Slate Under Speakers

MillerLiteScott

I went to Home Depot today looking for oil for my Snowblower and ended up walking out with (3) 16" X 16" slate tiles for just under 11 American dollars. I wanted to do black granite but I could not find anything large enough. One for each of my mains and one for the sub. I put them on top of my carpet and still have the spikes on the speakers.

I cannot believe the difference the tile made. Much tighter, livelier sound. I really have not given the system a real test but I immediately noticed a significant difference.

This slate is only 3/8" - 1/2" thick. I have about 8 sheets of 2" thick slate up to 4'X4' but I need a gas saw with a diamond blade to cut it. I will probably cut a piece the next time I rent a saw. I bet that would make an even bigger difference.

As I am typing this I still cannot believe what I am hearing.

Home Depot did not have winter oil but now my system sounds better so I think I might go up to Tweeter to see if they can help me with my snowblower.:rolleyes:

Early B.

That's great.

BTW -- your speakers are suffocating in their current position. Move them up a few inches so they're slightly beyond the cabinet (if you're able to) and it'll sound like you upgraded your speakers.

hearingimpared

Great tweaks. . . try putting brass spikes under the slate, three or four each.

MillerLiteScott

Thanks,

I will try inching them out a little bit at a time. ( when she is not looking )

I think I will try the brass spikes under the 2 inch slate once I cut it. Some of the slabs I have are 400 lbs+ so I got to plan to have some one help me.

Should I upgrade to brass spikes for the speakers also or sit them directly on the slate?

VR3

I think you need to dust the base of your SVS

hearingimpared

MillerLiteScott wrote:

Thanks,

I will try inching them out a little bit at a time. ( when she is not looking )

I think I will try the brass spikes under the 2 inch slate once I cut it. Some of the slabs I have are 400 lbs+ so I got to plan to have some one help me.

Should I upgrade to brass spikes for the speakers also or sit them directly on the slate?

If that slate is 400 lbs you won't need spike underneath. Although it would be interesting to see if it makes a difference. For brass spikes try MYE Sound or Mapleshade brass.

Check them out. I use the Mye Sound points on my 1.2 TLs.

MillerLiteScott

The slabs I have weigh 400 lbs. I would imagine the size I need will weigh @ 30lbs +/-. I will check out the spikes thanks.

MLS

wingnut4772

Cool tweak. I agree with bumping the speaks out a little more. Just enough to break the plane of the line of your furniture might me ok with the wifey. Maybe she won't notice.:p

mrbigbluelight

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote:

I think you need to dust the base of your SVS

Doesn't that belong in the "Hints from Heloise" forum ?


:rolleyes:

IanD

I like the idea of slate or maple under speakers and subs, but what if you were to use maple blocks or squares of slate say 2" x 2" x 1"" ? Would it have the same effect?
Reason for the question is that I have access to slate "tiles" of the above size but would have to make a rather longish trip to pick them up.
Thoughts?

steveinaz

I run clay tile under my speaks, makes a big difference in bass.

mulveling

I've got two 1" thick granite slabs just begging to be put under my big main speakers. Actually, I've been wanting to do this tweak for a while - unfortunately I've got that nasty thick padded carpet, and the speakers aren't as stable on the slabs as they are with just carpet spikes alone (and hence I wonder if there's any benefit like this). In the meantime I've been using them under electronics components, where I bet they yield a miniscule fraction of the good they'd do for the speaks.

I've tried this setup and pushing on the top of the speaks makes the slab rock back and forth with little effort - Scott, does that happen with your setup too? From the pics your carpet looks like it might be pretty thick.

Ideally I'd get those mapleshade brass carpet spikes san-threads, but $250+ for a damn set of brass spikes seems like a lot. Perhaps I could find a set of small wood blocks to put under the slabs; it's not the same as spike but it would greatly reduce the floor-to-slab surface area.

mulveling

OK, I've been thinking more about this tweak since I left for work this morning (once I get curious about something it's hard to stop).

Right now I'm thinking the main benefit from speaker platforms is not from keeping the speakers themselves from swaying/wiggling, but rather to reduce the transfer of vibrational energy from the speakers to the floor & walls of the room. If your floor and walls have a lot of "give", then this tranferred energy will be converted *back* into acoustic energy, which of course is bad, very bad! The isolation platform should cut down on energy transfer even even if it doesn't keep the speaker rigididly upright.

I know that when I moved from a first floor apartment (carpet over cement floor) to a top floor (carpet over suspended wood), my floorstanding Tannoys sounded noticeably worse, even though the new room's dimensions were pretty similar. The sound was muddled, especially in the low end but it extended up into the mids.My stand-mounted Taylo reference monitors, on the other hand, sounded pretty much the same in both rooms. I was puzzled about this for a while. It's a similar story with the Legacy Sig III speaks - fantastic in my friend's room (thin carpet over cement), a bit boomy in my new room.

Anyways I don't think having the speakers perfectly still is itself inherently beneficial. As an analogy - I've got seriously high end headphones and the incredible sound quality isn't affected a fig when I move my head around. HOWEVER, isolating the headphone driver's vibrations from the housing cups is pretty important!

So in short - gotta get an isolation platform for floorstanding speaks with plywood floors. I'm think I'm going to guitar center to get a pair of the Auralex Gramma Isolation risers ($50 each). Will be interesting to compare to the granite slabs.

Once again I'll be sacrificing a nutritious lunch for audio's sake...

mulveling

Edit: I decided to start a new thread on the Auralex Grammas rather than continuing to hijack this one, sorry!

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49490

heiney9

The stands I bought are about 2-3 inches too short for optimum listening so I was planning on doing this anyways just to raise them up a bit. Buts since others seem to be getting great results (sonically) I might make a project out of it for this weekend and get it done.

hearingimpared

mulveling wrote:

I've got two 1" thick granite slabs just begging to be put under my big main speakers. Actually, I've been wanting to do this tweak for a while - unfortunately I've got that nasty thick padded carpet, and the speakers aren't as stable on the slabs as they are with just carpet spikes alone (and hence I wonder if there's any benefit like this). In the meantime I've been using them under electronics components, where I bet they yield a miniscule fraction of the good they'd do for the speaks.

I've tried this setup and pushing on the top of the speaks makes the slab rock back and forth with little effort - Scott, does that happen with your setup too? From the pics your carpet looks like it might be pretty thick.

Ideally I'd get those mapleshade brass carpet spikes san-threads, but $250+ for a damn set of brass spikes seems like a lot. Perhaps I could find a set of small wood blocks to put under the slabs; it's not the same as spike but it would greatly reduce the floor-to-slab surface area.

I use MYE Sound brass spike under my heavy 1.2 TLs and they are only around $100 shipped. I use the threaded point pictured in the middle.

GATOR3000

I placed 24" x 24 " slab under my Subwoofer. BIG diffrence! Take a look.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43315

Cheers

Gator

GATOR3000

For my speakers I placed 2-12”x12” 3/8” thick granite floor tiles and ¾” pine board resting on the floor as one pad. It was a BIG SQ improvement again.

Cheers

Gator

michael_w

Looks great! Has anyone tried a slab under a speaker stand? I'm wondering if it would help to put something underneath the stands that my lsi9's sit on. The stands themselves weigh about 25lbs (sand filled mdf stands). My room is carpeted on the second level of the house. Maybe better off just ordering some spikes?

mulveling

michael_w wrote:

Looks great! Has anyone tried a slab under a speaker stand? I'm wondering if it would help to put something underneath the stands that my lsi9's sit on. The stands themselves weigh about 25lbs (sand filled mdf stands). My room is carpeted on the second level of the house. Maybe better off just ordering some spikes?

I would think spikes would increase the coupling with the floor, which is what you don't want to do on a suspended floor. Slabs on carpet should work well as decoupling devices, since the vibrations from the speakers get distributed (and dissipated) evenly over a larger area of carpet fibers. Of course, usually the stand/speaker interface itself will server as a decoupler to some degree. That was my experience when moving from a concrete slab room to suspended floor room - the tower speakers sounded worse, but my bookshelves were consistent.

MillerLiteScott

I may have accidentally stumbled upon another little tweek.

I have a pair of Monitor 5's sitting on top of my RTi10's. I am guessing @ 25-30lbs. I am noticing a bit more punchiness.(SP)

I now am wondering if weight on top of speakers would also help with presence and SQ.

This may have something to do with the slate or not. But there seems to be an increased presence from my RTi10's.

dorokusai

I wouldn't worry about it.

Remember the placebo effect when it comes to all this new stuff. Don't get overloaded and when everything you do starts to have a positive effect....is exactly when it isn't anymore.

hearingimpared

MillerLiteScott wrote:

I may have accidentally stumbled upon another little tweek.

I have a pair of Monitor 5's sitting on top of my RTi10's. I am guessing @ 25-30lbs. I am noticing a bit more punchiness.(SP)

I now am wondering if weight on top of speakers would also help with presence and SQ.

This may have something to do with the slate or not. But there seems to be an increased presence from my RTi10's.

I have a 25 lb pound bag of #9 lead shot dead center on top of each of my 1.2TLs. Tighter bass, increased clarity, more stable imaging. The top of the box seems to resonate less and I think that is what has lead to the improvements. When I take the bags off it sounds muddy and like someone threw a blanket over the speakers.

dorokusai

Remove a driver and toss it inside.

heiney9

dorokusai wrote:

Remove a driver and toss it inside.

A Taxi driver or a Bus driver or a Forklift driver will any of those work?

brittmer

I have RTi4's and FXi5's both mounted on the wall. Would putting something behind them improve the sound?
Thanks.

Bruce

wallstreet

I don't think it can be loss of vibrational energy. It's got to be something with reflections. When I play my speakers, I can bearly feel cabinet vibration.