red]

Thanks guys...

[treitz3]

The end result looks fantastic, If I do say so myself. Well done.

Tom

[EndersShadow]

Thanks for the idea. I might do something like that for my LSiC that is just sitting on a glass shelf on my entertainment center right now .

That and if I get bookshelves for my office that would work great too!

[Tornado Red]

Thanks Tom and ES. You can buy, cost is anywhere from $10(cheapies) - $45 (Auralex) for two in this ballpark for size. I find the stuff I was able to use to be high quality (not much compression with the weight of the unit). And the ability to make it the exact size I needed. Big difference in the sound direction. Interesting, I ran the YPAO on my Yamaha with the mic on top of my chair back rest after installing the wedges and vs without, it dropped the center channel 2 db.

[littlewoodboats]

Totally cool. I love low to no cost solutions.

If you have an electric caring knife they do a nice job cutting this type of foam.

After you put the wedges in place the YAPO dropped the center channel? Would this be due to an oscillation the foam could allow?

[Tornado Red]

I'm thinking there is now more sound directed at my seating position, and since that's where I had the mic during set up, it felt I didn't need as much push from the center now to get the sound to my position as it did before when it was shooting over my head. At least that's my theory....

[zingo]

Great idea and application!

[Blownrx7]

I love these types of DIY items. It costs only your time and it's made even better because 1. you can customize EXACTLY to your application, 2. It works as well as any industry product and 3. you did it yourself!
GREAT JOB!
Now you can call it an Audio visual attenuator/director system that is essential to musical satisfaction. State that it transforms your $500 rig into a $5K system-beater and charge $100 becasue it can be custom made after careful analysis of the application and proprietary selection of material;-)

[sk88]

Nice work you did. I've done similar thing and would offer a suggestion. On top of the form for isolation, I also added a layer of a granite slab that I have left from a kitchen project. It's 1" thick and it should stablize the speaker and enhances the sound. I do know not everyone has a piece of granite laying around but maybe can found one from a local granite/marble fabrication shop. Try it and you should hear a difference. It's the same idea as a Primacoustic Recoil Stablizer which uses a thick steel plate instead. Some people use granite tiles from floors but I don't think it has enough weight in it. I actually has another layer on top of the granite which is a closed cell form that's only 1mm thick. It's kind of like the surface of a mouse pad but it can't be more than 1mm thick. It keeps the speaker from sliding and provides full contact to the speaker to sit on the granite. If the thin form is not available, could just use regular brass spikes instead but need to make sure it doesn't slide off. I can provide more details and pics if anyone is interested.