Any experience with subwoofer isolation stands?

** I should point out the goal is to eliminate vibrations felt through the floor and ceiling and nothing to do with turntable rumble or ahythiňg like that. **

Have tried the cheap Auralex foam wedge and using the 4 padded blocks on each leg but the difference, though there, was not mind-blowing.

Does anybody have any experience with more serious subwoofer isolation stands (in contrast to the aforementioned cheaper solutions) and if so, would you buy one again? Which one do you use?

 

Perhaps check out Isoacoustics’ offerings? I have their speaker stands and find them very effective.

 

For my subwoofer i placed it on an old speaker stand and then decoupled it from the stand. The increased height improved integration noticeably and also since i have wooden floors it reduced the excitement of the floor due to air pressure. If your decoupling worked correctly i suspect the latter might be your problem.
I know Acoustic fields has some subwoofer stands that decouple and absorb at the same time while increasing height. Too rich for my blood seeing i can diy a similar solution but might be of interest to you.
Sub Woofer Carbon Platform SWCP

 

I've had good success with the SVS SoundPath feet:
SVS SoundPath Subwoofer Isolation System

Keep an eye on Amazon and other places. I got one pair new for $32 shipped and another for $35.

 

My sub isn't made by SVS, so I'm afraid that won't work. Moreover, the area is carpeted so I suspect that wouldn't work as well as it would on a wooden floor.

 

I have a set under an HSU sub and my other were under a SVS sub. You may want to check as they will fit many subs. Oh, I have used them on carpet as well with success.

 

I've done the I've no money approach.

Using a shelf from a old IKEA shelving system, under that 2 inner tubes and the effect is much less energy going into the floor. The sound of my system improved, the bass is no longer exciting the structure so not as noticeable upstairs and my neighbors think I'm playing my music at a lower volume.

However there is one big downside, as the inner tubes need to be inflated around every 6 months and my sub weighs 60 Kilo but it's worth it even though I do this myself.

 

I use the Auralex Subdude.

I have a wood floor in my family/listening room, and it seemed to help tighten up some 'sloppiness' I had in setting up my Epik Valor sub.

 

Wood floor/four subwoofers/turntable inches from subs. Terrible super deep feedback and rumble.
My previous room had an isolated playback booth for my gear and ran balanced lines out to the amps in the main listening area. I did it to avoid introducing any hint of mechanical noise with vinyl.
But when I moved last year everything HAD to go in one huge room.
Two weeks ago I bought two 16X16 inch stone garden pavers from Home Depot and used rubber footers to mount the subs which are stacked two each.
This made a huge improvement as the slabs absorbed a lot of energy that had been going directly into the wood floor.
This week I also just ordered an electronic "rumble filter" from KAB.
It is designed to cut off SHARP below 20hz.
AND it combines left and right channel bass below 150 hz and goes in my switchable tape loop so I can use it on vinyl OR to clean up noisy CD transfers.
This mimics what the cutting engineer does with vinyl records (they are summed BELOW 150hz for vinyl) to keep the bass from hopping the needle out of the groove on loud bass heavy records.
I am also picking up a lot of "pumping" in the 10hz subsonic range and you can see my sub woofers moving in and out quite widely which is not good for clarity not to mention the strain it puts on the amps and woofer voice coils.
This "pumping" is caused by the inevitable noise the stylus makes as it rides along on the bottom of the groove and is not part of the musical signal. It is an artifact of the cutting process and sometimes you hear it left in the mix when they transfer from a vinyl recording over to a CD.
You can't hear it. You feel the whole room shaking and quaking however... Like an earthqucke.
The KAB filter is suposed to eliminate vinyl "pumping"and also cut noise electronically somehow by cancelling out audible rumble and noise between 150-20hz, without losing musical information---don't ask me how---I'm still reading about this particular filter which gets tremendous positive reviews.
I suspect The KAB uses some scheme of left minus right subtraction or something sort of like what a balanced cable does to eliminate hum and noise from interconnects. I dunno yet how it manages to "reduce noise." We shall see.
I am hoping to run closer to concert volumes eventually by reducing the rumble/feedback/noise of the original SIGNAL (the "rumble filter" approach) and also decoupling a lot of the feedback mechanically (those 16 inch"pads") not to mention all the work I did on the turntable plinth isolators.
If I get it all done before this thread dies I'll report on what happened.
All this effort is because I reached my goal of true wide frequency response down to frequencies you can only "feel."
I believe these low frequencies add a lot to the "it's real" effect even when there is no bass as you can "feel" the size of the room the artists recorded in with such a system.
But of course now that I can go that low I have a whole set of bass/floor/room interaction problems.
What a hobby!

 

Also known as the more common sense/problem solving ability and I'll just keep my money approach

 

Considering the solutions I'm looking at are in the $60 range and look much nicer which can oftentimes be beneficial when dealing with a partner who cares about such things, the DIY approach might not work for everybody.

There is no universal solution to most audio-related quandaries.

 

I wasn't aware I had said there was?
My remark was a compliment intended for Pastafarian, had nothing to do with whatever it is you're trying
Off the shelf solutions can look as good as any, all depends on your skill level
Many isolation platforms are nothing more than an air 'bladder' (nice word for inner tube) or sand in a nice looking box
Again, how attractive any execution might be is all skill dependent

 

Partner's a big consideration, my DIY actually looks OK, as the shelf has been varnished to match the wood finish of my sub. My partner "It's not black thank God", everyone's happy.

 

When you say the purpose is to eliminate vibrations through the floor and ceiling, do you mean as a kind of soundproofing? Because these kinds of isolation stands are good for decoupling the subwoofer from the floor which can clean up in-room resonances and rattling, but it's not going to function very much like soundproofing. Bass bleeds through walls and floors and ceilings in a way that faster-dissipating, easier-to-absorb higher frequencies, with their shorter soundwaves, don't. You can decouple the sub from the floor and maybe it'll lower levels of transmission through the floor and it certainly can lower levels of furniture and wall rattling. But if you play music loud enough, the sound is still going to bleed through to the other rooms, and it's the bass that's going to bleed through and be audible in a way that high frequencies won't. Decoupling the sub isn't going to change that. It's not soundproofing.

If you're talking about rattling, personally, I found the Auralex Subdude helped with furniture and walls rattling in my room. I'm not sure what Auralex wedges you used previously, but with any kind of weight-bearing solution for isolation it's crucial you use something appropriate for the weight you put on it. A squished down decoupling footer or something like that, is no longer going to provide decoupling, in fact, it's going to couple.

 

I use an A.S.C cube to set the sub on. It isolates the sub from the floor and acts as a bass treatment device even when the subs not on. I've found it the most effective of anything i've tried to date.

 

FWIW, I use a system with custom bearings (like symposium) + inner-tubes on all the components in my rack. I use an extender to keep all the tubes in proper form without ever having to move anything. Additionally my dual subs sit on a box I built (12" high) and filled it with OC703 to act as a trap as well employing the same custom bearings. This box was a temp solution/test as I had extra materials around, but its worked well, I just haven't got around to replacing it with something like the ASC cube mentioned.

Keep in mind the sub height (e.g. on floor v.s. distance off of floor) and placement makes a huge difference with regards to your room dimensions and how it deals with modes etc.. Experiment similar to speaker placement.

 

The REL sub can be placed in many location due to the ability to fine tune, in fact REL suggest a corner location. With regard to height the shelf & tubes add about 2.5 inches and the results are a obvious improvement.

I've isolated my speakers in a similar manner, yet there are reasons which would suggest it's far from ideal, as the aren't a fixed point in space, however again the SQ of my system improves significantly. From my 'experiments' I feel this is down to 2 things, draining energy from the speaker whilst also reducing the energy going in to the floor.

I also use the same cheepo method to isolate my equipment, the net effect a massive improvement in SQ, total cost less than £30.

To give you a rough Idea when I bought my system you would have had to spend around, allowing for inflation, a additional £4,000.

 

I mentioned the extender in my post as I thought it might be of interest to you based on your comment:

There are similar variations to the one I linked, but that's the gist.

 

Sorbothane. Plain and simple.

I've studied acoustics and currently design cinema sound systems for a living.
I've provided recommendations to a number of recording studios regarding room design and system optimization, just so you know where I'm coming from.

Look here:
https://www.sorbothane.com/Data/Sites/31/pdfs/product-guides/Sorbothane-SPG.pdf

Let's say your sub weighs 30 lbs.
Look at the hemispheres on that pdf, you'll want 4 that have a rated load of 7.5 lbs each (or 5-10 range for example). Does your sub have feet that are removable? If not, you'll want hemispheres that either have a diameter that fit on the feet or hemispheres that have a height greater than the feet. This might be tricky as the sorbothane will compress a bit under the weight of the sub.

You simply cannot get a better solution for isolation, especially at this price point. Looking at around $25-35 for a set on Amazon.

 

I think we are on the same page and I'm sure our aim is to give others options to consider.

 

One issue about using Sorbothane, is it draining away energy from the speaker along with preventing energy transfer to the floor.

I'd appreciate your thoughts about that aspect

 

Great question and concern.
Considering the functionality of the product, the amount of vibration that would be transferred into and absorbed by a few grams of vibration-absorbing rubber is extremely minimal compared to the amount transferring through a mass such as a 150 sq. ft. wooden floor, for example. Energy cannot be destroyed, right? So we do the best we can to control it.

Rough example but think of a tuning fork. If you place its stem on a table, you'll hear it much more clearly than if you place it on a soft surface. The tines will continue to vibrate either way, but you'll experience a much different effect. As for our speakers, we want to hear the 'tines' and not the 'table'.

The 2nd effect that is mitigated is the wave destruction that occurs when a sound wave from the speaker cone interacts with the energy that is traveling through the floor. Real world physics prevent is from isolating and hearing the sound that is transmitted from the floor back in to the room. If you can imagine being able to isolate the bass that is being produced by the vibration in the floor itself without the direct sound you hear from the sub, you can imagine it would be similar to the bass you hear in the next room. Eliminating that 2nd bass source in the room helps to prevent smearing, nodes and wave cancellation. It's not only loosing sound through the floor but having sound coming from a secondary source unintentionally.

So the amount of physical energy being transferred to the Sorbothane is not detrimental to the sound performance of a speaker. Not in any perceivable way so to speak.


Besides all of this, regarding the other examples above, if you put something under your speaker that makes it sound better to you, then you've accomplished your goal! No snobbery here, I've tried many things and just prefer this cheap, industrial grade product.

 

Even on carpet? Any advantage in combining methods, such as getting an Auralex SubDude *and* using these Sorbathane balls? Any specific Sorbathane balls you recommend? Please link to ones you know would work for my 41-pound subwoofer. No idea on whether the feet can be removed yet but will check it out once I have the time.

 

You have to look at the pdf he linked. You need at least 4 pads but more can be used if it gets you in the range you need provided of course you can remove the feet on your sub. I can give an example of how i do it.
So your sub needs 4 feet that can handle 10 pounds each. I always get pads where that number falls in the middle of their operating range. So you see a pad that goes from 5-15 pounds that's great get 4 and you're good. If those don't exist you can use more to get them all in the range. Like 5 8 or more, doesn't really matter.
If you can't remove the feet maybe use some kind of solid platform, place the sub on that and the pads under the platform. Account for the added weight of the platform with the pads, you want something heavy that will not resonate.

 

I first tried Sobothane between my speaker and stand many years ago and concluded that it was detrimental to the SQ. My current approach tries to turn the mechanical in to thermal energy due to the inner tube's movement, reducing mechanical energy transfer in to the floor.

We know that mechanical energy is detrimental to electronics, so the speaker is the source of it's own downfall and my sub has an internal amp. What we have is the reverse of trying to prevent energy transfer in to amp etc., so your a material needs to have both the ability to convert and prevent energy transfer in to the floor.

So the question is which produces more heat Sorbothane or the movement of the spring like inner tube, from playing around I feel it's the vertical oscillation which consumes more energy.

I'm no physicist so the phrasing I've used may be less than ideal, although I believe the principles are sound.