Granite Chopping Boards

[stevebrock]

£14 in Sainsbury - any body used them?

My hifi has moved to a diffrent room, my concrete floor is really uneven which is making experimetation with position, toe-in etc a ball ache.

Room is carpeted, 4m x 5m with a rug, sofas, curtains etc, speakers either side of chimmney breast in plenty of space and not in the alcoves - finding my Kudos a little boomy - been trying to tightem things up - wonder if these granite boards will help?

 

[the record spot]

Not unless you isolate the board else any vibration will just travel right through. Granite isn't going to isolate anything unless you have a buffer (rubber bike tube, isolation feet, etc etc....).

 

[stevebrock]

Time for some room treatment me thinks!

 

[BigH]

Go to Asda they are cheaper.

 

[sheggs]

Feel free to draw a plan with dimensions and post it on here so we can help out

 

[Vladimir]

If you have them 40-50cm away from walls and on spikes and still getting boomy sound, a granite slab won't solve your problem.

Few suggestions:

1) Tilting the speakers backwards by small degree using the back pair of spikes being screwed shorter. Use your spikes to level them on the floor, no need for granite in your case because you have concrete. Let those spikes burr in the concrete for a good grip.

2) Maybe your sitting position is hitting the peak of the low bass wave. Try moving yourself or the speakers forward and back. Before spending money on room treatments always do your best with positioning.

3) Get a cartridge with weaker bass.

 

[Neptune_Twilight]

I bought some granite slabs a few years back as where my speakers have to be sited the wooden floor is uneven & soft, this meant that using carpet spikes was a right pain to level also the spikes would work their way into the wood floor & the slabs worked wonders & rest on the carpet, this also virtually stopped all sympathetic vibration of the floor - Though mine are over 3cm thick by about 40 deep & are very, very heavy, & for me the next best thing to having a concrete floor.

I think you need to create a high mass platform & I haven’t seen the chopping boards I would think about doubling them up to create sufficient mass - Corners in my experience are the worst thing for boomy sound & or stands that can wobble even by a fraction of a fraction on the floor.

Edit: I found I needed to move the speakers a minimum of 35cm from the edge of the chimney breast & at least 40cm from the rear to remove any boomy sound from the RX2's, just a few cm sideways made a staggering difference, one thing slabs give you is the ability to move speakers around slightly with ease - Seems the OP's problem is the concrete is uneven so it a pain to experiment with positioning as each move requires lot's of time levelling??

 

[Stewart Dench]

I had a similar problem with my PMC GB1 speakers. When I moved from wooden floors to a house with a concrete floor underneath the carpet the GB1s had a tendancy to be boomy too.

The solution was to buy 2 squares of MDF which were the thickness of my underlay and a tube of Gripfill. To install lift back your carpet and cut out a square of underlay using the MDF square as a template. Then Gripfill the MDF squares to the concrete, leave to dry and then relay the carpet over the top.

When you install the speakers, push the spikes firmly into MDF through the carpet and you should now have a really solid connection to the ground. You don't even have to get the spikes entirely level and the solution is underneath the carpet, so is hidden from view.

Because the speaker cabinets now don't move, all the energy goes into moving the speaker cones and not the cabinet so the sound is a lot tighter. I had to play around with the distance from the wall but overall it was a vast improvement and cheap too.

Many thanks to Ian Ridge of Billy Vee gave me the solution.

 

[Neptune_Twilight]

To install lift back your carpet and cut out a square of underlay using the MDF square as a template. Then Gripfill the MDF squares to the concrete, leave to dry and then relay the carpet over the top.

A most interesting solution & noted.

 

[CnoEvil]

I agree with what's been said.

If the speakers are spiked into concrete, a Granite slab is unlikely to help. This is a room / positioning / seating problem.

The MDF solution is much more likely to have a positive effect.

 

[stevebrock]

Had a play around today - the uneven floor is a right pain!

Speakers now without any toe-in, firing straight across the room - bass is better

I know its a compromise but really wish I had a bigger room to play with

 

[Stewart Dench]

Yes, concrete floors are a pain; you can spend a lot of time adjusting the spikes so all four are in contact with the ground and then when you move the speaker you have to all through the process again. Further because the spikes only sit on the concrete and don't penetrate it (the same goes for the granite tile) much of the power from the amplifier goes into moving the cabinet as well as the speaker cones.

With a material like MDF the spikes are located firmly in place; the spikes don't need to be accurately leveled and simply need a firm push to locate and the speakers can still be easily moved again and again to try out different locations.

It cost me £10 and took me 30 minutes to install the MDF squares under the carpet and the results were significant; a much more controlled bass and much more headroom.

ps I spent some time upgrading the front end of my system last year and on reflection, all three dealers I visited located their speakers on MDF squares, for a good reason.

 

[nopiano]

Three spikes will make a tripod which self levels. It might not make any surface line up as your eyes might wish but it makes things easier.