Level the floor


We've just moved.  The audio playpen is the basement, which has an issue I haven't dealt with before: uneven floor.  Left-right is level, but front to back there's a steep slope.  At a distance of 18 inches, the slope is about one inch.

I figure others have dealt with this enough that there's "a way" (or an eternal argument...).  Educate me?

Available equipment would be fine; surprise uses of stuff would be terrific.

Thanks.

mrj

What is it exactly you need fixing??  The equipment rack? Speakers?  Turntable

With speakers, so long as the slope is consistent there's no issue.  The speakers will tilt down but so will your seat.

Having said this, it's worth noting many speakers sound better listening below the tweeter axis, and with less toe-in than pointing straight at your head so worth while listening before attempting permanent fixes.

My living room slopes a little.  My 4' towers were out about 1/2" out at the top.  The speakers and iso-insulators sit on 16" x 16" x 2" concrete blocks.  I shimmed out the edge of the concrete block where it meets my carpet.  No difference in sound that I can detect but it looks better.

Yeah, I had no idea to even start with this.  For example:

You could try something as simple/cheap as hockey pucks.

 

I had no idea!  (I don't suppose there's a preferred brand of... no no no ignore that.)

So, first: thanks for the questions.  Somewhere to think from.

Type of floor: carpet on top of concrete.  Changes to the carpet, like cuts of sections, for example, are out of the question.

Adjustment on the front of the system stacks: I'm guessing the question there is, can I change the shape of the equipment stack itself?  If so then the answer is, "no", it's a series of steel needles on a metal frame.  For this part, I think "pucks".  Done.

The speakers are my main concern.  Each channel involves two sections:

A small, light channel expects to run near eye-level, standing some inches away from the main stack.  Here too I think "pucks", done.

The primary speaker stack is my chief concern.  It weighs about 120 lbs, measures about 20" deep, 16" wide, expects to sit near floor level.

These speakers are known for being room-sensitive; tweak, shove, tweak AHA!  Glory!  ...so adjustability is important; standing it on sets of spikes of adjustable lengths wouldn't be good.

Currently I'm thinking: first layer, pucks; on top of that, a flat sheet of something that we set between the speakers and the pucks.  "Something simple and cheap" would be grand, but nothing is springing to mind.  Stability is obviously important, non-resonance...  Light weight would be nice, but flimsy would be bad.  Ugly, I don't care, sheets of fabric solve all things.

I do have some access to tools.  While "two circles of steel" would be a dumb idea (uh, right?), something similar to that might not be out of the question, depending, maybe.

Thanks, all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

r042wal's avatar

Leveling your listening space/chair is a big deal...one more thing to check off tweaking.I used lazer to get as close as i could ear level listening chair.