Speakers on a Desk or on Stands - Page 2

I too would like to know about the paint for sealing concrete blocks.  I've been thinking of placing my rather large monitors on concrete blocks, on top of Auralex platforms.  High density rubber on top of the concrete blocks might be a nice addition.

Perhaps stone could be used in place of concrete?

You just want something that's high-density. People make speaker stands out of tubes filled with sand or lead shot etc. Seen floorstanders on sheets of granite. Concrete is good because it's very cheap and heavy/dense.

I used plain spray paint to paint my bricks. Nothing fancy, just black spray paint. 

Before paint

After paint

So these are my speaker stands on rotanional disks custom made.

anything else other than brick or concrete? Im using a cheap Ikea table and with the dual monitors and my entire audio setup on it, I don't think the table can withstand any more weight like concrete blocks. Anything that is lighter but can replace concrete blocks?

Sound Anchors...http://www.head-fi.org/t/397869/pictures-of-your-computer-rigs-post-them-here/6000#post_8048488

Yeah i've seen those, just haven't looked into it because it didn't state the price on their website but im gonna email them. So will this work, my monitors on aurlex mopads and then placed on top of the stands?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamlau 

Sound Anchors...http://www.head-fi.org/t/397869/pictures-of-your-computer-rigs-post-them-here/6000#post_8048488

 

If you do something similar to what I did in terms of the Mopads and steel/rubber, it doesn't really matter too what's underneath as long as it can take the weight and gets the speaker the correct height. The bricks I used earlier in the thread... if I slouch they're the correct height, but really they need to be double the height they are now, so at some point I'm just going to glue some MDF into two 20x20x10cm blocks, sand the edges down a bit and paint it. I could just stick a couple of books underneath what I have now, but I'm a perfectionist.

Just find something that works and looks pleasing to you.

When I finish my DIY speakers, I'm going to just get a couple of granite chopping boards to stand them on. Cheap and cheerful, but does the trick.

thanks, i might be able to get my hands on some steel plate. Is the steel plate placed on top of the mopad or beneath the mopad, not sure how the recoil stabilizer works. Also if i can't get the steel plates, what if using thick MDF boards beneath the mopads as base, will that work? I think the height should be fine, not sure, because i have the mopads tilted or the monitors are angled to my ears. if i don't angle it and stack like how you guys did it, it will be pretty high (im 6'1) in order to reach the optimum height.

But definitely, i think the mopads itself might not be enough so i need something beneath it or above it. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Somnambulist 

If you do something similar to what I did in terms of the Mopads and steel/rubber, it doesn't really matter too what's underneath as long as it can take the weight and gets the speaker the correct height. The bricks I used earlier in the thread... if I slouch they're the correct height, but really they need to be double the height they are now, so at some point I'm just going to glue some MDF into two 20x20x10cm blocks, sand the edges down a bit and paint it. I could just stick a couple of books underneath what I have now, but I'm a perfectionist.

 

Just find something that works and looks pleasing to you.

 

When I finish my DIY speakers, I'm going to just get a couple of granite chopping boards to stand them on. Cheap and cheerful, but does the trick.

The RC is basically just a Mopad with a steal plate with a rubber top layer glued to the top, and one costs about 3-4 times as much as a pair of Mopads. As I probably said before, I found a guy on eBay selling steel plates in a variety of sizes (no idea what for to be honest!), and asked him if he could make a pair of 200x200x10mm ones and list them. He did and I bought them, then painted them with some black Hammerite. I then just used the rubber mat that came with each Focal monitor and stuck the Focals on top of that.

The gist of it is that the foam layer does the same job as the Mopads, then the steel layer basically acts as a way of anchoring the speaker down so that it's not moving, however minutely, when music is blaring out of it. The final rubber layer is basically to make it harder still for the speaker to move due to friction, I think. The density of steel also helps, I'd imagine with absorbing some of the energy directed downwards into the desk as well, since mass and distance are the only things that really deal with bass. If I was a little more DIY oriented I'd probably do proper stands filled with sand or something, but I think what I have now is doing the job okay, and the cupboard my desk is in more problematic! When I have my own place, I plan on making proper sand-filled DIY stands, but then I also plan on upgrading to Event Opals and they are certainly too big for most desks anyway!

Great Thanks Somnambulist, I'm gonna head over to home depot or something to get myself some steel plates. Will post up pics when everything is settled.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Somnambulist 

The RC is basically just a Mopad with a steal plate with a rubber top layer glued to the top, and one costs about 3-4 times as much as a pair of Mopads. As I probably said before, I found a guy on eBay selling steel plates in a variety of sizes (no idea what for to be honest!), and asked him if he could make a pair of 200x200x10mm ones and list them. He did and I bought them, then painted them with some black Hammerite. I then just used the rubber mat that came with each Focal monitor and stuck the Focals on top of that.

 

The gist of it is that the foam layer does the same job as the Mopads, then the steel layer basically acts as a way of anchoring the speaker down so that it's not moving, however minutely, when music is blaring out of it. The final rubber layer is basically to make it harder still for the speaker to move due to friction, I think. The density of steel also helps, I'd imagine with absorbing some of the energy directed downwards into the desk as well, since mass and distance are the only things that really deal with bass. If I was a little more DIY oriented I'd probably do proper stands filled with sand or something, but I think what I have now is doing the job okay, and the cupboard my desk is in more problematic! When I have my own place, I plan on making proper sand-filled DIY stands, but then I also plan on upgrading to Event Opals and they are certainly too big for most desks anyway!

Cool. A pair of RC's are about £140-150 here, I think, maybe more.

If I recall correctly, my own stands cost something like

Bricks - £2

Fabric - £5

Pair of Mopads - £30

Steel plates - £15

Hammerite - already had in garage

Rubber mat - came with speaker

So just over £50 for both, less than the price of one RC! I could have made them for less by using acoustic foam and cutting it, rather than buying the Mopads, but I was worried the cuts would look jagged and horrible, and buying a hot wire cutter would have made it cost just as much as buying the Mopads anyway.

It'll be similar when I do these acoustic panels for my room, I can probably make all the panels for the cost of 1 one from a big company, but it obviously involves a bit of time and effort.

wow too bad you're located in the UK, if not I would have commissioned you to help me build stuff. Im planning on adding acoustic panels for my room too.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Somnambulist 

Cool. A pair of RC's are about £140-150 here, I think, maybe more.

 

If I recall correctly, my own stands cost something like

Bricks - £2

Fabric - £5

Pair of Mopads - £30

Steel plates - £15

Hammerite - already had in garage

Rubber mat - came with speaker

 

So just over £50 for both, less than the price of one RC! I could have made them for less by using acoustic foam and cutting it, rather than buying the Mopads, but I was worried the cuts would look jagged and horrible, and buying a hot wire cutter would have made it cost just as much as buying the Mopads anyway.

 

It'll be similar when I do these acoustic panels for my room, I can probably make all the panels for the cost of 1 one from a big company, but it obviously involves a bit of time and effort.

Luckily it's all pretty simple stuff to do - and I'm terrible at DIY so it must be easy haha. Sourcing materials and getting everything prepared is probably the hardest part.