Rigid brace between speaker and wall?

Does anybody have experience putting a rigid brace between your speakers and the wall behind them? I've often thought it might improve clarity for the midrange and tweeter mounts not to be physically moving back and forth as much due to vibrations coming from the woofer; the job of a tweeter attached to a woofer enclosure seems like the job of a marksman aiming at a target while riding a horse.

I've thought bolting a telescoping, locking tube to the back of a speaker and then to a plate on the wall as one possible way to do this.

Anybody else already tried something and formed an opinion?

 

I've not done nor heard of what you are considering. I'm not sure what you are thinking of will achieve anything (except a decrease in WAF, if that applies to you), if it does decrease vibrations from the back of the speaker you will still have vibrations from the front panel.

When I had no money and was trying to extract every performance improvement from lower-quality speakers, I put internal braces in the speaker box front-back and side-side to reduce internal vibrations and resonances. It did no harm - I cut the dowels a couple of mm longer than the internal dimension, and positioned them using force, and put some glue on the contact areas so they wouldn't fall off.

Now I have good quality speakers I trust the speaker designers have produced an optimal cabinet, so I don't mess with it (and the high and mid drivers are in separate enclosures to the woofer anyway). Sometimes messing with a quality product can decrease, rather than increase quality.

 

I have heard of bracing as you say, long time ago but dont remember where. I think it could improve clarity of sound. I have not tried it ever though.

 

The problem is that the wall (and floor) also vibrate so any wall vibrations will be passed on to the speaker cabinet.
They vibrate from external sources - seismic vibrations.

There are those that house their speakers in a wall - are their benefits with vibration in doing this?

 

I think any possible improvements from doing such would be negligible at best. This could very likely make your speakers sound worse.

 

The problem is that the wall (and floor) also vibrate so any wall vibrations will be passed on to the speaker cabinet.
They vibrate from external sources - seismic vibrations

isolate your speakers


Townsend Audio

 

How is bracing the speaker to the wall behind it different from putting spikes on the bottom of it? Do you also advocate not spiking the speaker to the floor?

 

These are a lower-cost alternative. I'm trying a set out at the moment, and they seem to be a very positive improvement.

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John K.

 

My opinion is that speakers should be isolated, not coupled. Coupling to the wall might sound different, but I see no benefit.

 

I'm not an advocate of either. It depends on personal preference, floor type and speaker type.

Some claim decoupling speakers from any floor is best, others claim spiking is always best. I understand your logic, but I think any improvements would depend on numerous factors, like wall and brace material. If sheetrock, that stuff can vibrate on its own with moderately loud bass, and you'd need to locate studs behind the speaker positions. If brick or concrete, that might work better, assuming rigid coupling will improve the sound.

 

I used to have a bedroom system and braced the speakers against the wall behind them with thick steel straps, but it was an outside structural wall. The speakers were cylindrical enclosures of my own design, so the rear of the bass tube was within a few inches of the wall. The speakers were sitting on sand-filled stands and spiked to the floor, but it was an upstairs unit and so not on solid floors. The steel strap attached to a strip of wood screwed into the studs, and by removing one of the bolts, it was very easy to compare the strapped to unstrapped sound, and the strapping improved the sound rather dramatically in my opinion, and for others that heard the demo. The sound change was as you might expect, everything firmed up and solidified. Alternately, you can add a lot of mass to the enclosures, but the end goal is to keep the enclosures from moving in reaction to the cone movement.

I have been thinking about ways to implement something similar in my current living room system with smaller monitor speakers on stands, but the wall behind them isn't an outside wall, so may cause problems with the reaction forces transferred to the large wall (sounding board).