Awesome-Sounding Speaker Isolation Platform: Auralex Grammas
mulveling
Posts: 505
I decided to start a new thread on this tweak rather than further hijacking this thread:
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49319
Thanks to the above thread I decided that my suspended wood floor may be killing my speaker rig's performance. Basically, vibrations transfer from the speakers to the floor & walls, which then convert the vibration energy back to acoustic energy (since the cheap suspended floor has so much give) which totally mucks up the music.
Just ran over to Guitar Center on my lunch break and picked up a pair of the Auralex Grammas - placed them each under my Legacy Signature III mains. The Grammas are basically a thin plywood platform wrapped in coarse, thin fabric, with a thick 2" Auralex foam base. The foam supposedly converts speaker vibrations to miniscule amounts of heat before they're transferred to the room. As mentioned before, my floor is padded carpet over suspended wood. These speakers are tall and now they wobble even a bit more than they did on the granite slabs...that's not great but at least I don't have pets or kids and I'll tell the girlfriend to be careful around them
I strained a muscle lifting the speaks (130 lbs each) onto the platforms, so I guess they'll be there for a while
Next I listened for about 15 minutes of Tracy Chapman's debut album on my rig:
Denon DVD-3910 > Sugden Headmaster > PS Audio HCA2 > Legacy Sig III w/ Gramma platforms
First impressions (standard first impression disclaimers apply);
OMGOMGOMG! Best Tweak Ever! In fact calling it a "tweak" is a disservice. It's quite simple to describe the sonic effect - everything is much, much cleaner from top to bottom. Bass is now *textured* rather than boomy. Soundstage is expanded. Imaging is much improved; before the sound was somewhat localized around the speaker boxes. Mids are crisper & snappier; vocal projection is much more believable. Treble is sweet and smooth with more sparkle than before. It sounds much more like when these speakers were in my friend Tom's dedicated room with $20K of electronics. Before I thought the difference was in our electronics - now I think it's mostly room acoustics, lead by the problems of a crappy suspended wood floor.
I give this tweak a "must try" recommendation for anyone with anything less than a concrete floor.
BTW, I've also been using 6 of Auralex's LENRD bass traps. The traps actually make a positive measurable difference (I use the free Room EQ Wizard software with an SPL meter), but their qualitative sonic benefit is NOTHING comared to these Grammas!
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49319
Thanks to the above thread I decided that my suspended wood floor may be killing my speaker rig's performance. Basically, vibrations transfer from the speakers to the floor & walls, which then convert the vibration energy back to acoustic energy (since the cheap suspended floor has so much give) which totally mucks up the music.
Just ran over to Guitar Center on my lunch break and picked up a pair of the Auralex Grammas - placed them each under my Legacy Signature III mains. The Grammas are basically a thin plywood platform wrapped in coarse, thin fabric, with a thick 2" Auralex foam base. The foam supposedly converts speaker vibrations to miniscule amounts of heat before they're transferred to the room. As mentioned before, my floor is padded carpet over suspended wood. These speakers are tall and now they wobble even a bit more than they did on the granite slabs...that's not great but at least I don't have pets or kids and I'll tell the girlfriend to be careful around them
I strained a muscle lifting the speaks (130 lbs each) onto the platforms, so I guess they'll be there for a while Next I listened for about 15 minutes of Tracy Chapman's debut album on my rig:
Denon DVD-3910 > Sugden Headmaster > PS Audio HCA2 > Legacy Sig III w/ Gramma platforms
First impressions (standard first impression disclaimers apply);
OMGOMGOMG! Best Tweak Ever! In fact calling it a "tweak" is a disservice. It's quite simple to describe the sonic effect - everything is much, much cleaner from top to bottom. Bass is now *textured* rather than boomy. Soundstage is expanded. Imaging is much improved; before the sound was somewhat localized around the speaker boxes. Mids are crisper & snappier; vocal projection is much more believable. Treble is sweet and smooth with more sparkle than before. It sounds much more like when these speakers were in my friend Tom's dedicated room with $20K of electronics. Before I thought the difference was in our electronics - now I think it's mostly room acoustics, lead by the problems of a crappy suspended wood floor.
I give this tweak a "must try" recommendation for anyone with anything less than a concrete floor.
BTW, I've also been using 6 of Auralex's LENRD bass traps. The traps actually make a positive measurable difference (I use the free Room EQ Wizard software with an SPL meter), but their qualitative sonic benefit is NOTHING comared to these Grammas!
Tannoy Dimension TD10, SOTA Star Sapphire, Heathkit W4A's, McIntosh MC2100, Eddie-Current Zana Deux, Singlepower SDS, Sennheiser HD650, Audio-Technica L3000, Sony Qualia 010
Post edited by mulveling on
Comments
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Great!
Your results seem consistent with most people who have tried these.HT/2-channel Rig: Sony 50 LCD TV; Toshiba HD-A2 DVD player; Emotiva LMC-1 pre/pro; Rogue Audio M-120 monoblocks (modded); Placette RVC; Emotiva LPA-1 amp; Bada HD-22 tube CDP (modded); VMPS Tower II SE (fronts); DIY Clearwave Dynamic 4CC (center); Wharfedale Opus Tri-Surrounds (rear); and VMPS 215 sub
"God grooves with tubes." -
Glad to hear you had great results. My systems also sound much tighter and the bass is more detailed. Tweeking is the fun part.
MLSI like speakers that are bigger than a small refrigerator but smaller than a big refrigerator:D -
I had those 18"x18"x1" granite slabs just sitting around, so I finally decided to use 'em - I put them under each Gramma. So now, the stack is:
floor > carpet pad > carpet > granite slab > Auralex Gramma > Legacy Sig III speaker
Hehe. Speaks should be totally decoupled from the floor now. Nothing in the way of vibrations should be getting to the floor unless it's via air. Only did this last night so I haven't had a chance to listen yet.Tannoy Dimension TD10, SOTA Star Sapphire, Heathkit W4A's, McIntosh MC2100, Eddie-Current Zana Deux, Singlepower SDS, Sennheiser HD650, Audio-Technica L3000, Sony Qualia 010
