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pande_monium
09-01-2009, 05:17 PM
Most of you may know that mounting speakers directly on the carpets or floorboards will muffle or dampen or muddle the sound.

Why does this happen? Because the sound vibrations are passed on to the carpets/floorboards, thus resulting in sound impurities.

What will avoid this? Sound Isolation. Isolating the speakers from the floors, thereby ensuring that vibrations do not transcend from one medium to another.

What can you do to avoid this? Ideally, you should have speakers floating in air !! Now, that's not only impractical, its impossible. There's various practical options (listed below in order of increasing sound isolation):
> Speakers mounted on spikes directly onto carpet/floorboard
> Speakers mounted stuck with blue tac onto Plinths fitted with spikes
> Spiked Speakers mounted on Plinths fitted with spikes

Now, the reason for the post - Went to Ikea yesterday and saw this chopping board for ?8.99... down from ?16-ish or so. Its thick enough to absorb most vibrations from the speakers ... and cheap enough to buy 1 for each speaker !

Link >>> Ikea (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 1 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. link shows the full price... but I saw the reduced price in the Nottingham store)

Trust me... the sound improvement is worth 10 times the cost of these butcher blocks ! There's various types of plinths... granite/concrete/wood/etc... but the difference between the TYPES of plints is very less - IF YOU MOUNT THE SPEAKER CORRECTLY.

Diablo13
11-01-2009, 12:29 AM
I didn't know that about speakers and mounting pande. Haven't got any really high end speakers, but it does explain why the speakers from my Samsung surround system are on hollow tubes with breather slots. I never did understand the point of that and now I know. In theory then isn't it better to just mount the speakers on the wall if you can? I have heard of using silver foil behind them to help bounce the sound out more I think?
Thanks.

pande_monium
12-01-2009, 02:14 PM
In theory then isn't it better to just mount the speakers on the wall if you can?

Yes, it'd be better to mount speakers on the walls... simply because it would be easier to isolate their vibrations from the walls. However, barring the satellite speakers in home cinema systems, not many speakers can be mounted on walls because of their weight, size and design. Also, not a popular option because mounting on walls is destructive in nature - i.e. drilling holes, etc.

Weight - Too heavy to be mounted on walls. To do so, you'd require expensive metal mounts.
Size - Would look ugly to mount large speakers on walls in your lounge or TV room!
Design - Speakers are designed for a particular purpose. Satellite speakers carry only high frequencies (normally > 250hz to the human threshold of 20khz). However, normal speakers are designed to carry low frequencies 20hz to about 250 hz and mid frequencies 200hz to 2000hz. Low and mid level frequencies create more vibrations due to the very nature of their waves, hence the need for isolation.


I have heard of using silver foil behind them to help bounce the sound out more I think?

Umm not heard of this myself... but you never know... suppose you live and learn, huh? Have you tried this and if so, what are your observations? Will try researching this myself... but not too optimistic about it.

thelostone
12-01-2009, 05:06 PM
Tried to get the mrs to let me wall mount my bipolar rear spekears i can not repeat on here what the answer was:fryingpan::56::censored::roflmao:

Diablo13
12-01-2009, 09:48 PM
I appreciate the info pande.
Although I could mount the home entertainment speakers on a wall, they would then be behind the telly whereas according to the instructions they should be slightly in front. They would also look very ugly with the bottom of the stands missing, so not really a goer there.
As far as the silver paper is concerned, I think I got my wires crossed a bit.
You can pot foil behind radiators to help throw out heat.
You can line the INSIDE of speakers with foil to help throw sound out, rather than lose some of it out the back.
It was a while ago when I read that, so it may have become a little dusty in the dark recesses of what I once called a mind. :o

@ thelostone :D
Maybe you should have told your Mrs that you would drill HER instead. Amazing how amenable women become when you put a smile on their faces! :lol3:

pande_monium
16-01-2009, 04:00 PM
Hey Diablo - I know what you mean exactly by getting wires crossed ... do that practically every day myself LOL !!


You can pot foil behind radiators to help throw out heat.

Correct. Works really well when the radiator is mounted on an external wall (as opposed to internal walls / dividers / partitions).


You can line the INSIDE of speakers with foil to help throw sound out, rather than lose some of it out the back.

Ok... this bit is most definitely incorrect. On the contrary, you put stuff like glass-wool INSIDE the speakers to dampen the reflections. A cheaper alternative is a thick layer of foam about 1/2 or 1 inch thick. This increases the clarity of the sound. The reflections created within the speaker would only muddle the sound disasterously!!

In fact, it would be safe to assume that as far as sound waves go, you do NOT want reflections at all. Purists go to silly lengths to ensure that even their walls do not reflect sound. You'll find that most recording studios have heavily porus walls to kill reflections. A simple way to prove this is when you next go to the cinema, just feel the walls and you'll find it either layered in a thick rough carpet OR uneven wood OR other such porus material which would reduce reflection of sound to the maximum.

Humble apologies Diablo. Please do not take my comment(s) otherwise in any way. I hope my post has/will help someone out there.

Diablo13
16-01-2009, 04:21 PM
Please don't apologise for telling me when I am talking ballcocks pande m8, I am here to learn.
Putting polystyrene in the speakers sounds like a good cheap idea for me to try, so I will have to give that a go.
I 'm sure a lot of other people will find your post helpful as well. :thumbup2:

pande_monium
16-01-2009, 05:32 PM
Please don't apologise for telling me when I am talking ballcocks pande m8, I am here to learn.
Putting polystyrene in the speakers sounds like a good cheap idea for me to try, so I will have to give that a go.
I 'm sure a lot of other people will find your post helpful as well. :thumbup2:


I'd be surprised if your speaker does not already have some sort of dampening material in them.

If yours doesn't, then some all-purpose glue and nicely cut foam to fit the walls would do you a world of good. Trust me on this one.