Speakers, stands and laminate floors (concrete)

[jonathanRD]

I've also got laminate directly on solid concrete currently have stands on spikes into cheap felt pads to protect floor. Thing is this makes it difficult to move speakers easily which I would like to do as speakers only 6 inches from wall. Wondering if the granite saver idea would affect negatively my sound as my floor is not quite level. Question is would the pads on bottom of granite be sufficient to prevent any wobble while still allowing me move speakers quite easily? (Sorry to butt in BTW).

My floor is level so my slabs have no play/wobble and with the weight of the speaker/speaker & stands - they need a mighty push to get them moving - but it is so much easier than spikes into felt pads or on coins. Is your floor sloping (uniformly) or just randomly uneven? Depending on the slope pads might be enough (can you experiment with something you have in the house similar like a chopping board?), but if the floor is randomly uneven might you be better with speaker spike shoes?

 

[Andrewjvt]

how do they join onto the speakers? do they just get placed on them?

 

[CnoEvil]

Trying to put it kindly, I think you're speculating on a set of circumstances you're not fully familiar with.

Two points:

- I am not qustioning the results you are getting, especially on the on the mids/treble. In fact, I am simply interested in what you did and the results it produced. Due to the nature of my old house, I have a constant battle with suspended wooden floors, with regard to the way they effect the sound.

- I am all too familiar with what often happens when powerful bass vibrates a wooden floor and was simply showing surprise that you weren't witnessing any benefits in this area.

 

[matt49]

Trying to put it kindly, I think you're speculating on a set of circumstances you're not fully familiar with.

Two points:

- I am not qustioning the results you are getting, especially on the on the mids/treble. In fact, I am simply interested in what you did and the results it produced. Due to the nature of my old house, I have a constant battle with suspended wooden floors, with regard to the way they effect the sound.

- I am all too familiar with what often happens when powerful bass vibrates a wooden floor and was simply showing surprise that you weren't witnessing any benefits in this area.

One further point that may be relevant: our floors are suspended boards but there are 1"-thick 'architectural' MDF/oak boards bonded on top of the original boards. Presumably this makes them quite a bit more rigid.

It would have been interesting to try the Phantoms in the same room, but I didn't and now they've gone up to Glos.

 

[CnoEvil]

One further point that may be relevant: our floors are suspended boards but there are 1"-thick 'architectural' MDF/oak boards bonded on top of the original boards. Presumably this makes them quite a bit more rigid.

IME. Everything can make a difference, from the type of wood, the thickness of the wood, to volume of space underneath.

 

[matt49]

One further point that may be relevant: our floors are suspended boards but there are 1"-thick 'architectural' MDF/oak boards bonded on top of the original boards. Presumably this makes them quite a bit more rigid.

IME. Everything can make a difference, from the type of wood, the thickness of the wood, to volume of space underneath.

I'm sure that's true. Maybe.

 

[britain4]

Seems like there's a bit of a discussion going.

If my floors were completely solid I would just plonk the stands on it and leave it at that but the laminate seems to have an ever so slight flex to it under foot and some parts are just not quite level. Does this make a difference or should the considerable weight of the speakers negate it?

I would love some of those Seismic Pod things but... bloody hell, that's more than I'd ever want to spend! I've got Foculpods under all my gear at the minute (minus the speakers) and it seems to be doing a fine job...

 

[jonathanRD]

If your laminate has a slight flex I suspect that is most likely due to the type and thickness of the underlay. Did you lay the floor yourself? Do you know what underlay you have? It sounds like you need to isolate your speakers from the floor.

When I fitted my laminate floor I used a thin (2.5mm) foam type roll rather than the thicker boards. Initially the room doubled as a dance floor, and after laying the vinyl dance floor over the top of the laminate - we found that the floor was very hard with no 'give' to it. The dancer has since gone to college and the vinyl mat has been removed. I only use the slate slabs to protect the laminate from the spikes, and it is easier to move the speakers as the slabs slide if you push them hard enough.

 

[SteveR750]

FWIW, my speakers are mounted on cones (not spikes) that come with the SCM40s for hard floors. They are sat directly upon a granite saver, under which are the little felt pads that they come with, plus four generous blobs of blutak at each corner. Although it's a suspended and definitley bouncy floor (there is no way for example my Linn LP12 would have worked unless everyone was sat still) I can't feel a significant amount of bass energy in the floor, simply by cranking up the volume and placing my hand on it in several areas. Even placing my ear close/next to it reveals little in the way of resonance, which is somewhat surprising, but then it's fundamental is very low, around 10Hz given how the room shakes when you walk about on it.

In truth, I had more of a problem in my old house with modern plasterboard framed walls which act like huge passive woofers. Albeit a smaller room by around 1/3, the D18s sounded incredibly robust at the bottom end, when I moved to the new house, it was much reduced.

I'd be suprirsed if adding the Townshend bars would benefit me much, and the cost make the experiment prohibitive as there probably isn't much of a used market for them. I'm not even going to try the Draper mat, there's enough clutter already associated with the system, and again I doubt there would be much improvement to be had.