Hi there,
I've been experimenting with the positioning of my Bowers & Wilkins MM-1s and I've also tried decoupling them from the desk slightly, in order to reduce the vibrations I've been getting in the desk.
I have a pair of nice stainless steel coasters that have fairly squidgy rubber feet on them. I know that reducing the contact surface area between the speaker and the surface it's on will reduce the transfer of energy between the two, so I thought I'd try placing them under the MM-1. They're a perfect size and they actually look quite nice (see picture below)!
Anyway, they seem to have done the trick and reduced the desk vibration considerably. It's not a huge difference, but because the MM-1s have quite thick rubber bases to them, their normal contact area with the desk is quite large.
Not entirely convinced by the sensitivity of my own fingers, I got the app 'GeoPhone' for the iPhone (59p), which uses the accelerometer to measure minute vibrations. It's amazing how sensitive the phone can be! You can adjust the sensitivity in the app, meaning it's sensitive enough to detect tiny vibrations. Sure enough, there's a slight reduction in desk resonance compared to when I take the coasters away. There's also a slight reduction in the speaker vibration themselves (I placed the phone on top of the speaker with and without the coaster), which is another plus. The aim is to make as much of the energy come out of the drivers and not the desk/speaker cabinets, of course.
So is there an audible difference? It's hard to say, but I get the impression that there's a little less muddiness in the lower frequencies. I'm not gonna say 'no' to a free improvement by using a couple of coasters, so it's worthwhile to me just to make my desk vibrate a little less.
And in case you're wondering, I've bothered with this because I have a Meridian speaker set-up at home that I inherited from my dad and while I'm away during term time (I'm a uni student), I like to get the best sound possible given my small living space - the MM-1s are perfect for me. I listen to music for hours every day, so the slightest improvement means a lot to me!
Anyway, I thought I'd share this experience because it shows that miniaturised hi-fi speakers, such as the MM-1s, do benefit from the same treatment that their bigger cousins get, even at this tiny scale.
I've been experimenting with the positioning of my Bowers & Wilkins MM-1s and I've also tried decoupling them from the desk slightly, in order to reduce the vibrations I've been getting in the desk.
I have a pair of nice stainless steel coasters that have fairly squidgy rubber feet on them. I know that reducing the contact surface area between the speaker and the surface it's on will reduce the transfer of energy between the two, so I thought I'd try placing them under the MM-1. They're a perfect size and they actually look quite nice (see picture below)!
Anyway, they seem to have done the trick and reduced the desk vibration considerably. It's not a huge difference, but because the MM-1s have quite thick rubber bases to them, their normal contact area with the desk is quite large.
Not entirely convinced by the sensitivity of my own fingers, I got the app 'GeoPhone' for the iPhone (59p), which uses the accelerometer to measure minute vibrations. It's amazing how sensitive the phone can be! You can adjust the sensitivity in the app, meaning it's sensitive enough to detect tiny vibrations. Sure enough, there's a slight reduction in desk resonance compared to when I take the coasters away. There's also a slight reduction in the speaker vibration themselves (I placed the phone on top of the speaker with and without the coaster), which is another plus. The aim is to make as much of the energy come out of the drivers and not the desk/speaker cabinets, of course.
So is there an audible difference? It's hard to say, but I get the impression that there's a little less muddiness in the lower frequencies. I'm not gonna say 'no' to a free improvement by using a couple of coasters, so it's worthwhile to me just to make my desk vibrate a little less.
And in case you're wondering, I've bothered with this because I have a Meridian speaker set-up at home that I inherited from my dad and while I'm away during term time (I'm a uni student), I like to get the best sound possible given my small living space - the MM-1s are perfect for me. I listen to music for hours every day, so the slightest improvement means a lot to me!
Anyway, I thought I'd share this experience because it shows that miniaturised hi-fi speakers, such as the MM-1s, do benefit from the same treatment that their bigger cousins get, even at this tiny scale.
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