Auralex SubDude (HD) and SpeakerDudes (HD).

garnier

I am waiting on these two products that I ordered from TrueSoundControl.com.

Auralex SpeakerDudes (HD) just for my center speaker:
http://auralex.com/sound_isolation_speakerdudes/speakerdudes.asp

Two Auralex SubDudes (HD) each for one of my two subwoofers:
http://auralex.com/sound_isolation_subdude/subdude_hd.asp

Has anyone currently using one or both of these?
Can you tell me your experience with either of these?

Do you think that these actually do what they claim to do, reducing vibrations so that bass sound more "pure and accurate", and mid and highs sound more "crisp and intelligible"?

My floor is already carpeted; so I wonder if SubDude will do any job of improving the reduction of vibrations to surrounding objects.

Thanks.

garnier

So my main question is:

Are these Auralex acoustic treatments going to rescue my Neighbors from being interrupted by my subwoofers, when I am playing movies at a fairly loud volume?

Thanks.

Montoya

I have a good knowledge of accoustic dynamics and looking at the design it would seem like a plausible solution to reduce resonance into a concrete floor or other hard surface. At high volumes I don't think it will reduce a sub 50hz wave from reaching your neighbors house. On the other hand a good amount of the sub pulses will be reduced from being amplified into the concrete producing tighter bass and also reducing some resonance from being channeled into walls and windows.

thsmith

The subdude worked well when I had MBMs, my floor is hardwood over concrete slab.

garnier

I appreciate the helpful feedbacks.
Anymore are welcome.

Erik Tracy

I think the subdude does improve sub performance - but I could be labeled as a wishful tweaker
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76297

kneedragger37

garnier wrote: »

Has anyone currently using one or both of these?
Can you tell me your experience with either of these?

Do you think that these actually do what they claim to do, reducing vibrations so that bass sound more "pure and accurate", and mid and highs sound more "crisp and intelligible"?

I have experience with these products in many recording studio and radio broadcast studio environments. The biggest reason they are used is to keep vibrations from transmitting to other objects in the room, causing noise that could be picked up by mics and then recorded or broadcast. They work as the manufacturer claims, although you will mostly notice their benefits in terms of lack of vibrations transmitting from the speaker -- for the benefits to the performance of your speakers to become appreciably audible ("pure, accurate, crisp," etc.) you would likely need an acoustically treated room such as a recording studio.

My floor is already carpeted; so I wonder if SubDude will do any job of improving the reduction of vibrations to surrounding objects.
Thanks.

Are these Auralex acoustic treatments going to rescue my Neighbors from being interrupted by my subwoofers, when I am playing movies at a fairly loud volume?

The SubDude will reduce the vibrations caused by the physical motion of the speaker's voice coil shaking the speaker cabinet, and those vibrations transmitting into your floor and then to surrounding objects. It will do this job better than carpeting, though you may not notice the benefits if surrounding objects are not vibrating from the movement of the cabinet as it is now.

Be aware, however, that subwoofers, by definition, output sound at frequencies and volumes which are capable of causing vibration in objects through the movement of air rather than the movement of the cabinet. The idea of the SubDude is to prevent the former from contaminating the latter. Low frequencies output by your sub can still go through walls, insulation, etc. -- so your mileage will vary if your primary reason for using these is to keep the noise down for the neighbors...

garnier

I see now what these Auralex products do.

I do experience shaking/vibration of the walls at very loud scenes, even though I have treated them with acoustic panels all around. I guess SubDude will eliminate these shaking problems but won't eliminate the bass from traveling to my neighbors. I am using two Velodyne DLS5000R's that have Movie, Jazz, R&B, and Game modes. I guess I shouldn't use a Movie mode anymore since it produces the lowest frequency, which I like the best because it fills up the room and is very deep, like in a theatre.

I will test with these Auralex products once I intall them early next week, and see if there is any difference. I will post the picture of my setup again then. Thanks!

By the way, another of my concern is that SubDude platform has a diameter of 15"x15", whereas my Velodyne DLS5000R has a diameter of 18"x18". Is it going to be o.k. if I just let the subwoofer sit in the center of the SubDude with its edges hanging out/dangling? Thanks.

Erik Tracy

garnier wrote: »

By the way, another of my concern is that SubDude platform has a diameter of 15"x15", whereas my Velodyne DLS5000R has a diameter of 18"x18". Is it going to be o.k. if I just let the subwoofer sit in the center of the SubDude with its edges hanging out/dangling? Thanks.

You should be fine. My Epik Valor is bigger than my subdude - I just centered the sub on top - no problems.

garnier

kneedragger37 wrote: »

Be aware, however, that subwoofers, by definition, output sound at frequencies and volumes which are capable of causing vibration in objects through the movement of air rather than the movement of the cabinet. The idea of the SubDude is to prevent the former from contaminating the latter. Low frequencies output by your sub can still go through walls, insulation, etc. -- so your mileage will vary if your primary reason for using these is to keep the noise down for the neighbors...

I guess you rather meant the letter from contanimating the former: to prevent the movement of the cabinet, the letter, from contanimating the movement of air, the former?

But thanks for sharing your knowledge on what is involved in the production of bass from subwoofers.

So I guess the bass sound from subwoofers will vibrate objects too after all then.

Erik Tracy

garnier wrote: »

I guess you rather meant the letter from contanimating the former: to prevent the movement of the cabinet, the letter, from contanimating the movement of air, the former?

But thanks for sharing your knowledge on what is involved in the production of bass from subwoofers.

So I guess the bass sound from subwoofers will vibrate objects too after all then.

OH YEAH...the pictures still rattle, the glasses still shake in the kitchen, the blinds and windows can still rattle.... the sub is still moving all that air for deep bass - if you attenuated that then you would defeat the purpose of the sub - may as well wear headphones

kneedragger37

garnier wrote: »

I guess you rather meant the letter from contanimating the former: to prevent the movement of the cabinet, the letter, from contanimating the movement of air, the former?

Of course, I should have said "the former being contaminated by the latter" -- I actually noticed this but it was too late to edit so I just left it... sorry for the confusion.

But thanks for sharing your knowledge on what is involved in the production of bass from subwoofers.

So I guess the bass sound from subwoofers will vibrate objects too after all then.

As Erik rightly points out, the same air movement that allows you to "feel" the bass output of your subwoofer will be "felt" by every other object in the vicinity -- even if you isolate the cabinet with a product like the SubDude, if you turn it up loud enough, anything not screwed down is going to move.....

garnier

I got my SubDude and SpeakerDude yesterday and did some testings.

Compared to when not using the SubDude, I could notice less vibrations at loud scenes as the sound subsides, and a tighter bass as well, even though I was worried that it did not look steady seeing my 18"x18" subwoofers sitting wobbly on a smaller 15"x15" SubDude platform.

More noticeable was the effect of a pair of SpeakerDude for my center LSiC that I placed on a glass-topped Bello TV stand. The dialogue coming out of the speaker was so clear as if they were speaking right in front of me, all because SpeakerDude eliminated the vibrations caused by the center speaker on the glass-topped stand. It made such a huge noticeable difference that I orderd two more pairs of SpeakerDudes for my front and surround-back LSi9 speakers that are currently on speaker stands.

kuntasensei

Montoya wrote: »

I have a good knowledge of accoustic dynamics and looking at the design it would seem like a plausible solution to reduce resonance into a concrete floor or other hard surface. At high volumes I don't think it will reduce a sub 50hz wave from reaching your neighbors house. On the other hand a good amount of the sub pulses will be reduced from being amplified into the concrete producing tighter bass and also reducing some resonance from being channeled into walls and windows.

I take exception to that. Concrete flooring notoriously DOESN'T significantly resonate or transmit vibration, which is why carpet-on-concrete users couple speakers to the floor with carpet spikes. Where Aurelex products are primarily useful is in decoupling the vibration of the subwoofer from floating/wood floors which have a tendency to act as passive radiators and muddy up the sound. Not that there aren't benefits to using a Subdude on concrete flooring, but the benefits will not be remotely as audible as when used on wood floored homes.

As far as it reducing the sound that reaches your neighbor, the effect will be minimal unless your home was resonating due to the aforementioned wood flooring. The Subdude won't fix issues such as drywall resonances transmitting outside of the house, since those resonances will still be present. For that, you're looking at wall treatments at the very least.

In other words, you can jump up and down in the middle of a concrete floor and the walls and windows likely won't budge or make a peep. Try that on a floating wooden floor and you'll understand why the Subdude might come in handy.

garnier

kuntasensei wrote: »

As far as it reducing the sound that reaches your neighbor, the effect will be minimal unless your home was resonating due to the aforementioned wood flooring. The Subdude won't fix issues such as drywall resonances transmitting outside of the house, since those resonances will still be present. For that, you're looking at wall treatments at the very least.

After installing my SubDudes and testing, I find kuntasensei's point to be true and I totally agree with him/her.

So I even thought of returning the SubDudes because my neighbors won't hear a difference; but since I did hear tightened bass and less vibration, though very slightly but noticeably, I decided to stick with them.

Again, I want to emphasize the fact that I did hear black-and-white difference in the improvement that SpeakerDude made for my center LSiC--so crystal clear.

garnier

I just finished installing SpeakerDudes(HD) for the rest of my speakers on speaker stands, and I find what Auralex claims to be true: "SpeakerDudes(HD) are isolators for your speakers. They will decouple your speakers from the surface they rest upon, resulting in a more pure, accurate tone...... Mid and high frequencies will be crisp and intelligible......"

I don't know if it is a good thing or not, but I can locate where the sound is coming from each speaker better because they sound more clearly.