Damping Mass on components...

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Dreamer

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Following the suggestions of Rabbit and some of the other members, I've recently embarked on an experiment of adding mass dampers to my speakers and componenet. Rather than just balancing lead bars or steel plates, or buying store-bought tweaks, I've decided to try some "off-the-shelf" solutions.

In my never-ending search for "hardware store Tweaks", I came across some good candidates for mass dampers in, of all places, teh Sporting Goods section of Sears. As it turns out, Weider makes weight plates (for using on a barbell) that have a sort of rubberised ring around the outside. I thought these would be perfect, because they are flat and heavy (very stable for placing on top of components) and the rubber rings would keep them from marring the surface of anything I put them on. And they were shockingly cheap.

A 5-lb plate is about $5, and the 10lb plates are about $10 each, so I bought 4 5-pounders, and 2 10-pounders. I thought the 10lb plates would be good candidates for placing on top of the crossover/transformer chassis of the Sequels, and the 4 5lb plates were to go on my 2 amps, preamp, and CD player.

As it turns out, the 10lb plates are a perfect fit for the Sequels. They almost look like they were made for the purpose, and the 5lb plates are perfect for the preamp (about 1" smaller than the chassis) and a nice fit for the amps and CD player. Also, since they are round, flat rings, they are only about 3/4" high, so they don't require a lot of clearance between the top of the componenet and the shelf above. Also, these plates have a large center hole and 2 cut-outs on the disk, and the center and perimeter are much thicker than the body of the disk, so they allow for good ventilation on top of the amps.

I covered the center part of the plates with that meshy non-slip shelf liner, first to precent the center flange from marring the surfaces the rest on, and second to "dress" them up a little (so they don't look so much like misplaced gym equipment), and they look really nice. The shelf liner I used is a sort of rubberised mesh, so it allows for ventilation, protects against potential mechanical buzzes, and secures the weights to the components so they don't move around.

Put them all on the various pieces, loaded up Diana Krall's "The Girl Next Door", skipped to the track called "Temptation" (hey, they used that on that Greek Audiophile Youtube short!?!) and snuggled down for a listen.

WOW...

The bass is astoundingly tighter. The mids bloomed a little more. Highs, not so much seem to happen here, but there is something--something that I just can't put my finger on--Oh yeah, it's just "sweeter".

Who'd have thought that 40lbs of strategically-placed cast-iron would make this much difference...

I'll post pics soon.

--Richard C.
 
Now I know why your user name is Dreamer.:eek:
 
Now I know why your user name is Dreamer.:eek:

I'm not eactly sure how to take that, so I'll take it as a compliment... ;)

Hey, they way I look at it, why should I pay really crazy prices for things like Cable Elevators and mass-dampening and room treatments, when I know who they are made, and can do it myself for pennies?

Im not cheap, just frugal...OK, I AM cheap... But I'm crafty... :D

--Richard
 
Dreamer, there's one thing that puzzles me... you are adding 10 lb to a 110 lb beast... it's not even 10% more mass... if you would add 30 lb, I could understand, but with only 10...:confused:

Actually I may do just that. I was thinking this before I even read your post...

But the 10lb disks fit almost EXACTLY onto the back of the Sequel, so I thought I'd start with just one. Perhaps I'll go buy 4 more this weekend (making a total of 30lb on each speaker) and see how it sounds.

Also, remember, it's only 10lbs, but it's CONCENTRATED mass, right above the woofer box, and directly centered on the spikes. I think better spikes would kelp a lot too (Ive got the factory spikes, and the Sequels are on a VERY rugged Berber carpet, so I don't think they're actually completely coupled to the floorboards.) But you are right, a little more mass probably won't hurt.

And I forgot to mention, I followed Rabbits other advice, and I have placed small weights on top of the ELSs--bags of pennies weighing about 2lbs. I plan on making something more substantial (I don't know if I'll go as heavy as Rabbit though--I'm a little worried about excessive downward pressure on the ELSs maybe making them slide down--they ARE only held in place with sticky foam tape...)

More experiments to follow--more reports too.

It's an endless process, folks.

Every day in every way, it's getting better and better... :rocker:

--Richard
 
damping

Because a speaker weighs 110 lbs doesn't disqualify it from adding extra weight.That weight is distributed weight, the added damping is intended to further anchor the speaker to the floor by adding weight to a specific area.
Take a 100 lb man and give him a push and you will more than likely knock him off balance.Now have hime hold a 20 lb slab of concrete and see if he can be as easily moved as he was before.
I am sure there are some laws of physics at play here that those more knowledgeable than I can explain.
The benefit of adding more weight or mass never hurt any system I tried.
I have my CD player on Symposium rollerblocks and a 5 to 10 lb chunk of corian as a weight.My CLS speakers have butcher blocks over the electronic module and the wood is further weighted down by 10 lb concrete slabs.
You don't need a golden ear to hear the difference the weight makes.
When you can make a sonic difference for next to zero dollars,as Martha says,"it's a good thing".
 
Because a speaker weighs 110 lbs doesn't disqualify it from adding extra weight.That weight is distributed weight, the added damping is intended to further anchor the speaker to the floor by adding weight to a specific area.
Take a 100 lb man and give him a push and you will more than likely knock him off balance.Now have hime hold a 20 lb slab of concrete and see if he can be as easily moved as he was before.
I am sure there are some laws of physics at play here that those more knowledgeable than I can explain..........

How do you do, Chuck!

As for tall ML speaker, when it radiates sonic waves, it is going to rotate centering around the fixed point, namely spikes, much more than a short speaker, because the moment force as the reaction force moment by a tall speaker is bigger than a short one. I think there are two meanings to put weight, one is to add the inertia as you mentioned, and the other is to add inertia moment. So I put weights, one is over the electronic module like you and the other is on the top of ML stator.

When you can make a sonic difference for next to zero dollars,as Martha says,"it's a good thing".

When buying somothing for my system, I can easily guess if I can get the permission or not from my wife by how much I'm going to spend for that. :haha1:

Shuji as Rabbit house
 
"Nice weight rack"....
"Uh....thats my CD player"...
 
JUst measure your tops , and go to a granite countertop store and have them cut and radiused to the exact color Granite you would like and as I mentioned I Use the Herbies Dampers ,you can use Blue tac if you choose to you are now adding a solid 25lbs and they look great in your living room ,I even have one on my subs , also ask for remnants and get it even cheaper !!
 
Trust but verify. I have Monolith lll's. First I put two bricks (17.2 lbs) on each woofer shelf. Wow, that was all the verification I needed. So I drew a template, cut up some scrap 2 x 2’s and made a mold. $6.25 for a Home Depot 60 lb bag of cement, 97 cents for a can of flat black spray paint, some scrap hardware cloth as rebar substitute, and I now have two 17 lb weights that blend in, more or less, with the faux leather cabinet finish. The result is a clearer, tighter, wider and deeper sound stage. 100_0229.jpg100_0231.jpg100_0239.jpg
 

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