[longmanjon]

hi all, first time and first post.

I have a town house in the UK, where the lounge (hifi room) is on the 1st floor and therefore suspended wood and carpeted.
I am using meridian dsp5200 speakers, and wanted to know what would be recommended to use on the speakers to stop bloaty bass and general muddying of sound.
Currently I am trialling concrete slabs with spikes fitted into the floor, then the speakers on top with spikes onto wooden spike shoes on the concrete slabs. This has reduced some of the boomy bass, but am unsure if I am still getting the optimum performance.

jonathan

[Herbie]

Hi, Jonathan. A Cone/Spike Decoupling Glider between each of the speakers' stock spikes and floor should provide efficient and effect isolation to bring out better bass definition with deep linearity along with subtle improvements throughout the audio spectrum.

Gliders also provide for easier mobility of the speakers, which can be essential for tuning in the best imaging and soundstage. Speaker positioning can also affect relative bass response.

With Gliders, it doesn't seem there would be any real need for the concrete slabs, though you can of course audition the speakers on the concrete slabs, with Gliders under the slabs. If using the speakers on slabs, four Big Fat Dots under each speaker would most likely do considerably better than spikes with wooden shoes. Under each slab, you might also consider four Giant Fat Gliders instead of any spikes.

http://herbiesaudiolab.net/spkrfeet.htm

Steve Herbelin
Herbie's Audio Lab

 

[JLM]

Welcome Jonathan!

I agree with Steve:

1.)  Gear should be isolated from (floated off of) soft/bouncy floors.  With suspended wooden floors above a crawl space, it is highly likely that the crawl space can act as a giant resonant chamber.  Adding the slabs would simply vary the volume/frequency of the resonance. 

2.)  The ideal location to originate mid/high frequencies is not the same as bass.  In residentially sized rooms bass behaves as waves versus mid/high's that propagate in rays.  So bass collects (and vacates) in various nodal locations.  Equalization can partially resolve this, but for only a single listening location in the room. 

[longmanjon]

many thanks for the advice and knowledge, I did also speak with Robert directly and he suggested a similar approach.
I have actually ordered the threaded slider, so I don't have to mess about locating the spikes onto the slider shoe.
hopefully this should help, so I shall report back my findings when I get them fitted.

[dpatters]

I'm using Herbie's Gliders under my heavy floor standers on a suspended hardwood floor with excellent results

Don P.

[mfsoa]

If you can do it, I highly recommend bracing your suspended wood floor from below.

I did mine and could not have come close to the sound I now get without it

-Mike

[charmerci]

The reason you've reduced the boomy bass is because you've increased the distance of the woofers away from the floor.  That is, less bass interaction with a surface, so if they are close to a wall. pulling them away will also help.

[plastico]

My Gliders on my Golden Ear Triton Two's which are 60 lbs a piece, were on my carpeted suspended floors. While I noticed a big change for the better, the biggest was when I added 3/4 inch granite plates under the speakers/gliders. The mids became clearer and the bass had better definition.
Cheers, Doug