[thayerg]

I have a pair of Epos ELS-3 speakers on generic speaker stands which I like well enough. Arguably they are in a room which is too big for them. Anyway, I was thinking about what to do about the lack of speaker cones or anything to isolate the speakers from the stands when I suddenly thought of a pair of silicon pot holders my mother-in-law had given us. They've got little ribs about 3/8 inches apart running in parallel on both sides and they are approximately the size of the speakers.

I put them underneath. Huge improvement in clarity and soundstaging. This is a nifty little cheap tweak I rank right up there with magnet wire (as speaker or interconnect wire) in terms of having a bang-for-the-buck impact which is pretty much off the scale.

[TheChairGuy]

Cut 'em in quarters/4's...buy two pot holders and you'll have 8 in total.

Snip a square of aluminum foil the same size as the squares and glue down between two silicone squares.  You've now just added to the energy dispersion characteristics by adding a constrained layer (the aluminum foil in the middle helps dissipate energy into heat). Snip 8 squares of aluminum foil in total and you'll have enough for the two small speakers.

I've used this under a variety of components in the past, and it's cheap and quite effective.  But, I still find the purpose built puds from LAT International called 'Vibra Killers' to be more effective, overall.  http://www.latinternational.com/index.php/product/vibra-killers.html

Of course it's $39.90 versus maybe $10.00 and a bit of time for the 2 pot holders and a teeny bit of Reynolds Wrap.  I'm partial to the red potholders, myself...but the blue ones are purdy, too   

[jt1stcav]

I don't recall ever seeing any silicon pot holders used as isolation dampeners underneath bookshelf loudspeakers...would be great to see some pics of this application.

I'll probably end up using li'l puds like those from LAT International with my next bookshelf purchase.

[TheChairGuy]

Jim,

The little puds from LAT are great for components...as they have a rounded top, they may not be optimal for bookshelves unless they are pretty weighty to help flatten/squish them down a bit.

These are what the dimpled pot holders look like (in a variety of colors...widely available at almost any Gourmet Cooking shop now):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000D8H2Q/102-5895848-4563369

If you cut these babies neatly into 4 squares each (very economical...you need only 2 potholders this way) and cut aluminum foil to 'sandwich' in between two squares with glue...you have pretty nice and effectively cheap, constrained layer isolation bases for your bookshelf speakers.  They work a lot better than blu-tak, don't mar your finish (but don't rigidly coupled your speakers to the stand...which may or may not be good depending if you have klutzy kids or dogs in the house) 

[ooheadsoo]

How thick are these pot holders?  I tried using some 1/8" thick sorbothane under my speakers and found that they made them far too wobbly.

[TheChairGuy]

I'd guess they are closer to 1/4", actually. Two together make 1/2".

I've never used them under speakers, only components..so you sure may be spot on correct for them being too tall at just 1/4".