Earthquake anchors

afterburnt

I was just thinking all of these tall speakers are going to fall over in an earthquake. Does anyone have their speakers anchored in case of such an eventuality, if so how?

seabeerob213

Which speakers do you speak of?

afterburnt

Just about all of them on my list except the subs. Not that they are a big deal but I guess I don't want em falling a breaking other stuff lol.

trj

home owner's insurance?

afterburnt

I don't know if that would cover me. I do know that you have to have separate earthquake insurance for the structure but I don't know about the contents. I will have to ask about that. Anyway these speakers are so top heavy that it wont take much of a quake to topple them.

seabeerob213

Hurricane nuts, all thread , and a wall anchor?

tonyb

We talking the M70's ? I dunno man, if my house is going to shake enough to knock over speakers, the well being of M70's is the last thing on my mind.

afterburnt

The speakers are strategically placed to break a lot of stuff if they fall and they will be the first thing to fall.

tonyb

What kind of "stuff" we talking ? Expensive stuff....cheap stuff....grandma's ashes on the mantle ?

Stuff can be replaced, you and your family can't. If an earthquake is that common to you, I'd focus on whats really important in your life. 300 buck speakers wouldn't even show up on my list.

Anchor them to the wall if that makes you feel better. Would imagine though any kind of anchor is going to look ugly as sin.

gce

You must live in California. I do too and in all the years I've lived here and all the earthquakes I've been through I've never had anything fall over. The towers may sway a little but if it's big enough to knock them over you'll have bigger problems then just your towers falling over.

afterburnt

Yeah I am in CA. I just wondered if anyone had any ingenious ways to do this that would be applicable to other things as well. With a little luck I will be moving out of state in a few years and this wont be an issue. Then I can have mirrored ceilings over my bed lol.

tonyb

afterburnt wrote: »

Then I can have mirrored ceilings over my bed lol.

LOL...I thought that was standard issue with every house in Cali.

afterburnt

Seriously though all of my amps and stuff are on glass shelfs next to the speakers so I could hsve a dominoe effect losing better things than speakers.

nooshinjohn

My 1.2TL's will be spiked, and there will be a pair of small gauge cables being attached high up on the backs and bolted to the walls behind them. Unless the wall comes down, the girls won't be going anywhere.

tonyb

afterburnt wrote: »

Seriously though all of my amps and stuff are on glass shelfs next to the speakers so I could hsve a dominoe effect losing better things than speakers.

Glass shelves would be a problem anyway you look at it in a quake zone. Possible to move everything to a lower wood shelf unit ?

afterburnt

Man I got everything fitting together like a puzzle. I would have to abandon all of the furniture and start over. I will invent something, maybe I can even sell it and make some money off of it.

tonyb

I would imagine the gear sitting on glass shelves is worth more than the speakers...no ? Glass is going to break in a quake, and all that gear will come tumbling down. So if your talking from a protect your investment standpoint, where do you have the money ....gear or speakers ?

afterburnt

The money is in the gear however I am just talking about minor shaking that would easily topple the speakers that I doubt would effect the gear. If the glass breaks from a tremor I would bet that everything else in the the house will be broken too.

afterburnt

These towers were built to fall over but the shelf has a pretty low center of gravity I could probably set it on some felt pads so it would tend to slide instead of having the floor jerked out from under it.

tonyb

Put wider feet on the speakers to give them more stability. Plenty of after market feet out there.

afterburnt

Where do I look for those? I was about to put everything up on casters lol.

trj

I didn't find any reasonably priced outriggers for my RTi's so I built my own from a couple of aluminum bars from home depot. Tapped holes for the spikes and they are standing good.

tonyb

Just google speaker outriggers.....here's some,

http://www.soundocity.com/products.html

afterburnt

Thanks I had no idea what the were called.

tonyb

You could probably make your own too if your handy. The threads are already there in the bottom of the speakers.

leftwinger57

I might be wrong but I heard somewhere that the Bigger SDAs did not pass an OSHA tip test and would not allow them on the market. The fix was called the bass brace that 1 end screwed into the back of the speaker and the other end was anchored in the wall w/ well anchors and screws. This according to Polk also increased bass slam so it got approved and the sound improved.

https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVjCd.NVUn58Aeg8nnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTBsa3ZzMnBvBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkAw--?_adv_prop=image&fr=yhs-mozilla-001&va=polk+bass+brace&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001

afterburnt

I am going to make some outriggers and save a bunch f money. Thanks all

trj

afterburnt wrote: »

I am going to make some outriggers and save a bunch f money. Thanks all

Yah, get some aluminum bars from home depot, make some holes and use proper threaded nuts to attach them to the speakers. You can cut them wider if you want more stability.
Tap threaded holes for the spikes. I got some speaker spikes from parts-express and they are almost anchored to the carpet now.

I didn't like the way how the factory outriggers were supporting the RTi8's so I went custom. And I am happy.

afterburnt

trj wrote: »

afterburnt wrote: »

I am going to make some outriggers and save a bunch f money. Thanks all

Yah, get some aluminum bars from home depot, make some holes and use proper threaded nuts to attach them to the speakers. You can cut them wider if you want more stability.
Tap threaded holes for the spikes. I got some speaker spikes from parts-express and they are almost anchored to the carpet now.

I didn't like the way how the factory outriggers were supporting the RTi8's so I went custom. And I am happy.

Got nay pics that you can post?

trj

afterburnt wrote: »

Got nay pics that you can post?

I wont be home for a week or so. I have one in my photo bucket before I tapped the holes for the speaker spikes. Here it is:

trj

Will post more when I get home.