Sound proofing a floor

Combat squirrel · 24 Apr 2006 at 21:37

As title, getting my S750's tomorrow, what stuff can you get that I can place under the sub to try and absorb a lot of the bass from going through the floor ? A few things have been mentioned on here but no idea what there called

fish99 · 24 Apr 2006 at 21:56

Google sound proofing materials, bound to come up with something. Could try fitting some spikes on the sub too to isolate it from the floor.

Rich1988 · 24 Apr 2006 at 22:16

fish99 said:
Google sound proofing materials, bound to come up with something. Could try fitting some spikes on the sub too to isolate it from the floor.

I use books and foam, seems to help

SinaiSound · 24 Apr 2006 at 22:21

I used to use a small concrete slab then attached my sub with blue-tack.

That helped a bit.

Combat squirrel · 24 Apr 2006 at 23:09

fish99 said:
Google sound proofing materials, bound to come up with something. Could try fitting some spikes on the sub too to isolate it from the floor.

spikes as in ? well.....spikes ? how that help ? lol

cokecan · 24 Apr 2006 at 23:23

less contact with the floor, reduces the ammount of sound "energy" if you will with the floor by reducing the overall area where the speakers/sub connect to the floor....if that makes any sence????

(am i right here? lol)

EDIT: bit more of a read for ya, an argument as to whether spikes work or not http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/cones/speak.html

fish99 · 24 Apr 2006 at 23:29

It works by dramtically reducing the contact point between the speakers and floor. As you can imagine a large sub with a flat underneath tranfers a lot of sound straight to the floorboards and the gap below them. With spikes the contact is reduced to a few square millimetres.

It's particularly useful in upstairs rooms with floorboards. You'll see a lot of hi-fi speaker stands have spikes on the bottom, and a lot of hi-fi subs and floorstanders will have them too.

I don't know exactly how much it will reduce the amount of sound reaching other rooms by since I'm no expert, but hi-fi experts seem to think it's effective. I know I've had my hi-fi (with spiked stands) on pretty loud and could hardly hear it from the next room through a wall, which was quite surprising.

edit:ah, someone beat me to it

caister · 24 Apr 2006 at 23:48

Ive been considering buying some spikes for my sub for a while would be interested to hear what other people have to say about this? At the moment the sub has soft rubber feet but it still vibrates the floor.

Combat squirrel · 24 Apr 2006 at 23:58

Here is the plan then:

Cousin recommend some DX40F FOAM 2340x154x25 at £6 a pop, would need 2 rolls I think for the S750 sub, what reckon then folks ? Im guessing a very thin screw would act well as its tip is minute

squiffy · 25 Apr 2006 at 00:27

You need to install soundproofing in the void. Granted a platform will help slightly, but bass will just emit through the floorboards into the room below.

Costly.

fish99 · 25 Apr 2006 at 11:17

caister said:
Ive been considering buying some spikes for my sub for a while would be interested to hear what other people have to say about this? At the moment the sub has soft rubber feet but it still vibrates the floor.

Soft rubber feet will do a similar job to spikes, maybe not quite as well but still much better than having a flat surface on the underside of the sub.

Sweetloaf · 26 Apr 2006 at 00:09

A square of carpet on a large egg box with another square of carpet underneath, no need for a gap. In fact any gaps should be filled with sound dampening (damping? :confused:

) materials

Mercutio · 26 Apr 2006 at 02:03

Sweetloaf said:
A square of carpet on a large egg box with another square of carpet underneath, no need for a gap. In fact any gaps should be filled with sound dampening (damping? ) materials

If were getting all blue peter about it suspend it from the ceiling on 4 bits of string!

Codmate · 26 Apr 2006 at 12:33

Two concrete slabs with a rubber tyre between them and the speaker on top is quite good for that kind of isolation.

You could try variations on the theme too and see what works best.

Combat squirrel · 26 Apr 2006 at 14:08

sound

as regard to the above wouldnt more material contacting the floor make the sound travel easier ? sound does travel better through a more dense material, i.e. goes faster and further in water than air for example

Sweetloaf · 26 Apr 2006 at 14:26

Combat squirrel said:
sound as regard to the above wouldnt more material contacting the floor make the sound travel easier ? sound does travel better through a more dense material, i.e. goes faster and further in water than air for example

I could be wrong but wouldn't sounds be clearer on the other side of a brick wall than if you had nothing between you and the scource in the case?

james.miller · 26 Apr 2006 at 17:21

Mercutio said:
If were getting all blue peter about it suspend it from the ceiling on 4 bits of string!

Gun9 · 27 Apr 2006 at 12:44

lol thats some set up james

errata · 27 Apr 2006 at 14:10

Combat squirrel said:
As title, getting my S750's tomorrow, what stuff can you get that I can place under the sub to try and absorb a lot of the bass from going through the floor ? A few things have been mentioned on here but no idea what there called

Sub isolation will be by far the cheapest and effective option. Many of the methods being suggested are isolation methods. Lifting the sub anywhere off the floor will help improve isolation, spikes are cheap and will reduce contact but some will remain. The isolating foam solutions should be effective as they are suspending the sub and preventing contact with the floor NOT absorb the sound just preventing the motion of the sub transmitting itself into another structure ie the floor. Rubber layers do the same job but would tend to be stiffer than foams but with a little more damping.

To "soundproof" the floor itself you would need to add a seperate isolated floating layer or add a lot of mass to the existing floor or change its stiffness. Not worth doing in comparison with isolating the sub.

If you improve the sub isolatin that will just leave the airborne noise to annoyt anyone downstairs!

humax · 2 May 2006 at 06:13

if you have a dog then just tie it to the dogs back and let it walk around the room .should keep the sound from going through the floorboards .the taller the dog the better .