Question about subwoofer isolation.

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Vocalitus:
My neighbor commented to me at our post room that my sub woofer needed to be isolated, especially at 10pm.

bobbyb13:

--- Quote from: Vocalitus on August 02, 2021, 03:10:32 pm ---My neighbor commented to me at our post room that my sub woofer needed to be isolated, especially at 10pm.

--- End quote ---

:laugh2:

danny_galaga:
I've got nothing to add other than if you set it on four nails, make it three. Then it will always be stable. More than three legs always means they have to be exactly the same length. Think about the last time you were at a cafe sitting at a four legged table.

Howard_Casto:
Funny you should mention that..... the sub has always been on carpet so I never noticed, but one of the legs is ever so slightly shorter than the rest, giving it the slightest wobble I've ever seen. Luckily they all screw in place, so I just unscrewed it a little. Anyway, the new desk came in. The tabletop is kind of "meh" quality, but I got one with metal legs so I can make a proper wooden top for it once lumber prices go back down. It actually looks quite nice, but the top is very thin pressed wood so I know it won't last. I just got it together this evening but I'll post some pics once I have everything in place with proper cable management and stuff.

Xiaou2:
If you get better speakers... you wont want a generic ported sub, muddying up the sound.

I remember the time I went into a walmart, and heard this incredibly bassy music playing...
but unlike most systems... the bass was crystal clear, with no "Farty" artificial sounding bass.

I thought it was a huge system... and when I got to it... it was a small Phillips boom box.
It had a technology called "Woox"... which is basically a Passive Radiator. The sounds it
made were Far superior to typical PC / Bookshelf speakers, with a Sub.

That only fueled my passion for better audio.

Then I got a pair of re-foamed EPI 100v speakers. These things blew my mind.
Totally sealed, and only an 8" two way... they Trounced the sound quality that came out of my
12" 3 way 200 watt Techniques floor speakers.

I put them on top of my 12" speakers, and asked a friend to tell me which speakers were
playing. The EPIs are about 1/3 rd smaller. He pointed to the larger speakers. He was
about 8ft away from them, sitting in front of them on the couch.

The are not as loud as the Techs.. but the bass quality is Natural sounding. No distorting farty sounds.
Its like eating the worst quality ice cream... where you keep eating buy are never satisfied.. .and then
you buy high quality ice cream... and its so good, that you only need a few spoonfuls, to feel happily
satisfied. With the techs, you felt the need to increase the volume, to make up for the poor sound
quality. With the EPIs, it was Ear Nirvana.

Its not just that the EPI bass was so damn good... but that they use a special Inverted Tweeter.
This tweeter is pure Magic. Most speakers produce a certain Sweet-Spot, that you have to be
centered within, for the best stereo effect. A few feet in either direction away from it... and it
does not sound that good.

However, the EPIs inverted tweeters (get the upgraded versions, that have the plastic bezels),
make a 3d sound-field, that almost makes the entire room, the sweet spot. Its almost holographic,
in the way that it makes the sound as if its completely Live. As if the band is playing in your room,
and you could virtually point to where each instrument is within the room.

The other magical thing about them, was the clarity and lack of distortion, even at their highest
volume levels. You know those songs where you cant make out what lyric the singer is singing?
Well, with these speakers... you actually can hear these details! For the first time in like 15yrs..
I was hearing lyrics, that I never had actually understood before. It was amazing.

My former friend once was talking up a storm about these $3000 speakers... and I pretty much
shrugged him off.. as I neither could afford such speakers... and because most of these modern
speakers are inferior ECO trash. He insisted I check them out at the local High-Fi shop.

Sure enough, they had a huge array of speakers, with his pick being the most expensive, at
a little over 3K for the pair. Even WITH the like 1000$ sub that was also being used.. they
sounded like low quality garbage. It only made sense... as you cant have drivers that were
that small... able to produce high dynamic sound. The bass was weak and artificial.. and the
upper range was highly directional, with no real 3d soundstage. Basically, the $100 EPIs totally
destroyed them, in every way possible. Not by a little. By a Landslide.

The first time I heard the EPIs was at a friends Arcade / Slotcar track. He was playing
Earth Wind and Fire (Disco), which is extremely dynamic music. The sound was
everywhere... so crisp, clean, bassy, and detailed. I tried to find these speakers for about
15 min... and still was not able to find them! My hearing is very good... so with normal
speakers, Id easily find where they were located. I finally broke down and asked him,
what speakers were they, and where the hell were they?!

He pointed to the front store glass window. They were about 5ft apart. One was vertical, slightly
behind a Race-Drivin arcade machine. The other, was laying on its side, with a mountain of
magazines on top of it... and I think there was some other things in front of it as well.

Basically, it was the worst speaker placement in the world... and yet, the entire shop was
like a live concert. It completely blew all the speakers Ive owned, and heard, out of the water.
I began my search, and eventually found a dude selling them refoamed on craigslists.

Its easily one of the Best purchases Ive made in my entire Life.

I drive them with an old Pioneer surround sound amp, that I purchased with a Laserdisc player, when
I was 17 yrs old. Still works like a champ.

At one time I did own a pair of Phillips woox speakers as well. I liked the extra bass response
in some things... but, they were no real match for the EPIs in total comparison. The foam surrounds
on the woox passives rotted... and so I ended up leaving them behind when I had to move.

Todays ECO based speakers, tend to use very small woofer drivers.. and try to make up for the
lack of mid-bass and low-bass, with a ported sub. The port allows for more volume... but at
the expense of clean undistorted bass. At low volumes, its not that bad.. but at medium
levels.. that artificial sounding woof... grates at you. Especially once you hear what the music
is supposed to sound like. Then its pure Torture.

To answer specifically... that small fake-sub, is highly directional... and works more on the
proximity to the person... rather than anything else.

A real sub, could be placed virtually anywhere in the room, and produce a very non-directional
"effect". Of course, that means ticking off your neighbors / housemates, with the volume
and vibration produced.

If you want to feel the bass, and respect the neighbors, get a pair of Bass Shaker Transducers.
I put two under my office chair for a test. On max setting (15 watts each I believe), the
effect was so powerful, that I could not view the image in my monitor properly... because my
body / eyes were bouncing too strongly. I backed it off a bit, and all was good. I was using
the game Gyruss to test this. In Gyruss.. when you fire.. .the bullet sound get bassier the
deeper it goes into the screen. The rumble effect is quite awesome.

FYI - Being the Tinkerer that I am... I have tried in the past, to Modify speakers... such as trying to
seal my ported Techniques speakers. At the time, I didnt realize that would never work properly,
because the woofers in the techs, are too weak to be able to deal with a sealed enclosures air
pressure levels. Sealed box woofers, have much higher powered magnets, and stronger coils.
This takes more power to move them.. but that also means higher levels of speaker control and
accuracy. For example, to be able to stop the speaker movement faster... or to accelerate it
much faster.

Id also previously tried putting in super tweeters in the techs... and while it seemed to
help a little, it was really a waste of time and money. Two crappy tweeters, cant defeat
a single superior made tweeter.

All in all, it was a fun time, and I learned a lot about speaker designs and their inner workings.

If you cant afford / find such a speaker... I recommend at minimal... getting a pair of
Sennheiser headphones. Anything model HD 500 or above. The clarity and soundstage that
many of these produce, will rival house speakers that cost well over 50k.

Depending on the model chosen, you may need a decent amp to drive them well.
I just use my old amp.

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