I might admire some bigger speakers, but I definitely limit myself to something I can move around on my own.
Fatparrot, yes mass does inhibit speaker movement in the "for every action, an equal and opposite reaction" way, which is to say that a woofer pumping back and forth won't move a speaker noticeably the other way. But you actually don't need a very heavy speaker to accomplish this task, especially if it's spiked to the floor, as evidenced by the fact that none of us are reporting our speakers 'walking' around the listening room (positioning the woofer low in the cabinet also helps reduce rocking motion, and of course positioning two woofers opposite each other and wired in the same phase can eliminate it). What sheer mass doesn't do is prevent the pressure waves from causing resonance -- think of the Liberty Bell. Some of the techniques and materials that are used to reduce resonance in speaker cabinets do add mass, but it's not necessarily the mass per se that prevents resonance (the more massive the thing that's set to vibrating, the longer it takes to damp), and lighter-weight designs employing clever forms and materials engineering can also be made low in resonance. I always thought it was a neat bit of iconoclastic thinking that Hsu made its subwoofers out of lightweight but rigid and nonresonant (as far as the material goes) cardboard tubes -- inexpensive, too.
Fatparrot, yes mass does inhibit speaker movement in the "for every action, an equal and opposite reaction" way, which is to say that a woofer pumping back and forth won't move a speaker noticeably the other way. But you actually don't need a very heavy speaker to accomplish this task, especially if it's spiked to the floor, as evidenced by the fact that none of us are reporting our speakers 'walking' around the listening room (positioning the woofer low in the cabinet also helps reduce rocking motion, and of course positioning two woofers opposite each other and wired in the same phase can eliminate it). What sheer mass doesn't do is prevent the pressure waves from causing resonance -- think of the Liberty Bell. Some of the techniques and materials that are used to reduce resonance in speaker cabinets do add mass, but it's not necessarily the mass per se that prevents resonance (the more massive the thing that's set to vibrating, the longer it takes to damp), and lighter-weight designs employing clever forms and materials engineering can also be made low in resonance. I always thought it was a neat bit of iconoclastic thinking that Hsu made its subwoofers out of lightweight but rigid and nonresonant (as far as the material goes) cardboard tubes -- inexpensive, too.
