Mass loading speakers

Yeah sorry Brian if we're tough on you. But you're begging for it when you pile boxes of records on $30,ooo speakers in order to improve things.

 

I'd consider removing the four wooden legs on the loudspeakers and having some custom made Symposium Super Plus platforms sized to the underside of the cabinet if you intend on keeping them long term.

Super Plus »

 

How about these under each leg?

Symposium Acoustics: ULTRA PADZ »

 

Hey, whatever works! I think that when dealing with specialized components they can sound fantastic with certain recordings and flawed with others. For some users, it won't be a problem because they listen to a particular genera of music that plays to the system's strengths. I listen too a lot of different things, so I learned that a well rounded system that may not have peaks but won't have valleys. Ultimately you should do whatever sounds best!

 

what if my stand is spiked to the concrete and my speakers are isolated from the stands with neoprene pads?

 

In principle it is so that a compliant mtrl will have a resonance together with the mass placed upon it. Above that res the higher freq will be largely absorbed in the damping mtlr. Freq below the res freq will pass thru the mtrl, as it cannot vibrate at these low freq.

 

Short answer is: Yes that's probably good.

That's what I would do on a concrete floor. I'd go spikes with floorstanders in that application as well.

I'd be reluctant about modifying a pair of zillion dollar speakers (or any expensive component for that matter) as suggested a few posts ago is it has strong potential to destroy resale value and in Brian's case (sorry again, Brian ) that may not be a good thing.

That's another big reason I like reversible tweaks as I stated earlier-they don't have that potential to mess with resale value.

 

Interesting. Thx for sharing.

 

What about a pair of solid cinder blocks underneath like four 12"x36" particle board pieces stacked on top of each other (The first piece was to create a bridge for the two cinder bocks, and the rest were for adding height until I had the tweeters at just the right height). I never really thought about it before, but I wonder if I should replace the boards with something else for the height and all that. My speakers are 125lbs each, and you have to get the placement distances perfect to get the best out of them, which is why I try to avoid moving them for as long as possible.

 

Never said it was necessary. Just that it was something I tried that had surprising results. It's entirely possible that once I've spent many hours listening like this that I'll discover significant flaws or that I don't actually prefer this sound.

Right now I've been chasing this resonance issue and just troubleshooting everything I can think of to try. Unfortunately, I've made one annoying problem into 3 or 4 even more annoying problems. This tweak helped address one problem, but there are now so many other problems with different factors contributing to different resonance issues that's I'm just going to stop messing around until I can get a second pair of ears and expertise to come by.

 

I would imagine they would offer an improvement, but FWIU a full platform contacting the bottom of the loudspeaker would be better for absorbing vibrations from the cabinet.

 

This is a corollary to the rule of FUBAR home repair:

the degree to which you think you can fix it

multiplied by​

the lower the actual cost of the repair involved

=​

the extent to which the [plumber/electrician/other home repair guy] will make you pay.

 

I really think this last issue or set of issues is about how my equipment is interacting with the room. I also think that a big part of the intermittent nature of the issue(s) is my inability to control temperature and humidity (most houses in the San Francisco Bay Area don't have central air - we just keep windows open - and there are wild fluctuations in temperature throughout any given day, much less week/month/etc).

That would help explain how the system can sound totally dialed in one day, but have this low energy build-up or hum or other audible resonance another day.

I just need to figure out the right/best way to address the issue(s) short of moving house.

I will say that all of my issues only seem to manifest themselves during analogue playback. Digital is always fine, but it's still digital and just doesn't sound as good. But I do miss the days of just enjoying issue-free playback, even if hat playback doesn't have as much magic to it.

 

Is it practical to air condition the zone in which your room is located? I had an old grand piano that was drastically affected by changes in humidity- there was a humidification unit purpose designed to compensate for that- i realize that you need to do that on a room, not a single "instrument" but the technology for minimalistic air conditioning systems has improved considerably over the past 15 years- no longer do you need sizable duct work- it can be done with flex-hose the diameter of, say, a vacuum cleaner hose. Hell, even a mini-split, although I'm not sure that the covered area would be conditioned consistently. The air conditioning will dehumidify to the extent you aren't using a central dehumidifier. (I'd be concerned about the noise and electrical pollution of any free-standing dehumidifier).

 

Do you have another turntable in the house you can try out? If not it might be worth picking up a super cheap one. It could be interesting to see if the resonance issues manifest themselves in the same way.

 

You should research isolation/decoupling.

 

Not practical to do my listening room since it is
open to the rest of the house, but I may do the entire house at some point. I just want to eliminate other possible causes with less expensive solutions first.

 

This may have been mentioned before but why not try the same thing with empty boxes and see if the effect is the same? That would clear up the mass loading vs change in baffle size conundrum.

 

If digital is always fine why mess with the speakers?

 

Your avatar is AWESOME! That dog is looking into my SOUL!
sorry..carry on. Just sayin

 

Hiah everybody,


ONLY Brain and I have done this, each independently !!

You folks are guessing, we two are not.

BTW, YMMV. SEE these two URLs below please:


Do as I do..... - drlowmu - High Efficiency Speaker Asylum


and : look at my two photos, I am drlowmu........


http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/h.../www.audioasylum.com/cgi/t.mpl?f=hug&m=177430



Best wishes to all,



Jeff Medwin

 

Sorry, the bottom , second URL in my original post , should have been this one below,, a thread, see 2 photos, etc.,

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