Optimum speaker support


After numerous experiments (spikes with and without cups, Rollerballs, Black Ravioli big pads, Nobsound springs, etc.) i have now finally found a solution to completely uncouple my standmounts (Duevel Bella Lunas) using Symposium Svelte Shelves with magnetic levitation feet from Alibaba. This combination delivers an unprecedented precision of soundstaging and impulse response. The whole system sounds more alive and clear.

(N.B. my room has carpeted (high pile) carpets on wooden floors, coupling with spikes resulted in boomy resonances)

antigrunge2

Just a question, @antigrunge2. How did you determine that the system had "unprecedented impulse response" with your new feet. When some people use this term their thinking is that the system sounds "faster." What that usually means is that the bass is rolled off or a bass peak was removed (hopefully the latter). Bass can do a lot of mysterious things by moving the speakers or changing their elevation.  

When a woofer is woofing at low frequencies Newton's reactive forces com into play and the enclosure wants to move in the opposite direction, the enclosure vibrates which you can feel if you put your hand on the speaker and play a 30 Hz test tone. Any vibrating on the enclosure's part is distortion. Either the speaker has to contain those forces by being very heavy and stiff. Or whatever it is attached to has to contend with tha energy. Now you have suspension feet. They are a mechanical filter with a resonance frequency dependent on the compliance of the suspension and the mass of the speaker. Below that resonance point the speaker is firmly attached to the floor. Above the resonance point it shakes and vibrates normally creating distortion. Consequently you want that frequency to be as high as is possible given the construction of your floor. It would be nice to get it above the audio band but highly unlikely you'll get it there.  Assuming you have a very stiff floor the best thing to do is bolt your speakers to the floor. I have seen people putting granite on top of their speakers to increase their weight but that does not work. It just raises the resonance frequency a little. I built a set of subwoofers using 1 inch of Corian for the enclosure walls thinking that an insanely heavy enclosure would solve the problem. They weighed 200 lb without the drivers in, add another 25 lb for the drivers. It did not work. Back to the drawing board. 

Anyway, if your system sounds good to you you are in business. Tinker On!

Thanks @mijostyn,

bass response is obviously an important consideration: in my case, the bass fires upwards with 360 degress of reflex ports at the bottom. The suspension solution I describe did clean up particularly sub 100Hz bass. The perception of speed is though more a reflection of reverb and attack in the mid treble around 2000Hz than a removal of bloat in the mid bass. The reason I am so excited about the solution relates to resultant better localisation of instruments and depth and clarity of soundstage rather than a shift in overall frequency response. I certainly agree that my findings are entirely predicated by my room and speaker specifics; nevertheless I thought I’d post the experience so that others might explore as well.

 

@antigrunge2  With your levitation feet from Alibaba, do you have any problems with your speakers floating around and bumping into things, or do the speaker cables keep them tethered? 🤣

if you really want to get rid of all the speaker vibration you should try the Townshend podium, they isolate down to three Hertz, this was the biggest upgrades I've ever done to my system, when I put them underneath my speakers the before and after was like a revelation, the bass got faster tighter more articulate the sound stage width and depth  air and space improved dramatically they're not cheap but best upgrade you could ever do, far better than the Isoacoustic Gaia, if you look at the reviews on audiogon from people that have tried both, they said as good as the ISO acoustic Gaia was the podiums are on a whole different level better and I totally agree, I will never take these out from underneath my speakers any room problems that you have will be gone with this underneath your speakers.

@magnuman 

thanks for your suggestion. Given the particular construction of the Duevel speakers, most speaker motion happens on the vertical rather than more conventionally the horizontal axis. Hence the particular benefit of the maglev+Svelte Shelf combination