2. speakers
  3. 1088092149

Coupling vs. Decoupling for Bass Response

My work system is in the hay loft of a converted 100 year old horse barn. The floor is wide pine planks over wood beams and shakes with just the footsteps of someone walking across it. Needless to say it does not help my bass response. I have my LaScalas in this room, which are not exactly known for low bass in the first place. They have a rather large footprint (I believe around 2X3 feet). Any suggestions of some simple (re: inexpensive) ways to get back some of my bass that the floor is eating up? I'm currently using three cones under each speaker, but I'm thinking coupling may be counter-productive. I'm guessing that I should be looking at a means of decoupling. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Marco
jax2

Showing 2 responses by xenithon

xenithon
130 posts
 
Sorry for not responding earlier, but I seriously suggest paying a visit to the audio asylum boards. There you will find a recipe for DIY platforms in numerous shapes, forms and sizes, but the predominant ingredient is PEF, aka closed cell polyethylene foam. It is quite a hard foam, the only way I can describe it is somewhere between a mattress and rubber :) however it does wonders. The rest of the platform depends on budget, availability, aesthetics etc. Probably the best design is a sandwhich which consists of the following:
- 1/8" aluminium (mainly for looks)
- 1" MDF
- 2-4" PE Foam
- 1" MDF
- 1/8" aluminium

You can play around with the rest of the sandwhich but the main thing to keep there is the foam. Then on top of the sandwhich place your speakers on their spikes.

Cheers,
X
xenithon
130 posts
 
Hi There,

I am not sure where you would get it in the US/EU, but from what I read on Audio Asylum you should be able to easily order it on the net. Here things are slightly harder to come by, so I had to go to an industrial manufacturer of numerous types of rubbers and foams and get the PE Foam from them. Wasn't that difficult really - yellow pages, 2 minute phone call and that's it. I even got it for free :) cause they normally come in a huge board of around 5mx10m but I only needed two small pieces so they gave me offcuts they were gonna throw away anyway.
More to discover