Any new ideas on an old theme?

ALL interesting and thoughtful comments . . . there is a long thread on this very topic at the steve hoffman site that was recently led by commercial sound engineer barry diament . . . he's a big fan of "floating" spkrs w/rollerballs and disks (symposium rollerball, jr., finite elemente cerabase--barry has similar devices of his own making) . . .

I have some disks from ANOTHER well-known maker (name escapes me) being used under various components, and I plan to try 3 of them under one of my harbeths. (Barry's rec'd also involves a very flat, smooth slab of tile or plexi under each spkr w/the disks between slab and spkr).

dc

Very interesting discussion here. If you use the wood pedestal under the speakers is it best to simply lay it on the carpet or would it be better to spike the wood block to the floor? I think I may try it this weekend.

Fafafion>With reference to the Cerebases beneath floor standing speakers
Are they placed directly on the carpet(even thick carpet)
Do you use three of four under each speaker ???

Timrhu said:

"Very interesting discussion here. If you use the wood pedestal under the speakers is it best to simply lay it on the carpet or would it be better to spike the wood block to the floor? I think I may try it this weekend."

I have a rather interesting arrangement where I have a few magazines under the block of wood to raise the level of the speakers off the hardwood floor a bit... so I guess I would suggest trying the wood "pedestal" directly on the carpet, and then with spikes under the pedestal to see if that is an improvement. I am not sure what advantage is gained by coupling the speaker-pedestal system to a wood sub floor if that just adds the chance of exciting the floor and transferring vibration to your equipment rack, but some proponents claim that it increases the bass response in a good way. Try it without spikes first and if that sounds good, you may have saved some money. If you have some extra spikes around the house, try that too.

For an (expensive) commercial solution and some hype about wood platforms, check this site;

http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/audioproducts/speakerstands_hub.php

Thanks so far to all… and especially for the link too.

Knownothing
Thanks.

I too have, after some dedicated time, spent trying out different footers under components, found differing wooden types of either boards or blocks, do impact the sound.

My rack is atop a Beech plywood base which just rests onto the top of the carpet… the rack is spiked into Mahogany Squares which reside in between Beech & spike.

I’m not too sure just how much decoupling is going on if I use spikes anywhere in the chain. Rather the thicker 7/16 pad, and ½ pile may afford some detatchment, onto that why not place a board of sorts, and use pods, pads, or roller blocks there for the speakers to rest upon?

My concern that way would be stability, and number of supportive/dampening devices that would be needed for the job.

My speakers are right at <100 lbs each.

I’m liking this notion as it’ll raise up the speakers’ overall height, which for me, would be a good thing. … and prevent further holes being punched into the wood underlayment.


In fact doing away 100% with spikes seems a plus to me in general.

Apart from what and how many, I’ve seen some notes that reflect a tipped up tonal quality when roller blocks are used, as well as lessend bass depth and impact… is that a general but accurate, consensus?