I used felt on all the surfaces of my speakers. No not on the tweeter and woofers...😊
Free air, tighter bass - snake oil or cheap tweaks?
Usually when we talk about snake oil it's because some one is out to make a buck on the gullible. In the case of these tweaks I want to recommend I'm not going to make any money, and you may not spend any either, but I find them useful.
Cover your Speakers
I don't know why a modest change in your acoustics can make such a difference but I usually find that covering my speakers adds a lot of air and room ambiance. I like to use some thick curtains that I've had from a house a long time ago. Works really well.
Weigh Your Speakers
I don't mean put them on a scale, but put a weight on top. Of course, this doesn't apply to those with behemoths. I find this especially useful with lightweight speakers that are on stands or very small footprints. Think 2-ways, both bookshelf and floor standers. I think the additional weight resists the tendency of the woofer to move the box back and forth, creating a kind of Doppler distortion in the bass. In some cases I find this tweak can really make a speaker sound tighter and clearer from the mid-bass downwards.
Clean up the Floor
We often pay attention to the walls, but not the floor, especially behind speakers. I find that room treatment, cushions and blankets here can really cut out hash I didn't know I had.
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@erik_squires Oh gotcha...sort of like "peek-a-boo". Interesting. |
Back in the later 80’s during my first real chapter of high end audio, I had a pair of Conrad Johnson Premier One powered Duntech Marquis’s ( forerunner of Dunlavys) which were very good & only missing the last little bit of full low end extension of his Sovereigns which are still considered amongst the very best speakers ever made albeit huge & expensive. They were in a large living room in a rebuilt old New England horse barn w/ solid oak T & G ceiling & just for kicks I decided to try to better couple the speakers to the tiled floor as the large speaker bases did not have spikes. I took one foot square 3/4” plywood w/felt glued on one side & cut 2x4’s to the exact needed length between the speakers & the ceiling.w/ the plywood pieces at each end. I slowly wedged the 2x4’s between the plywood pieces top & bottom. It was truly stupid looking but substantially improved the dynamics & especially imaging as well which that amp & speakers were very good at. I When my wife came home, she shook her head, laughed & gave me a look. Needless to say, my little experiment was over by the next day but it was fun while it lasted. |
Here is my snake oil advice: If you live in a high humidity area, use a dehumidifier to keep humidity at 40 % or below. If humidity gets higher than 50%, the sound will become muffled. If you like clarity, keep the humidity low. It's for real on a revealing system and in a revealing listening room. It's so obvious in my house of stereo. Every time. |
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