Speakers hung from ceiling on aircraft cable.


Opinion question:

We are thinking of suspending a pair of KEF LS50 speakers from the ceiling using aircraft cable. Do you think having them not rigidly mounted will diminish bass? Will the woofers cause the speakers to move?

davidclarke
hmmm....Springs, no....Bungi cord, Yes. Ought to dampen any vibration.
I’ve a source for cord without hooks....

One has to think outside the box....Personally, I don't believe 'the box' exists....
In terms of losing bass, just remember that most concert speakers are suspended.
Mmm, some but not most. That's why JBL makes 18" bass drivers and stage managers use plenty of 'em.

Also remember that concert stages are usually higher than the audience. And "soundstaging" as we use the term in home audio is not a factor in concerts.

I can only offer my opinion, having tried almost every permutation of suspending speakers in rooms of all shapes and sizes: it's great if you are looking for lots of noise. But stereo imaging as most "audiophiles" would expect isn't possible. YMMV

Check Newton's Third Law.
He had your answer three hundred years ago.
Whatever happened to education?
So, different situation, but I "suspend" my surround-sound speakers from the 4 corners of the room.  I drill a small hole in the ceiling, push through a long carriage bolt with a large washer to hold it from the top.  Obviously you can add side speakers this way as well if you have a 7+ system.

I then use a small car hose clamp to hold the speaker to the bolt (there is a small clip area on the back of the speaker) and a nut from the bottom to hold the speaker and clamp in place tightly.

Oh, when suspending speakers, always have the woofer at the top.  Since mine are in corners, this obviously imitates corner positioning on the floor.  Also, high frequencies are short, so a slight tilt directs the tweeter towards the ears a bit and gives the bass a nice resonant corner.

Works great for home theater where quality of sound is not the same as serious listening. Anyway, not sure what you are trying to do, but this works quite well and we did it for customers back in the day for non-critical listening and for increasing floor space in the room by moving speakers up.

Cheers!