Novel approach to tackle Speaker Vibrations?


So I was over a friends house listening to some music.and noticed that his Monitor style speakers (+ stands) wobbled due to the fact that they were sitting on Carpet.

I also noticed vibrations in the enclosure of the speaker, but thought that was due to poor enclosure material selection.

I happened to notice a couple of pairs of workout hand weights in an adjoining room and thought placing them on the base of the stand might provide some stability. Alas, there was no real improvement in stability or sound quality

Now, I had previously had some success with increasing speaker mass by placing a granite slab on the subwoofer of my A/V system - it reduced the amount of movement in the enclosure and improved bass details..

So I tried placing the 15 lb weights, one on top of each speaker...
- immediately there was a very noticeable improvement in clarity
- also, almost all of the vibration in the speaker enclosure had disappeared.

I have not experienced anything quite so dramatic as this, but it would appear from this experience that it was a very simple tweak to improve speaker performance.

On thinking about it, the weight provided extra resistance to enclosure movement, which allowed the driver(s) to more accurately reproduce the sound - hence the improvement in clarity.

FYI: I am aware of the many products (Spikes, Cones and Vibration eliminators) out there to address speaker stability and isolation, but this approach proved to be very simple to implement and extremely effective.

So here is my question..:

Has anyone come across a commercial product out there like this
- that weights >=15 lbs
- that is "more attractive" than a large dumbbell

I have thought about a slab of stainless steel, since it would provide the heft required in a smaller footprint and not oxidize. Brass or Bronze might also be a better solution

Thanks in advance for any feedback - Steve

williewonka

Showing 3 responses by geoffkait

You would accomplish much more by isolating the speakers than by mass loading them. Remove cabinet vibration, eliminate mechanical feedback, reduce energy stored in the system. Bingo, bango, bongo! 🤗

No matter how much you have in the end you would have had even more if you had started out with more.
I guess I’m the only one who thinks lead sounds like crap. Makes the bass all weird and funky. I dunno, maybe sound quality isn’t an issue any more. Lead seems like it should be such a great material, too. Not to hard, not too soft. What happens is it gets packed in there and forgotten about. It’s not nice to try and fool Mother Nature.
Things that do work on top of speakers since mass loading is mostly placebo. In no particular order.

Crystals
Totem Beak
DH Super or Jumbo Cone
Tekna Sonic damper
Ceramic tile tables on cones
small Helmholtz resonators
Mpingo disc