Isolating speakers on desk (as cheap as possible)

Mark A

Mark A

Mark A

Soldato
Joined
19 May 2005
Posts
18,145
Location
Lancashire
I got myself an amp and some Monitor Audio Bronze 2 speakers for Christmas to use with my PC. Very happy with them, much clearer than my hifi, but with them being on my desk the sound is travelling into the room below and even with the speakers on low the beat seems to be amplified in the room below.

The desk is quite sturdy being 40mm solid oak and steel legs. I was thinking of getting the foam blocks to sit them on, but there seems to be gel feet and spikes as well, so not sure what would be best. Also wondering about maybe blocks of granite...

I'd be willing to spend around £25 ish, but less would obviously be better. I don't want to use anything silly like cut in half squash balls that I have seen mentioned in the past. I want it to look nice and neat.

It is mainly just to stop the sound travelling into the room below as I am happy with the sound, but if it was to improve the sound as well that would be a bonus.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360959170673?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

These are what I was thinking of getting. The speakers could do with being a little higher so these would help with that as well. Its a little annoying paying £25 for some blocks of foam though...

Thanks :)
 
lead/granite/marble slabs the thicker and more solid the better goto your local granite/marble dealer and see if you can strike a deal with his scraps maybe.
I use to live in a flat and stopping my bass from sub being heard by the poor lady below was tricky but i used a 3inch thick piece of marble from a friend of a friends place.
It worked a treat.
 
So something dense and heavy would be better than foam or gel feet? What about combining the two or would that be pointless?

Another thought I had was maybe filling the hollow steel desk legs with sand. Not sure if it would make any difference.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, I'll have a look around for some cheap granite/marble.
 
Something dense and heavy acts as an energy store, so it impedes the flow of energy. If that 'something' is made of a material with varying densities such as marble then it also helps to dissipate the energy because of the losses in transitions between the different density boundaries of the structure. So, something dense can help under specific conditions.

What you also have to consider though is how energy transfers from one place to the next. Making the table heavier either by putting heavy slabs on it or by filling the legs with sand means that it is more firmly coupled to the floor. That means it becomes more efficient as an energy conduit to transfer vibration from one place to another. It's a bit "suck it and see" to work out how the pros and cons stack up.

The reason you've seen squash balls mentioned is that they provide a suspension to decouple the energy source from the surface it sits on. The rubber has to be soft enough that it can compress by around 3mm under the weight of whatever is resting on top. That can be achieved either by the softness of the material or through its shape.

You might find that a combination approach works best: Something soft under the speaker to reduce the initial energy transfer, then some mass to help damp it out, and then another compression layer to further minimise energy transfer again.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for that, I'll do a bit of experimenting tomorrow. I do have some granite worktop protectors in the kitchen I could borrow to see if they make any difference, although I'm guessing they might be a bit on the thin side. I have seen people using 2 of them with some rubber washers between so that could be something to try.
 
Coupe of cheap ideas; you can get good granite worktop savers from Aldi/B&M really cheap, blu-tack was always the thing to put under speakers to help isolate them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom