Vibration supression pads for speakers?

[Mozhoven]

Hello,


I've just bought a pack of Nitrile Vibration-Damping Pads from Mcmaster-Carr for a large piece of equipment I use and it occurred to me that these same pads might work well for my Monitor Audio loudspeakers. (MA-303)

These speakers sit at the short end of a 300 sqft. studio space with wooden floors. The building has a cinder block foundation, so it is prone to vibration to say the least.

Here is a link to the pads: #4159K61

McMaster-Carr

They are the two-part green 2"x2" ones at the bottom. The have a .0136" deflection rating which is the best of all the pads listed.

Do I need these, or will they be redundant?
I'm guessing one wants the speaker to be situated in an inert space (hence the MDF cabinet construction), so I assume the floor should be inert as well. I should mentioned that I do not posses the floor spikes they speakers originally have. What do you think?

 

[Wodgy]

Even though some audiophiles use them, damping pads are not a good idea for speakers. The goal of speaker stands is to rigidly couple the speaker to the floor, so that all the cone movement goes toward actually producing sound, rather than part of it making the cabinet rock back and forth. Putting damping material under the speaker means that the cabinet is freer to rock back and forth.

You could put the vibration suppression pads under your electronics though.

 

[Punnisher]

I agree, and for the fact that having speakers on the ground directly helps to transfer low frequencies to the floor.

I can't help it, I like to feel the bass.

 

[Mozhoven]

Thanks - that explains a lot.

Now, should I purchase some floor spikes or do you think putting the MDF speaker bottom on the floor is sufficient?

Also: What purpose would putting the pads under my reciever achieve? I understand it for a CD Player, but is there any benefit for the recieiver?

 

[Budgie]

Spikes will couple the cabinets to the floor much better than just setting them on the floor, however, I won't swear that you will hear a differance. Depends on a lot of variables.

 

[terrymx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Budgie /img/forum/go_quote.gif Spikes will couple the cabinets to the floor much better than just setting them on the floor, however, I won't swear that you will hear a differance. Depends on a lot of variables.

Yes I have used spiked on my speakers to the carpet when I had box speakers. It help grip pretty well. I can't say there was a difference in sound, except it doesn't transfer bass to the floor anymore, and there are new holes on the carpet.

 

[Mozhoven]

In order to raise the tweeters up to my ear level, I'm considering building some speaker stands (boxes really) out of MDF since it is acoustically inert.

Is there anything I need to do to the contact point between the box/speaker or box/floor? Cork, felt pads, etc. I'm trying to avoid floor spikes if possible.

 

[klb2122]

i dont know how you rate aesthetics when it comes to this situation. but i recently raised my speakers off the floor, after considering spikes or poured concrete slabs and gave a couple cinder blocks a try under each one and was quite pleased with the results. beyond having the speakers closer to head level during sitting the sound seemed to be less muddy, therefore improved dynamics. Perhaps i'm hallucinating, but it could be worth a try plus you'd save a great deal of time and money.
BTW MDF is not completely acoustically inert, hence you have so many higher end speaker manufacturers working with insanely heavy and dense resins, such as corian and various other secret mixtures. If you want something beautiful, that at times has been described as being almost too inert, and thus deadening, try several pieces of corian laminated together to give yourself some thickness. have a half inch lip around the bottom and have a piece of MDF topped with around 1/2 an inch of sorbothane that'll fit in the hollowed space at the bottom of the corian stand. That will give you some solid isolation and the MDF/sorbo combo base will be hidden below the lovely luminous block of corian. it'll cost about 1500.00 for the corian, but it will work.

 

[ozz]

What ever you do to get the tweeter to ear level will always sound
better. There are many things to look for in a speaker design and one
important one is how well the cabinet is made does it transfer all of
its musical energy through the drivers and ports are does it loose a
lot from flexing or vibrating the cabinet.

 

[vulc4n]

If you have a solid surface to attach the speaker to, use it.

I use isolation pads for my speakers at my desk because the whole desk tends to vibrate which is no good.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Does anyone think the vibration pad would go well with a turntable?

 

[furball]

Has anyone used blu tack to fix the speakers to speaker stands? This will definitely couple the speakers to the speaker stands.

 

[Mozhoven]

The cinderblock method appeals to me (since I have a zillion of them laying around), but think it would clash a bit with my setup. Could paint them black for a nice "industrial" look I suppose...

After experimenting a bit with placement, I think I will keep my two subs on the floor, build a 8"-10" speaker stand to go on top the sub, and put my MA 303's on top of that. It'll place the tweeter about half-way between my ear-level when sitting or standing (which I do about 50/50 while working).

Sound good?

So, since my speakers are on my subs, do I need any sort of vibrations suppression or is direct contact best?

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by terrymx /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes I have used spiked on my speakers to the carpet when I had box speakers. It help grip pretty well. I can't say there was a difference in sound, except it doesn't transfer bass to the floor anymore, and there are new holes on the carpet.

The main goal of spikes is to create a solid flat surface between the speakers and the floor under the carpet, nothing else, as if you place them on top of the carpet, they will bounce back and forth....Other than that, they will not do anything else...

 

[frozenice]

I preferred the Black Diamond Racing Cones over nothing and spikes between my speaker stands and the floor. I found the Black Diamond Racing Cones stopped the floor from vibrating to the rhythm of the speakers. With hardwood floors it was really noticeable the difference and the spikes (which are quite a bit cheaper) also made a noticeable difference.
I also use some small acoustic pads between the speakers and speaker stands. The speakers I own are the bookshelf Hales Design.