[sluntz]

Dear Omega Forum Members.

I'm going to try hanging my Super 3s from the ceiling.  Don't want to do it, but it looks like the only way to integrate listening with our other activities in a small house.  I plan to build harnesses out of flat nylon webbing such as climbers use and suspend the harnessed speakers from eyebolts going through the ceiling sheetrock and into the rafters.

I would appreciate advice from anyone who has done or considered such a project.  In particular: Is there any problem with hanging the speakers upside down to lower the drivers as much as possible?  Would mass-loading the top of the speakers help to compensate for the lack of rigid coupling?  Would tilting the speakers forward so that the drivers and ports point toward a sitting listener go against the design of the Omega 3?  I'm sure there are questions I don't even know to ask, but the audiophiles I know have little to say about hanging speakers.

Thanks,
Steve Luntz

[Bill O'Connell]

What crime did they commit?

 Upside down yet!  Are you a Roman soldier?

[Bwanagreg]

I think trying to use a non-rigid support could lead to a couple of problems. First, as you suggest bass will suffer since the cone and port motion will cause undamped movement of the entire speaker. Adding mass will lower the resonant frequency of the system, but it won't damp it. Unless you are handy with the equations of pendulum motion (I have my old physics books somewhere...) adding mass could make the problem fall into a frequency range where it is more noticeable if you aren't careful. Plus nylon rope will sing in its' own frequency range and transmit those vibrations to the ceiling.

A more practical issue - getting a flexible rope support aligned and staying put could be a challenge. I tried to suspend a tuntable that way once years ago and it swayed back and forth all the time.

Have you considered mounting brackets such as these:

http://www.mountsandmore.com/asp/show_cat_2.asp?catid2=221&refid=OV56

I realize most of these involve drilling into the speakers, but they would be more secure than a rope suspension.  When I eventually get around to wall-mounting reaar TS-1's that will be my approach.

Whatever you do, try to get the speakers as far away from room boundaries, ceiling especially, as you can. Mounting the speaker upside down will be fine - the beaty of the single driver is that there are no crossover anomalies to worry about, so they can be upside down, sideways, whatever it takes to get them to talk   .

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do and how it works.

[sluntz]

Thanks, Bwanagreg, for the considered advice (and Bill for breaking the ice). The ceiling mount from your link is something I haven't seen before.  It's nice to know where to get one if I go that route.

Oddly, I don''t think swinging speakers will be a problem with nylon harnesses.  I made a set of harnesses in 1978 for a nice pair of 3-way speakers.  The top of the harness formed a triangle, with the apex knotted at the eye bolt. The only time the speakers swung around was during earthquakes.  They actually were useful seismographs in settling arguments with various housemates over whether we just had a small quake or whether one of us was imagining things.  Adjusting toe-in was just a matter of turning the eye bolt a llittle.

I didn't have very high standards for sound reproduction back then, so I'm starting from scratch this time around.  I appreciate your advice on positioning, and the caution over loss of bass.  One difficulty with bolting to the ceiling is that you can't make repeated small adjustments in position.  I suppose I'll choose one of the gurus' formula for floor postioning and just lay it out on the ceiling, with the speakers as low they can be without obstructing room traffic.  I'm not looking for a precise sweet spot anyway, and the Super 3s seem listener-friendly over at least couple of butt widths.

As far as the nylong "singing", I thought I might pad all the contact areas, against the speaker and at the eye bolt, with sorbothane strips.  One problem I can't see a way around is getting used to the sound coming from heaven again.  I've been listening to ear-level speakers for three years now and, what with all the audiophile browsing, I may be irretrievably programmed to conventional expectations.  Anyway, thanks again.  I'll think about those pendulum frequencies.  Would love to hear more from the Circle.

Steve Luntz

[Louis O]

Hi sluntz,

Bwanagreg hit right on, the Omnimounts are very good and will work out great.

Thanks and talk to you soon,
Louis