Isolating bookshelf speakers that are sat on the floor (I know, I know)

admin_exported

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My Arcam Delta 290/290P & Mission 752s are being held hostage by my wife. I may see them again, I may not. For the moment a friend has lent me a redundant system - Cambridge Audio A1 SE Mk 3 and Eltax Monitor IIIs. They're sat on a carpeted floor with no prospect of getting stands (not much point if the 752s make it to my flat). My question is this - how do I best isolate the speakers from the floor - they've got metal spikes and I've got them sat in the little metal discs that they came with. To be honest - they sound fine as-is, I'm just worried about annoying the neighbors. I've heard some people sit their speakers on granite slabs to isolate them? Is that a sensible thing? Where's the granite slab shop? I need it to be cheap cheap cheap. Any ideas?
 

Andrew Everard

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Frankly, they're probably as good as they're going to get like that, but you could put some granite slabs under them if you wish – best bet is to look in your local supermarket or discount store for granite chopping boards such as these from Wilkinson, or buy some small 30x30cm decorative paving slabs from a local garden centre or builder's merchant.

Also might be worth finding a way of raising the front of the speakers so they fire up at your listening position a bit more: many years ago when I was a student we used to use rubber ferrules (designed for walking sticks) under the front corners to do this, like these
 
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Anonymous

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Wonderful. Thanks for taking the time - local garden centre first.
 

fr0g

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If the only reason you don't want stands is the waste of money if your floorstanders get to the flat, why not check out ebay for some 2nd hand ones?

I just had a quick look and there are some
Atacama 60 CM Speaker Stands-Spiked
for £35 buy it now.

You can just sell them on when you're done?

*a more general check brings up these cheapies...

http://products.trovit.co.uk/index.php/cod.frame/url.http%253A%252F%252Fwww.friday-ad.co.uk%252FAdRef%252FYI210FF2G%252FWeb%252FFullAdDetails.asp/id_ad.41L1XBM1gE19/type.3/what.speaker%20stands/pos.13/org.1/pop.1/publisher_id./referer_id.1/t.1

£15. I imagine granite blocks would cost at least as much! :)
 
A

Anonymous

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Excellent options. Thank-you.

What I've actually done is to go "off reservation" somewhat and on an impulse I've just bout another pair of 752s - the later Freedom versions. £85 on ebay. If I get mine back I'll just choose a pair to sell.

Thanks very much for your help though - apologies for choosing a somewhat left-field solution.

£85 did seem to be the going price for these? Is it me or is that a ridiculously low price for a decent speaker?

Not that I'm complaining of course.
 
A

Anonymous

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OMG - they're lovely.

Apart from the base of one of them (which looks like it's seen some aggressive hoover action) they look like new.

Any tips for re-painting the bases? It would be nice to have them as black and pristine as the rest of the speaker. They unscrew so no problems removing them.

Even with my borrowed Cambridge Audio A1Mk3SE they sound great so I'm overjoyed.

It's been an enjoyable tangent but I'm still left with needing to isolate the speakers as best I can - my original question!

Doh!

Just one more question before I head to the garden centre/Wilkinsons - do I keep the spikes on the speakers when I place them on the granits slab and should I place something between the two - a layer of cork or something? Surely it needs something so that the sound isn't transmitted from one to the other?

Or am I talking rot?

p.s. £87.77 for a pair of 752s? It seems ridiculous for such lovely speakers but that does seem to be the going price on eBay. A pair of B&W 685s went for £205 and Kef Q300s for £311. Am I missing something?
 

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