Decoupling humongous speakers on the cheap

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:01 pm

Not quite another, "what's the best for under $100" thread?

Anyone have a good strategy/idea for decoupling huge, heavy speakers? I need them elevated some, so some sort of stand/decoupler would work, or something to isolate them from the table and milk crates (I'm not shitting you) that they're on now would be cool.

Also, I know I need this, I'm hearing resonance in the table and clattering in the milk crates, but what exactly is the theory behind this? Optimally, am I trying to get the speakers totally solid so they don't move at all? Or trying to set them up so that they can move freely?

I have zero budget for this, so I'm definitely going DIY, but cool, super cheap ideas are what I'm after.

These are the speakers. I have the wedge shaped ones, up on one triangular side. Note the 37" height and 82lb weight.

http://archives.telex.com/archives/EV/S ... %20IIA.pdf

If I decided to mount them from the ceiling (basement, sheetrock ceiling) what would I do there? Just screw them into the joists?

(God, 20 watts power handling, I'm feeding them 110 watts each?! Zoinks.)

Nate Dort · Post by **Nate Dort** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 7:19 pm

Make a platform out of plywood and suspend them from the ceiling with bungee cords.

ashcat_lt · Post by **ashcat_lt** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:00 pm

They're 82 lbs, 37" tall, and handle 20 watts?

My speakers are not nearly that large, but I've got them sitting on a pile of cinder blocks. Relatively cheap, especially if you have friends or relatives that might have some sitting around in the way.

I'm pretty sure you'd prefer to have the speaker cabinets immobile. If they swing around you're going to have some time/space continuum issues.

Also, and possibly more importantly, you need whatever they are standing on to not vibrate or resonate sympathetically. Sheer mass is your best bet here.

JES · Post by **JES** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:38 pm

How about a board and four hockey pucks? Hockey pucks are my ghetto audiophile decoupling solution of choice. They're under every speaker in the apatment.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 7:26 am

12 pieces of wood, a handful of screws, ~100 pounds of sand and an hour of your time and you have some nice heavy duty speaker stands.

bipedal · Post by **bipedal** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:58 am

I always thought that yoga mats would work well to isolate speakers from whatever they're sitting on. Something about the density of the foam...

Cut to size for same footprint as speaker, maybe use a couple of layers if you can only find thin mats.

Disclaimer: I don't know if this works (haven't tried it myself), but those things are cheap and readily available.

- Jay

Brett Siler · Post by **Brett Siler** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:30 am

My studio monitors are on stands that I made from cinder blocks with some left over ultra touch stuffed in the little holes in the cider blocks. Then I glued some peices of an old yoga mat and set the speakers on them. Works really great! I covered the stands in a gray frabic to make them look better.

Lot of great ideas on this thread already!

JWL · Post by **JWL** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:06 pm

+1 on cinder blocks. Best cheap DIY stand there is.

riantide · Post by **riantide** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 11:59 am

I use the cinder block stack and a friend of mine turned me onto an insanely cheap and insanely effective gizmo for de-coupling: go to any pet store and pick up the glass beads (designed for use in fish tanks) that are round on one side and flat on the other. They are seriously like 20 cents a piece and they do a great job of letting your monitor resonate freely and I noticed an immediate improvement in the bass response, just put three down on each monitor stand (purpose-built or improvised) and you're golden.

Best of luck!

rian

douglas baldwin · Post by **douglas baldwin** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:34 am

I used the hanging-from-the-ceiling approach once, long ago.
Here are my observations:

* When you're working on a budget of zero, you're usually working in a tight space. Floor space = rent, usually. Hanging the speakers from the ceiling frees up floor space.

* Something like bungee cords is best for hanging. Chains will tend to transfer frequencies into the studs from which they're hanging. BUT! The majick secret to using bungee cords is to use two different cords per corner. Each bungee cord will have a resonant frequency that it wants to move at. You can hear this when you hang the speaker: pluck it like a bass fiddle string, and it'll go dwoooo. Play a long note through the speaker at that frequency, and the cabinet will start to rock back and forth! Add a second cord of a different thickness/elasticity and the two together will go THUD, like a fist in a pillow. Speaker stays in one place.

* An alternative to bungee cords: giant rubber bands. One bag of the humungoid size (1" x 6") will set you back maybe $5. Use two or three per corner.

* I hung mine using eye bolts directly into the ceiling beams and directly into the speaker cabinets. No platform. Less stuff to rattle and hum.

* I also did this with a turntable. I could pogo across the living room floor, and the turntable wouldn't skip. I used some eye hooks with screw-like threads, and I would calibrate the flatness of the turntable with a carpenter's level and adjust whenever necessary.

* I currently have a fan hanging by giant rubber bands in my basement. (Sounds like a line from "Spinal Tap," doesn't it?) It puts the fan near the window and kills the noise it makes.

I hope this helps and/or lights a spark about cheap decoupling solutions.

recall · Post by **recall** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 12:51 pm

Hello there,

I have my adam a7's on recoil stabilizers, on some Alphason hi fi stands. They sound good, but I'm getting some resonance on the table in front of them which is off putting when resting my elbows on it.

my setup is such:

SPKR-----------------------------------SPKR
MONITOR

----------------------------
{ }
{ TABLE/DESK }
{ }
----------------------------

I was thinking of putting one hockey puck below each leg of the table, also wondering whether using something like Green Glue on the underside of the table would absorb?

The resonance is minimal on the speaker stands themselves which are mounted on one concrete block each.

Any suggestions?

Cheers

Iwan

casey campbell · Post by **casey campbell** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:04 pm

you could hire some kids needing after school jobs to hold them. this would be really cool!

recall · Post by **recall** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:13 pm

Damn,

I took a while trying to make a legible illustration of my setup and then when its been posted all that formatting has gone!

Anyway, my setup is quite normal: two speakers, apple display in between (on plinth),
desk further forward with my keyboard, mouse and monitor controller.

wren · Post by **wren** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 5:03 pm

casey campbell wrote:you could hire some kids needing after school jobs to hold them. this would be really cool!

"Hello? Why yes, actually, now that you mention it, I could use an intern..."

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 6:00 pm

Is anybody really hanging 80 lb. monitors with bungee cords? I guess it should work, since people jump off bridges and shit with them, but it seems counter intuitive. But 8 bungees, (2 per corner, as suggested) would only be holding 10 lbs each.

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Decoupling humongous speakers on the cheap

Decoupling humongous speakers on the cheap

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