Any new ideas on an old theme?

I am closer to Shadorne on this one - in part because I haven't tried the spend-ier route prescribed by Fafafion.

I have had great luck using bamboo (very dense) boards between the floor and the speakers, and four dots of blutack between the the speakers and the bamboo boards. Very thick maple chopping blocks or solid boards may work equally well or better. I would try comparing blutack to you speaker's spikes between the speakers and the boards to see what sounds best to you. The thicker and heavier the block(s) of wood, the better they will be at dampening and absorbing vibrations coming from the speaker cabinets. These "isolation" boards can also serve to buffer vibration getting to the structure of you house, reducing possible effects on your other audio components.

I was also absolutely astounded at what placing a large hardwood cutting board under my CD player did to tame digital nasties. I assume this was due to the ability of the wood to "drain" high frequency internal vibrations away from the player, since the effect was equally startling listening through headphones. Twice as thick = >4x as good! I experimented with different ways to suspend the player above the wooden block (blutack - slightly dull, sorbothane - dull, small hardwood blocks - too much resolution) and decided that the stock feet had the best balance between resolution and smooth presentation.

Timrhu said:

"Very interesting discussion here. If you use the wood pedestal under the speakers is it best to simply lay it on the carpet or would it be better to spike the wood block to the floor? I think I may try it this weekend."

I have a rather interesting arrangement where I have a few magazines under the block of wood to raise the level of the speakers off the hardwood floor a bit... so I guess I would suggest trying the wood "pedestal" directly on the carpet, and then with spikes under the pedestal to see if that is an improvement. I am not sure what advantage is gained by coupling the speaker-pedestal system to a wood sub floor if that just adds the chance of exciting the floor and transferring vibration to your equipment rack, but some proponents claim that it increases the bass response in a good way. Try it without spikes first and if that sounds good, you may have saved some money. If you have some extra spikes around the house, try that too.

For an (expensive) commercial solution and some hype about wood platforms, check this site;

http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/audioproducts/speakerstands_hub.php

Blindjim,

FWIW, I don't have any spikes anywhere in my system. My problem had to do with muddy bass that affected the overall sound. The bamboo boards under the speakers with a little blutack between them made a huge positive difference with that problem and cleanup the midrange and the treble too. I don't know if that was an artifact - I.E. cleaner bass affects the whole spectrum by allowing the information in the upper registers to come forward and no longer be obscured by low frequency resonance? So for me, the bass may be tipped up a bit as a result of isolating them from the floor, but certainly not in a bad way for sure.

Speaking of tipping, my speakers aren't that tall and I have wooden shims under the bamboo boards tilting the speakers up about 10 degrees which helps with the imaging a lot, and maybe improves the phase between the tweeter and mid/woofer??? In any case, tipping 100lb speakers without substantial and well secured spikes dedicated for that purpose might be ill advised!

Finally, putting a large beechwood block under my CDP made a huge and silly good difference in the sound of CDs. Much more balanced and analog with no more sibilance or digital nasties. I fooled around with different methods to support the CDP on the wood platform including small hardwood blocks directly under the case and found that I liked the stock feet the best. The hardwood blocks increased the resolution but reduced the bass too much for my taste, "tipping" the overall sound up as you say.

You will just have to try different configurations to see what you like best. I am definitely sold on the value of big blocks of wood for various application in hifi systems. One of the cheapest and most effective tweaks I have found by far.

Timrhu,

Curious to here how this works for you.