Help - Floor Standing Speakers on Suspended Floors (longish)

It doesn't have a foot at each corner. It *could* be cut in half and still work but I wouldn't personally go down that route.

You know why I said that and you know it was meant solely about this thread.

 

T if you did go down the auralex route, could it be covered in some nice fabric?, to keep aunty happy

 

Uncle Ants

Dont know if you've thought of this already but here goes.

Find out the width of the gap between the joists under your floorboards, then make your platforms the same width (if possible) and then spike em.

That way the spikes will sit directly above the joists and make for a more solid mounting.

 

here is my experience with wooden floors that made for boom boom in my room.

I bought the MoPads, which I used under the standmounts and on top of the stands. It cured the boom boom and I was happy.

Next came that lovely Afghan carpet in front of speakers.

Then I invested in the Auralex for the sub. that also produced an improvement, in the sub's bass and in the reduction of reverb through floor and toes.

Subsequently, I have removed MoPads, investing successfully in blutack between standmount and stand, and in Euros under the spikes of the stands. The bass was firmer and the revurb/boom was no longer there. But then I've not done an A/B on the carpet.

As for the Auralex, I think its a good idea for sub and to protect an amp. I've not tried it under the stands however: it would have to become they.

 

Excuse me if i m overlooking something very obvious.

Would it not be very very simple to fill the floor cavity with insulation foam?

No air space no drum effect? maybee even warmer floors too

 

Not to mention rising damp, the space beneath the floor is needed to allow air to flow through building.

 

I can tell you what I've done ....I've had laminates fitted onto concrete. So no boom or bass enhancement from the underfloor caviety. Take your self down to wilco and get about 10 small round wooden door handles some epoxy and a set of bolts that fit the thread in the base of your speakers. Drill out the door handle from the hole side so that the bolt head fits and then epoxy in place. Mine tempered the over bright sound [reflections off the laminate?] must work like RA's oak cones.

 

I assume this is another of your online "put-downs".

It was sincere advice, but I won't bother with you again.

 

Uncle do not do anything until you have all of your furniture and shit in the room as this will have some effect. Not being rude but wallpaper over plaster walls is complete rubbish. You do not give that much of a clue how bad it is. If it is really bad then you have two main choices, get some room treatment (visit www.soundonsound.com and check out some threads there or the various articles on the subject published in their magazine) or change your speakers. When I moved house I was in the same situation and as I did not want to go down the room treatment route in the lounge after listening to many, many speakers went down the standmount route with a pair of Sonus Faber Amator IIs and have not looked back.

Best of luck.

BTW I've been away for several months - did you ever fit a T/T in your camper and has the camper seen much use?

Dominic

 

not true ...wall paper will have an effect especially if done with backing paper and a heavy textured type. It just may not be very big !
dominicT
I approve of the 99cdp...got one myself do you run with the bus cable or rca's ?

 

ok, so the wallpaper will have a micoscopic effect that you may or may not be able top hear but never in 20 years have I been told that to get a better sound in any of my studios do I need to consider wall paper!

As I have the 99CDP/909 I cannot use the bus cable as the bus cable is for use with a pre-amp.

 

In theory if you poke small holes in vinyl wall paper and stick it over mineral wool it'll work as an absorber

 

I actually found that a poystyrene backed heavy textured paper made a suprising difference the tonal balance ...once it had been removed.

The Quad 99cdp via its variable output to the 909 produces some remarkably good sounds. I use the dac for my DVD MiniDisc and Evoke digital radio. But I have to mainly run via the preamp. Wifey can't get tha hang of what to press !

 

Ah. Unfortunately it would, as someone else has pointed out, result in damp followed probably not much later by dry rot. The reason we have new floors in the first place is because the previous owner in a fit of improvementitis decided a solid floor was just what was needed in the dining room ... thus cutting off all circulation in the void under the front room and simultaneously breaching the damp course and causing dry rot in the front and rising damp in the dining room. Many thousands of pounds and a lot of muck and dust later - its back to its former Victorian glory.

Devil,

Sorry to see you took umbrage, it was meant in jest. The thing is I don't want Mana ... its ugly.

Dominic,

Yes I did get the record player in the campervan and it works really well too. I went for the simple approach in the end and had it built so that there was a custom made cupboard for my Dansette running off an invertor (which means I can take it out as well). Much fun last summer in Dorset and Cornwall and a repeat this year I hope.

Back to the room problem. I think I have it nailed to some extent. Found my spikes, spiked em and .... it was bright AND boomy (that'll be the floor then ). I then went back to the blutac and took the four big cushions Auntie bought the other weekend and placed them over various bits of wall (minor improvements) .... but the real culprit is the radiator in the bay, behind and between the speakers - a big cushion propped up aginst this tamed the brightness, which I then realised was pretty much masking the rather good bass that actually is there (also meant I could turn it up louder). So problem found anyway, if not exactly solved.

Thanks everyone.

PS. the blutac works, but I'm not sure I want it as a permanent solution. May well try the MoPads as a slightly neater solution.

PPS. Having had a chance to have a nice long listen with the brightness tempered last night I think I can honestly report that the Denon DL-160 really is shaping up as a goodun.

 

Would some heave curtains across the alcove/radiator be feasible?

 

if you want to try the MoPads lmk. As you would have gleaned, at the mo they are unemployed at my pad.

 

Stuart - only at night Seriously though. The big cushions may well be the solution. Auntie tells me that was where she was thinking of keeping them anyway. They are large floor cushions for using when we have more guests than furniture (or if I just want to lie on the floor - which sometimes I do) - inside each one is a single futon mat, so they double as extra beds.

Ditton,

I would very much like to try out the MoPads. Could you PM me and maybe we could arrange.

PS. I never had a digital camera before and a friend is selling one, so I borrowed it (not buying it though - didn't seem that good to me) - anyway a pic. of the culprit attached. And whilst I'm about it a nice piccy of my new Denon too

 

Uncle, the cushion positioning, also known in studio circles as the 'duvet cover approach' is used extensively by the SoundonSound (SOS) technical team to identify where a room might need some treatment before they start attaching permanent fittings.

Every issue of SOS has a studio help feature where they go to a readers studio to help them out and it is nearly always the room that gets a seeing to. One of the things that nearly always gets recommended is to place sound treatment behind the speakers so it is no surprise that you have found that this is also needed in your place. I have a sugggestion. Maybe buy an acoustic panel and cover it in something appealing and prop it up infront of the raditors in the same fashion as a photo frame - it could be an art installation!

Have a read of this:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep04/articles/realtraps.htm

 

Cheers Dominic,

Interesting stuff. What are these panels made of and would something nice n squishy like a cushion do as good a job? The reason I ask is that Auntie has rather taken to sitting on these cushions in front of the radiator when reading a magazine and was suggesting we make a cushion which hangs over it to provide her something to lean back against.

I also realised when discussing this with her last night (and she was sitting on the cushions). That Auntie herself makes a rather good acoustic panel Still I can't imagine me saying - sit there, I want to listen to music. I also asked her if the music didn't sound terrible where she was sitting. It sounds better than my office system (a horrible but pretty sharp midi thing), so I can't complain says she.

 

what about boxing in the radiator, i don't mean nescesarily an off the shelf solution, i mean get a chap in, and incorporate some kind of diffuser into design?

I'll get my coat before aunty reads this....