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You got it Randy! The drinking straw hack works by adding the surface area *along* the length of the port - which adds some friction, and so the air acts like it is slightly greater density. This can extend the bass a few hertz lower and it can help tame an excess "bump" at the port frequency. Lastly, it can reduce the woofer getting "unloaded" below its tuned frequency - if the air starts to move a *lot* in the port, the straws can damp down some of the excess; becoming closer to a sealed speaker. You do need to cut the straws to be the same length as the straight part of the port. Extending them beyond the flare (if any) would negate the flare's benefit. Since the walls of the straws are so slim, the change in the effective area of the port is negligible. This mod is much more sophisticated than stuffing socks in the port - it doesn't completely change the design from ported to sealed; and it can help you get a better balance. By the way, this is definitely not my idea - there are a few speaker manufacturers who have done this. If you like the change, but don't like the color(s) of the straws - take the bundle out and give a light spray with black paint on the outside face.
Tighten those bolts ...if the MDF is getting a bit soft one can always drill it through a use a T-nut with a lock washer on the bolt. While your in there check out the cross over and see what components they used . Especially for the tweeters. There shouldn't be any electrolyte caps or iron core inductors. Those can be replaced with the same value poly caps and air core inductors. The tighter the tolerance the better anything over plus or minus 5% is to much. So even replacing poly caps that were +/- 10% with improve imaging and sound stage. Up grading resistors can also help ...same thing tighter tolerance and higher power handling especially if you max out the power while listening on a regular basis. The low inductance wire wound are better resistors. I know this is not free and requires some skills but it doesn't need to be horribly expensive to get an improvement considering that this is where most manufacturers cut the cost figuring what you don't see you might not notice.
1) Remove the grills. Many speakers have grills that can negatively impact their performance. 2) Move the speakers out into the room away from the back and sidewalls. Room refleactions and absorbtions can also have a major influence on performance. Not always easy to do for the practical aesthetics, but often very effective.
Removing the grills is not a good idea for the original Advents with the tweeters that extended beyond the woofer baffle. The tweeter baffle was in the grill.
Randy, you have single handedly reignited my long lost audio passions! I was heavily smitten with the audio bug back in the 80's but lost interest after a home break-in that resulted in all my gear being taken and a year long insurance settlement. By the time the check came in, I had lost the bug. I have been watching ALL your videos for over a year now and finally made my first audio gear purchases in almost 30 years. I started with some used Magnepan MG12 speakers and due to your video now own a Wiim Pro Plus which I am thoroughly enjoying. Running everything through an old used Pioneer Elite HT system for now but I'm hunting for a stable high power class D amp to power the Maggie's soon. Keep up your excellent work and thank you so much for helping me rediscover this passion which I had forgot could bring so much joy.
Stand mount speaker isolation = silicone baking sheets, cut to fit. Work well and the nonslip surface helps to grip the speaker too. Single or double thickness for the win.
My favorite free hack was changing the jumpers on the bi-wire posts of my JBL 530s. They come with these gold plates and switching them to 12 gauge wire really opened em up
Yes essentially free hack if you use a piece of existing speaker wire. I tested this before compared with Bi - wiring and couldn’t hear the difference but could hear slight difference taking out jumpers (blind who knows, but effectively free anyway 😊)
To secure speakers to stands - a few blobs of blu-tac. To make taller feet for component cooling and potential sound improvement - squash balls cut in half (tell your audiophile buddies they are sorbothane and then they'll hear the improvement right away). These can be filled with blu-tac to tune them. :) Periodically strip a little of that oxidised copper from the ends of speaker cables and put the banana plugs back on. Speaker with shouty treble? - blu-tac (yes, I love the stuff) a layer of toilet paper over the tweeter (you might prefer to keep the grills on if you adopt this trick). On PC, use Peace EQ and play with subltle adjustments. Don't run your digital levels into clipping - check what the maximum volume setting your PC can handle against loud tracks but don't go so quiet that you lose information either. Try filling speaker stands with lead shot - dry sand is cheaper. I did try coins and have a pair of stands with £5 of copper in each of three legs. It worked great until resonant frequency was hit - don't fill your speaker stands with coins. On PC - buy a newer bluetooth dongle if you're on an older standard and having connection issues. They are dirt cheap and most of us have a spare USB socket. Experiment with unconventional speaker positioning. I've had a few "stand mount" speakers that sounded better put on the floor and leant against the back wall pointing upward at 45 degrees. It gives bass reinforcement and some treble tuning potential. Other speakers have sounded better on their sides when otherwise I'd be forced to have the tweeter a fair bit bove ear level. Put a concrete paving slab under bottom ported subs on wooden and carpeted floors (not good for the carpet mind). Some people might prefer a marble chopping board. Put a concrete block (or marble) on the bottom of your equipment rack. Close the windows and door to reduce external noise interference. Stuff or part stuff port holes with socks if bass is boomy - or move the speakers further into the room if possible. Got CDs, vinyl and tapes that you'll never find anywhere else now (eg local band albums and home recordings etc)? Get them transferred to PC so you have backup copies. Analogue to digital converters good enough for old tapes can be had for not much money (mine was £20). Use the best playback equipment you can to make the transfer. Only demo new kit with only great recordings if that's all you listen to. Try some merely OK or even bad recordings of music you actually like. Look after your ears.
Totally agree ! 😊 I use the sorbothane under the DAC and use marble chopping boards under my heavy floorstanders (KEF 104/2 and Epos ES22). Some HIFI traders sell the marble boards (cost around £20 a pair) for around £100 more with spikes… 😵💫
The most direct and free way to (alter) improve your sound delivery is to simply move them around liberally. Try even flipping your speakers upside down assuming they're bookshelf sized so you can see if having the tweeter lower to your sitting position changes things up for the better. Every room is unique and finding that perfect interaction point takes a lot of messing around.
exactly, I just made wheels so I can position the speakers to wherever we sit. (with wood/rubber/wood (rubber concrete/spikes on top of that, almost zero resonance to the floor)) listening on axis is so much better
I agree. Moving the L&R speakers wider or closer and/or rotating them to face slightly on or off axis. For me this changed how they sounded. Dialing it in took some listening time but made a big difference. And it was free.
Sometimes computer equipment/electronics come in a box packed with a very dense, stiff foam. It’s not styrofoam-it’s more slick and plasticky-and it works great for small speakers on stands or shelves or cabinets. I have a pair of Miccas that sit on a dresser in a bedroom, and the foam definitely helps isolate the speakers and reduce resonance from the dresser.
I'm using something similar under my small JBL speakers that are elevated on three-legged steel tables with dense board tops. Stacked on those, I have a couple cheap IKEA three-legged stools with horrible plastic seats. On those I have various slabs of yoga block foam, about three x four and around an inch thick, and the speakers sit on that material. I have slightly different thickness cut so I can make them sturdy and angle them down slightly, as they are above my seating level.
I've got budget vintage gear, but improved my sound hugely by buying speaker stands. My study is triple-aspect, so I close all the curtains when I'm listening, that's a noticeable improvement that cost nothing. I'm lucky as I live in rural West Wales (U.K), with virtually no background noise on a calm day. Usually cold and wet, so I won't be buying a fan! Another really cheap way to improve your audio experience is to vape a nice bit of bud, though you run the risk of getting into jazz guitar, as I have. Thanks for your channel, it suits me.
While others have rightfully mentioned moving your speakers around to tune the sound stage, this hack, which is in the same vein, made a noticeable difference to my floor speakers. Tilt the speakers back 6-8 degrees ( I use a small strip of wood under the front legs. Instrument/vocal separation improved. Give it a try.
Biggest difference I made to my speakers in my HT was to treat the first reflection. I did my left and right wall plus the ceiling. Ceiling made a huge difference (Already had carpet). Even going the cheapest way like I did will make a difference if you do it correctly. Sound-dampening curtains work good as well. You can even use thick moving pads (or thin and just double, triple them up) for really cheap!
re: tightening your speaker drivers: I replaced the wood screws holding my woofers on with t-nuts. This isn't possible on all speakers, but it was pretty easy with mine. This eliminates the risk of stripping out the holes and allows you to tighten them down without worrying about that risk.
My favorite hack is the cheapest one of all - speaker angle. I recently purchased a pair of KLH Model 5s. Love them. Problem is my listening room isn’t the best. By slightly toeing-out the speakers the soundstage expanded and the small room disappeared. Wonderful.
Hockey pucks work great to isolate your speakers , sub and also separate components allowing to stack if space is limited and cheap as well $2.00 each at Canadian Tire .They look great too .
Isolation with squash balls is amazing. They fixed my turntable from skipping whenever kids were running around. Replaced the feet with 4 squash balls, ensured it is level and never looked back
Spiking speakers is a MUST. All speakers need a solid reference from which the driver(s) can deliver their sound vibrations. I spike my DIY speakers with long wood screws that contact my concrete basement floor. Talk about cheap! Makes ALL the difference.
This one may seem silly, but it works really well for me: a sleep mask. Cutting down on distractions allows me to pay much more attention to the nuances of the music. My discovery of this technique, ahem, *may* have involved Zero 7 and mushrooms.
So after I heard this, and you saying tighten your drivers I went and checked mine pause this video lo and behold, seven screws loose. That’s the noise I was hearing thank you cheap audio man.
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If you have a music instrument shop near you.. or Amazon, OK... go and ask if the have Moon Gel drum pads. Drummers use them to damp drum heads. They cost just a couple of dollars for i think 6. You'll need 4 under each chopping board. Just stick them under and you have a fantastic isolation platform. If you ever move them, you can wash them as they tend to get a bit of dust and hair.
A solid base under a speaker definitely improves sound quality. I made mine from oak 2x2s screwed and glued together to form a plinth about 14" x18". Made one for my amp as well. If you want to experiment with resonance isolation, take a carpenter's wood clamp or two , large enough to span the width of the speaker, and play music through the speaker while you tighten the clamp. Go easy, the boxes are fragile. I put a wood slab under the clamp to spread the pressure. You'll be amazed at the resonance you can eliminate on some designs.
I’d emailed Noel Nolan of Skylan speaker stands about what would be the best stands for my small sealed Spendor speakers (Spendor advocates open frame stands, expects the sidewalls to resonate a bit etc. He said just to use my existing stands and take some plywood, cut 4 pieces to the dimensions of the speakers, sandwich some roofing shingle between two (in a pair) and screw them together (counter sink). A bit of blue tack to hold the new diy plates on, and wow. What an improvement!! Great guy, understands/advocates the importance of trying simpler solutions to first realize what you’re dealing with 🙏🏼👍🏼
I choose to isolate my speakers. I have Elac Debut 2.0 F62s floor standers. Rather than spike my speakers (which I did for years) I use sorbathane isolation feet. I have carpet so I placed a 12"x12" ceramic tile under the speakers and then placed the speakers on the isolation feet on the tiles. Two benefits: first it decouples the speaker from the wood floor under the carpeting greatly reducing room resonances and second it makes it very easy to reposition the speakers when ever I get the tweaking bug.
Straws Cool! My hack is play around with crazy speaker positions, especially if your room has questionable acoustics. For example, my awesome sealed 15" HSU sub is best for critical two-channel listening, four feet off the ground on cinderblocks, kinda over there on the left side of the room, not the right side LOL!
I have always been into car audio. I'll never forget a guy I worked with had four 2-way speakers, two in front and two in rear with a sub in the back of his Honda Civic. He told me he wasn't hearing his sub and wanted to get another bigger sub and amp. I talked him into disconnecting the two speakers in the back. He was blown away with how well it sounded after. Separation helps. I know in my own system getting an EQ with crossover really helped. My front mids would sound better cutting the low frequencies out and have the sub in the back play them. You don't see crossovers much in home systems. The larger speakers enclosures handle low frequencies better but if you have some that can't a crossover can help clean up your mids.
I agree with everything you said. I started out in car audio and the best system I ever had was just a pair of 6.5 front door speakers and tweeters on the dashboard, all going straight into a 4 channel amp from U.S. Amps. Removed the speakers in the rear deck completely. Had an Alpine head unit with bandpass crossovers for every channel and all the options you would need. I've always scratched my head as to why crossovers aren't more prevalent in home audio. All the gear I've used that include them have very basic limited options, even the higher-end components. Meanwhile in car audio you can get bandpass crossovers on many old cheap amps. It makes a huge difference when you're able to control exactly what is being sent to your speakers.
@@HarakiriRock For me I'm pretty basic. I like a silk dome tweeter. 6.5" mid with a crossover and a subwoofer. Denon has a lot of receivers with built in crossovers. I really want to pickup an EQ for the home. I would like one with digital audio in and out but may have to go with RCA out. Just finding one that is affordable with digital in is hard. I don't know why some frown on EQ's. Back in my wilder days I would record songs that I ran through an EQ to get the sound I wanted to play in the car.
For the straws and Bass. While I am not certain how or why it works, I would only assume it is due to turbulence and air. This can be seen with Laminar Flow, typically with fluids. I can only imagine its the same principal. There are tons of Laminar Flow videos out there for water.
I'm betting there's a waveguide effect, too, and maybe even a time-delay aspect to it; the source point of that bass is moved a little bit farther away from the other drivers, and itt changes the time at which that bass port signal is reaching your ears.
Just taking my bookshelves off of the table top i started out with and put them on dedicated speaker stands made the single BIGGEST and most dramatic improvement in not only the sound quality but the "experience" as well. Finally appreciated what this whole sound stage and imaging thing is!
WOW amazing you really know how to make it sooo easy to setup audio but just one thing why you don't demand straight how to assemble it you are the TRUTH man
I used to put Scunci No Slip Grip Evolution Super Bandz Hair Elastics under my speakers, very elastic silicone hair ties, did wonders and basically created "spring" effect. Also adding a small mass like drum-skin silicone pads or bluetack on the woofers lowers the bass octaves.
My best-ever budget hack was when I was in the home theater world, put a nice microfiber glasses cleaning cloth anywhere you have a remote control lol. I wear glasses, and it doesn't matter how good my HDMI cables are if I look through dirty glasses. hahaha
By far the most improvement in sound I’ve ever heard in my vinyl playback setup was to completely isolate the turntable from mechanical vibration/feedback from the floor or cabinetry. This was done by suspending a floating platform in a living room closet I converted to equipment shelving. The platform was held up with monfilament fishing line, islolated from hooks imbedded in 2x4 runners, with the hooks covered in surgical tubing. The opposite end of the fishing line went to rubber covered turnbuckles that were attached to rubber tarpaulin straps running under the platform. Platform itself was two sheets of 3/4” dense mdf separated with an inch of modeling clay. Balancing was done with table on platform and tweaking it to level with the turnbuckles. A full octave increase of bass frequency response for $22.00. Additionally a separate dedicated electrical circuit out of your service panel is worth the cost if you cannot do it yourself. Have your electrician tighten the lugs on your main disconnect switch while they’re at it.
Good valid tips. Comes down to little micro optimisations too eek out all you can from a setup. I use sand in my stands and half a pack of blue tack under each speaker to affix to stands while offering some damping. For my subs i use round hard rubber furniture feet onto thick paving slabs again to dampen things. A useful tip is also to use sticky back resonance reducing mat inside your speakers on all sides. This helps reduce cabinet resonances but only generally beneficial if the cabinet is built on the lighter side.
Reverse the speaker polarity on one speaker to see if it improves the sound. I bought a set of speakers that the previous owner had for 3 years that the center image was non existent when listened to them before buying them. After getting them home and listening for another 20 minutes I check the wires, which we correctly installed, but reversed the wiring on one of the speakers anyway and everything improved immediately. I found the source of the problem when I upgraded the crossover, the internal wiring on one of the speakers was backwards from the factory.
Weights on your kit, even speakers stops vibrations. Isolation under kit, squash balls, wooden door knobs or sorbothane. Sound deadening inside a turntable on the metal bits and the baseboard and also isolation, the Ikea bamboo chopping board with sorbothane feet is good. Clean the pins on your electric plugs with sandpaper to get better contact. All good and free or cheap.
I bought some 1/4" foam rubber adhesive pads for my desktop speaker stands which helped isolate the speakers. Of course speaker placement is huge. I also bought some really cheap plastic diffusers (~$20) to put behind my speakers. Which really seemed to clear up the mid range in the room. I've had my speakers for a few years now, I'm thinking it's time to see if the drivers are loose.
I have the Iso Acoustics stands for my JBL L82 Classics on my Vintage System. They sit on some wooden stools I got from amazon. (I’m not paying $400 for the L82 stands) My CM5 surround speakers are on sand filled stands, spikes and Herbie’s spike gliders. My CM10’s are on spikes and sit on Herbie’s spike gliders. All my racks are on Herbie’s gliders. My subwoofer sits on SVS Isolation Feet. I also have my turntables and most components on Herbie’s pucks. It all ads up to a massive improvement in clarity, separation and soundstage. The CM’s, the sub all sit on a floating hardwood floor. The isolation products were essential to deal with the boominess the floor created. Well worth the expense.
Cheap/free adjustment: put the tweeters at ear level. related, if you have the speakers on a table, put them on the front edge of it so you're not getting reflections off the table
Nice video, nothing wrong with cassettes especially for people who grew up with them. I never bought pre-recorded ones because the quality was not the best, but I made tons of them using TDK tapes with an Aiwa recorder and my faithful Technics TT, which I still have today. I have all those cassettes, or most of them, and I listen to them in a couple of older cars with tape decks. I still have a functioning Walkman too, uses AA batteries. Great drive down memory lanes, Mr. Randy, well done and truly enjoyed.
Number of things to isolate speakers, or are worth trying. Paper egg cartons ( the bottom half) taped together side by side cab work. There is sound deadening insulation they use in cars that sometimes auto body repair places might have scraps you can get for the asking. There is also insulation that is foam covered by metal used in attic insulation. Foam insulation board ( they sell small pieces at home Depot) may work. I would wrap it in cloth or even shelf paper so it doesn't look tacky.
The drinking straw thing was pioneered by British speaker manufacturer Celef, way back in the 1970's. It was incorporated into their Celef Monitor speakers. I had a pair and it worked.
Adding car audio sound dampening material to the inside of the cabinet and the bass port. The difference on my klipsch sub was like a different unit was there. 😮
I pull my front speakers away from the wall a few inches and angle them slightly toward the listening position. It was advice that I think makes a positive difference and doesn’t cost a penny. 🤘
SPEAKER PLACEMENT! I'm running a vintage - 1989 Technics SU600 'New Class A' integrated amp, with 2 midrange Sony bookshelf... And... I spent some time placing the speakers out and wide around me (measured EQUALLY), facing direct to my chosen 'Listening spot', and the difference IS SERIOUSLY noticeable! Previous to this I just had them set either side of the amp to give a wide stereo, but... As soon as I rewired two of them to be at around 2.5 metres away from my head at a 45degree angle and placed them on some good speaker stands so they were at head height while I was seated, the difference was NIGHT AND DAY! My next mod WILL need my wallet, as I want to get a good 8" or 10" Sub to compliment my setup for those very low frequencies (the Sonys tend to fall off around 45/50Hz). But even so, detailed music, Live performances... Wow, just WOW! And all it cost me was a reel of speaker wire, a smidge of effort and time to think about where and how to move/mount the speakers! 👌👍😏 😎🇬🇧
Speaker placement. Free! Make your own absorption panels. Used discarded palette wood for frame. Towels work for absorption, though I went Roxul 80 and had some of my photos printed on breathable fabric on Etsy. Reduced slap echo, and get good soundstage. Did not bother with the whole first reflection stuff, just put them on the bigger walls like art.
Firstly, "I want my 2 dollars!", is from Better Off Dead (a classic). The straws trick creates what is known as Laminar Flow, where the air is uniform in direction and velocity.
Wood rack for hifi , dedicated ac power line for lps and separate for switch power supply, fill the hifi electronics with cristal sand, treat first reflection of sound, a chair insted of a couch for listening sweet spot
"I want my 2 dollars" is from Better Off Dead. Ancient Cusack, Van Halen in the soundtrack, wacky claymation sequences, good times. Watch it (again) if you can.
SVS's subwoofer isolation "feet" made a huge difference in my system; well worth the expense. They truly did outperform other "feet" I tried. Tightened and defined bass and greatly reduced room rattle.
Re. speaker isolation: I bought a £20 (probably $22-25) pair of foam isolation mats that fit the dimensions of the bottoms of my speakers, to stop the desk they're on resonating with them. I can hear a marked improvement, especially in the bass and mids. The bass is cleaner and more detailed, and the mids sound crisper and clearer. Probably because they're not being muffled by the resonating bass from the desk.
Taking the extra effort to measure the distance from the speaker to the walls for both main speakers did a lot to improve output. I also found that the placement of the subwoofer affected overall performance. And finally, measuring the distance from each main speaker to my listening position to ensure I was an equal distance from both speakers also made an improvement. Onkyo Integrated amplifier Onkyo CD Player Q Acoustics 3020 Polk Subwoofer
Speaker isolation on a budget - thick felt layered with rubber gym mat cut to fit bottom of speaker cabinets. My stack is 2 layers of rubber mat sandwiched between 3 layers of felt. If you want to more "audiophile" frame it with timber, metal or your a cover of choice!😜
I use anti-vibration mats for my speakers, floor speakers but sitting on hardwood. I got a roll from Amazon for about 20 bucks... put some under my stereo cabinet as well... huge difference and plenty left over!
The straw thing, it's my understanding that the straws eliminate turbulence in the airflow. The exact same thing is used in wind-tunnels to get rid of all the twisting vortexes. As for the background fan noise, it makes a huge difference. It's also good to put some sound dampening panels on your walls. you can make them cheap. Since you mentioned cars, back when i bought my 2016 Audi S4, before i got my license plates.... i dismantled the trunk and all the door panels and applied Dynamat to all the metal panels. The trunk lid i then filled with minimum expanding foam. Also, i pulled the carpet and did the floor panels. Doing all this reduced road noise by an incredible amount. Lastly, if you strip out one of those screw holes, an easy quick fix (A proper fix requires much more work) is to take some steel wool, roll it between your fingers so it twists it up, then stuff it into the hole that is stripped. Keep doing it until you cant get any more in, then clip off the excess that is hanging out. Reinstall speaker. Works great.
Since my two sealed subwoofers were resting on spikes through carpet and into the subfloor of a suspended floor over my garage, the spikes were transmitting the energy from the subs into the floor which was causing some serious bass exaggeration and room resonance issues. Once I removed the spikes and set one sub on the SVS isolation footers, and the other sub on a Subdude platform, the bass cleaned up tremendously. My main speakers are 2-way stand mounted monitors. They rest on 3 brass points in a triangle pattern atop the stand top plate. The points are designed to allow the cabinet resonances/vibrations a path to exit the speakers and go into the stands. The stands have two vertical steel tubes which are filled 3/4 with sand. The stands do sit on floor spikes however. Since I cross the mains at 80hz low bass is not an issue with them.
My best cheap hack is using silicone powder paint plugs to isolate speakers on wood flooring. Best free hack is cleaning rca cable plugs and jacks at least once per year, often when people hear a difference changing cables it is sometimes attributed to inadvertently removing or displace oxidization. My absolute favorite is modifying passive crossovers to suit the room but that is not for everyone. BTW, anything you stick in a speaker port will adjust the bass response between total to partial air restriction, you can use anything from foam, polyfill, sock or your wife leggings.
Where you say cleaning your RCA cables. I assume you mean just pulling them out and pushing them back in. Or do you actually mean applying some sort of cleaning material. And BTW I assume the same would apply for speaker cables as well. Cheers
@totalplonker824 I mostly rotate, unplug and plug back in periodically. During serving I will clean chassis connectors with contact cleaner. I use a special brush to clean inside the connectors. Every few years I adjust amplifier bias where applicable, they always drift a bit.
You cost me a lot of $$$ this year Randy. Even your 'free' hack just had me order need aquarium filters. You reminded me that they rattle when you spoke about fan noise!
Throwing the wife out reduces background noise, but probably won’t be cheap… As a standard for all my bookshelf speakers, I buy cork mat with adhesive on the bottom which are meant fir kitchen cabinets. Cut it and stick it on the bottom of the cabinet. Same as some of the Klipsch bookshelf speakers.
hi, I like to play with old speakers also. I took two old speakers and hot glued coffee cans to them. One end completely open and the other I drilled about 5 holes. To me I feel that it works like a horn speaker and it is producing highs with a little metal sound for cymbals. It has worked fine for me ,I think it is worth a try.
Marble Plates under the floorstanding speakers will blow you away with how better it will sound. The thicker, the better, but not too crazy, 1-3" should be just perfect
To isolate the speakers? I use thick adhesive felt pads you might use for furniture. They've pretty much prevented all vibration through to the floor.. Bought them for a couple bucks at the dollar store
I use Concertmeister foam feet for my speakers - they come in different weight ratings and different colors, really nice and definitely affective. Will still transport lower frequencies which is nice for watching movies
Here in the UK, I find that polishing the brass positive & negative pins on our 3 pin mains safety plugs can improve clarity, mostly with the treble. Don't know what the effect would be on a US 2 pin plug would be. Most metal polishes are OK to use for this.
Speaker isolation. I made Granite stands on spikes to the floor, for my CerwinVega! Speakers then sorbothane between the speaker and the granite works for me.
I think it's all about fluid dynamics. I helped conduct an experiment (more a demonstration than an experiment) about 15 years ago in a pool. We squirted water with some dye from a 2" nozzle under water and measured the speed and geometry of the water as it pushed across the pool. Then we filled the nozzle with straws and did the same. The water stream traveled significantly faster, went farther, and the geometry was more coherent. (I should note the water pressure was still about the same, but the stream pushed the impeding water more efficiently) We theorized that lots of small jets created lots of small eddys instead of one large jet creating a few large ones. These little swirls were much more easily moved along instead of being pushed aside by the aggregate flow. Air is mathematically just another fluid with a different viscosity. Your results should depend on whether it's a front or rear firing port. But the result should be similar. The sound waves should be more directional, and a bit louder on axis, giving the illusion of extended bass. But there is a tradeoff. If the other theory is correct, and it actually lowers the port tuning, a properly tuned port will already extend the bass smoothly with no dropout. Lowering the port tune can cause a dropout between the bass driver and the port, resulting in uneven bass tones. This is all just theory. Obviously, someone would have to make some measurements, and not just with your ear. I don't have the tools for it. The problem here is that fluid dynamics is usually post graduate level stuff. Even when we measure it, it is still going to take some pretty heavy math to explain it. Mathematica experts, where are you?
When you said "I will delete it" I got a hint of alien in Galaxy Quest 😆. Best thing for any speakers is Harbor Frieght furniture mover. Wood platform with carpet. 4 ball bearing swivel casters which touch the floor in a tiny padded contact point. The bottoms are open. So a down firing port still isn't blocked. You can roll your speakers around to find the sweet spot. I usualy keep 5-6 pairs on these stands and 4 pairs conneected running off a Niles switch.
Recaping of old active PC-speakers. I just change 90% of capacitors on amplifier from low-quality noname to ELNA from my electronic thrash with same capacity and same or better voltage. And now... I don't want to change these speakers from 2003-2005 years, they REALLY OK now 🎉
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I remember this mod it existed for a while.
No instagram im better off dead😢
I hold firm, about 4 beers is the most reliable way to increase your hifi enjoyment.
😂😅
🍺🍺🍺🍺🤘
If only said beer was free...
Depends how fast you drink them
Improve your life, too.
You got it Randy! The drinking straw hack works by adding the surface area *along* the length of the port - which adds some friction, and so the air acts like it is slightly greater density. This can extend the bass a few hertz lower and it can help tame an excess "bump" at the port frequency. Lastly, it can reduce the woofer getting "unloaded" below its tuned frequency - if the air starts to move a *lot* in the port, the straws can damp down some of the excess; becoming closer to a sealed speaker.
You do need to cut the straws to be the same length as the straight part of the port. Extending them beyond the flare (if any) would negate the flare's benefit. Since the walls of the straws are so slim, the change in the effective area of the port is negligible.
This mod is much more sophisticated than stuffing socks in the port - it doesn't completely change the design from ported to sealed; and it can help you get a better balance.
By the way, this is definitely not my idea - there are a few speaker manufacturers who have done this. If you like the change, but don't like the color(s) of the straws - take the bundle out and give a light spray with black paint on the outside face.
Oh I'm definitely going to try this with the Neumis on my desk.
@@zounds13 It is easy enough to do, and is reversible.
Straws are technically a great idea, but wouldn’t speaker designers do this if it were an appropriate application for that mechanism?
awesome hack. for my understanding it make speaker enclosure half way between ported and sealed design. very intriguing!
Tighten those bolts ...if the MDF is getting a bit soft one can always drill it through a use a T-nut with a lock washer on the bolt. While your in there check out the cross over and see what components they used . Especially for the tweeters. There shouldn't be any electrolyte caps or iron core inductors. Those can be replaced with the same value poly caps and air core inductors. The tighter the tolerance the better anything over plus or minus 5% is to much. So even replacing poly caps that were +/- 10% with improve imaging and sound stage. Up grading resistors can also help ...same thing tighter tolerance and higher power handling especially if you max out the power while listening on a regular basis. The low inductance wire wound are better resistors. I know this is not free and requires some skills but it doesn't need to be horribly expensive to get an improvement considering that this is where most manufacturers cut the cost figuring what you don't see you might not notice.
1) Remove the grills. Many speakers have grills that can negatively impact their performance. 2) Move the speakers out into the room away from the back and sidewalls. Room refleactions and absorbtions can also have a major influence on performance. Not always easy to do for the practical aesthetics, but often very effective.
Removing the grills is not a good idea for the original Advents with the tweeters that extended beyond the woofer baffle. The tweeter baffle was in the grill.
Your comment makes perfect sense for that type of design.
Speaker placement and listening position are the greatest improvements I have found for free:) Love these types of videos
Randy, you have single handedly reignited my long lost audio passions! I was heavily smitten with the audio bug back in the 80's but lost interest after a home break-in that resulted in all my gear being taken and a year long insurance settlement. By the time the check came in, I had lost the bug. I have been watching ALL your videos for over a year now and finally made my first audio gear purchases in almost 30 years. I started with some used Magnepan MG12 speakers and due to your video now own a Wiim Pro Plus which I am thoroughly enjoying. Running everything through an old used Pioneer Elite HT system for now but I'm hunting for a stable high power class D amp to power the Maggie's soon. Keep up your excellent work and thank you so much for helping me rediscover this passion which I had forgot could bring so much joy.
Stand mount speaker isolation = silicone baking sheets, cut to fit. Work well and the nonslip surface helps to grip the speaker too. Single or double thickness for the win.
I smoke 2 joints in the morning, I smoke 2 joints at night, I smoke to joints in the afternoon, you know my system sounds alright.
Edibles even better for fully immersed effect.
My favorite free hack was changing the jumpers on the bi-wire posts of my JBL 530s. They come with these gold plates and switching them to 12 gauge wire really opened em up
Yes essentially free hack if you use a piece of existing speaker wire.
I tested this before compared with Bi - wiring and couldn’t hear the difference but could hear slight difference taking out jumpers (blind who knows, but effectively free anyway 😊)
Told my wife to stop talking,that improved the sound 😂.
She read the comment anyone got a spare bed.
To secure speakers to stands - a few blobs of blu-tac.
To make taller feet for component cooling and potential sound improvement - squash balls cut in half (tell your audiophile buddies they are sorbothane and then they'll hear the improvement right away). These can be filled with blu-tac to tune them. :)
Periodically strip a little of that oxidised copper from the ends of speaker cables and put the banana plugs back on.
Speaker with shouty treble? - blu-tac (yes, I love the stuff) a layer of toilet paper over the tweeter (you might prefer to keep the grills on if you adopt this trick).
On PC, use Peace EQ and play with subltle adjustments.
Don't run your digital levels into clipping - check what the maximum volume setting your PC can handle against loud tracks but don't go so quiet that you lose information either.
Try filling speaker stands with lead shot - dry sand is cheaper. I did try coins and have a pair of stands with £5 of copper in each of three legs. It worked great until resonant frequency was hit - don't fill your speaker stands with coins.
On PC - buy a newer bluetooth dongle if you're on an older standard and having connection issues. They are dirt cheap and most of us have a spare USB socket.
Experiment with unconventional speaker positioning. I've had a few "stand mount" speakers that sounded better put on the floor and leant against the back wall pointing upward at 45 degrees. It gives bass reinforcement and some treble tuning potential. Other speakers have sounded better on their sides when otherwise I'd be forced to have the tweeter a fair bit bove ear level.
Put a concrete paving slab under bottom ported subs on wooden and carpeted floors (not good for the carpet mind). Some people might prefer a marble chopping board.
Put a concrete block (or marble) on the bottom of your equipment rack.
Close the windows and door to reduce external noise interference.
Stuff or part stuff port holes with socks if bass is boomy - or move the speakers further into the room if possible.
Got CDs, vinyl and tapes that you'll never find anywhere else now (eg local band albums and home recordings etc)? Get them transferred to PC so you have backup copies. Analogue to digital converters good enough for old tapes can be had for not much money (mine was £20). Use the best playback equipment you can to make the transfer.
Only demo new kit with only great recordings if that's all you listen to. Try some merely OK or even bad recordings of music you actually like.
Look after your ears.
Totally agree ! 😊 I use the sorbothane under the DAC and use marble chopping boards under my heavy floorstanders (KEF 104/2 and Epos ES22).
Some HIFI traders sell the marble boards (cost around £20 a pair) for around £100 more with spikes… 😵💫
The most direct and free way to (alter) improve your sound delivery is to simply move them around liberally. Try even flipping your speakers upside down assuming they're bookshelf sized so you can see if having the tweeter lower to your sitting position changes things up for the better. Every room is unique and finding that perfect interaction point takes a lot of messing around.
exactly, I just made wheels so I can position the speakers to wherever we sit. (with wood/rubber/wood (rubber concrete/spikes on top of that, almost zero resonance to the floor)) listening on axis is so much better
200,000 subscribers! Who'da thunk it?? ROCK ON, RANDY!!!
I agree. Moving the L&R speakers wider or closer and/or rotating them to face slightly on or off axis. For me this changed how they sounded. Dialing it in took some listening time but made a big difference. And it was free.
Sometimes computer equipment/electronics come in a box packed with a very dense, stiff foam. It’s not styrofoam-it’s more slick and plasticky-and it works great for small speakers on stands or shelves or cabinets. I have a pair of Miccas that sit on a dresser in a bedroom, and the foam definitely helps isolate the speakers and reduce resonance from the dresser.
That's a good one. 😁
👍I use this stuff under my subs
Yes! I've done this very thing - good one.
I'm using something similar under my small JBL speakers that are elevated on three-legged steel tables with dense board tops. Stacked on those, I have a couple cheap IKEA three-legged stools with horrible plastic seats. On those I have various slabs of yoga block foam, about three x four and around an inch thick, and the speakers sit on that material. I have slightly different thickness cut so I can make them sturdy and angle them down slightly, as they are above my seating level.
I've got budget vintage gear, but improved my sound hugely by buying speaker stands. My study is triple-aspect, so I close all the curtains when I'm listening, that's a noticeable improvement that cost nothing. I'm lucky as I live in rural West Wales (U.K), with virtually no background noise on a calm day. Usually cold and wet, so I won't be buying a fan!
Another really cheap way to improve your audio experience is to vape a nice bit of bud, though you run the risk of getting into jazz guitar, as I have.
Thanks for your channel, it suits me.
While others have rightfully mentioned moving your speakers around to tune the sound stage, this hack, which is in the same vein, made a noticeable difference to my floor speakers. Tilt the speakers back 6-8 degrees ( I use a small strip of wood under the front legs. Instrument/vocal separation improved. Give it a try.
Ooh, part of the Magnepan charm!
Awesome tip, thank you Louis! Small shims from the hardware store or paint stirrers!
Biggest difference I made to my speakers in my HT was to treat the first reflection. I did my left and right wall plus the ceiling. Ceiling made a huge difference (Already had carpet). Even going the cheapest way like I did will make a difference if you do it correctly. Sound-dampening curtains work good as well. You can even use thick moving pads (or thin and just double, triple them up) for really cheap!
re: tightening your speaker drivers: I replaced the wood screws holding my woofers on with t-nuts. This isn't possible on all speakers, but it was pretty easy with mine. This eliminates the risk of stripping out the holes and allows you to tighten them down without worrying about that risk.
My favorite hack is the cheapest one of all - speaker angle. I recently purchased a pair of KLH Model 5s. Love them. Problem is my listening room isn’t the best. By slightly toeing-out the speakers the soundstage expanded and the small room disappeared. Wonderful.
Hockey pucks work great to isolate your speakers , sub and also separate components allowing to stack if space is limited and cheap as well $2.00 each at Canadian Tire .They look great too .
Isolation with squash balls is amazing. They fixed my turntable from skipping whenever kids were running around. Replaced the feet with 4 squash balls, ensured it is level and never looked back
Yes! Remember doing this back in the day 😊
Spiking speakers is a MUST. All speakers need a solid reference from which the driver(s) can deliver their sound vibrations. I spike my DIY speakers with long wood screws that contact my concrete basement floor. Talk about cheap! Makes ALL the difference.
This one may seem silly, but it works really well for me: a sleep mask. Cutting down on distractions allows me to pay much more attention to the nuances of the music.
My discovery of this technique, ahem, *may* have involved Zero 7 and mushrooms.
Here's a free one. Take five minutes to check the polarity of your speaker wiring to ensure they are in phase.
So after I heard this, and you saying tighten your drivers I went and checked mine pause this video lo and behold, seven screws loose. That’s the noise I was hearing thank you cheap audio man.
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IKEA Bamboo cutting board excellent for supporting record deck. Cost approx £20 compared to isolation platforms 👍
If you have a music instrument shop near you.. or Amazon, OK... go and ask if the have Moon Gel drum pads. Drummers use them to damp drum heads.
They cost just a couple of dollars for i think 6. You'll need 4 under each chopping board.
Just stick them under and you have a fantastic isolation platform.
If you ever move them, you can wash them as they tend to get a bit of dust and hair.
A solid base under a speaker definitely improves sound quality. I made mine from oak 2x2s screwed and glued together to form a plinth about 14" x18". Made one for my amp as well. If you want to experiment with resonance isolation, take a carpenter's wood clamp or two , large enough to span the width of the speaker, and play music through the speaker while you tighten the clamp. Go easy, the boxes are fragile. I put a wood slab under the clamp to spread the pressure. You'll be amazed at the resonance you can eliminate on some designs.
I’d emailed Noel Nolan of Skylan speaker stands about what would be the best stands for my small sealed Spendor speakers (Spendor advocates open frame stands, expects the sidewalls to resonate a bit etc. He said just to use my existing stands and take some plywood, cut 4 pieces to the dimensions of the speakers, sandwich some roofing shingle between two (in a pair) and screw them together (counter sink). A bit of blue tack to hold the new diy plates on, and wow. What an improvement!! Great guy, understands/advocates the importance of trying simpler solutions to first realize what you’re dealing with 🙏🏼👍🏼
I choose to isolate my speakers. I have Elac Debut 2.0 F62s floor standers. Rather than spike my speakers (which I did for years) I use sorbathane isolation feet. I have carpet so I placed a 12"x12" ceramic tile under the speakers and then placed the speakers on the isolation feet on the tiles. Two benefits: first it decouples the speaker from the wood floor under the carpeting greatly reducing room resonances and second it makes it very easy to reposition the speakers when ever I get the tweaking bug.
Straws Cool! My hack is play around with crazy speaker positions, especially if your room has questionable acoustics. For example, my awesome sealed 15" HSU sub is best for critical two-channel listening, four feet off the ground on cinderblocks, kinda over there on the left side of the room, not the right side LOL!
I have always been into car audio. I'll never forget a guy I worked with had four 2-way speakers, two in front and two in rear with a sub in the back of his Honda Civic. He told me he wasn't hearing his sub and wanted to get another bigger sub and amp. I talked him into disconnecting the two speakers in the back. He was blown away with how well it sounded after. Separation helps. I know in my own system getting an EQ with crossover really helped. My front mids would sound better cutting the low frequencies out and have the sub in the back play them. You don't see crossovers much in home systems. The larger speakers enclosures handle low frequencies better but if you have some that can't a crossover can help clean up your mids.
I agree with everything you said. I started out in car audio and the best system I ever had was just a pair of 6.5 front door speakers and tweeters on the dashboard, all going straight into a 4 channel amp from U.S. Amps. Removed the speakers in the rear deck completely. Had an Alpine head unit with bandpass crossovers for every channel and all the options you would need.
I've always scratched my head as to why crossovers aren't more prevalent in home audio. All the gear I've used that include them have very basic limited options, even the higher-end components. Meanwhile in car audio you can get bandpass crossovers on many old cheap amps. It makes a huge difference when you're able to control exactly what is being sent to your speakers.
@@HarakiriRock For me I'm pretty basic. I like a silk dome tweeter. 6.5" mid with a crossover and a subwoofer. Denon has a lot of receivers with built in crossovers. I really want to pickup an EQ for the home. I would like one with digital audio in and out but may have to go with RCA out. Just finding one that is affordable with digital in is hard. I don't know why some frown on EQ's. Back in my wilder days I would record songs that I ran through an EQ to get the sound I wanted to play in the car.
I have a pair of speakers on the desk in my home office, I have classic old-school isolation stands. Half squash balls. It does make a difference.
For the straws and Bass. While I am not certain how or why it works, I would only assume it is due to turbulence and air. This can be seen with Laminar Flow, typically with fluids. I can only imagine its the same principal. There are tons of Laminar Flow videos out there for water.
I think you’re on the right track. It’s supposed to help with port chuffing as well.
I'm betting there's a waveguide effect, too, and maybe even a time-delay aspect to it; the source point of that bass is moved a little bit farther away from the other drivers, and itt changes the time at which that bass port signal is reaching your ears.
Just taking my bookshelves off of the table top i started out with and put them on dedicated speaker stands made the single BIGGEST and most dramatic improvement in not only the sound quality but the "experience" as well. Finally appreciated what this whole sound stage and imaging thing is!
WOW amazing you really know how to make it sooo easy to setup audio but just one thing why you don't demand straight how to assemble it you are the TRUTH man
I used to put Scunci No Slip Grip Evolution Super Bandz Hair Elastics under my speakers, very elastic silicone hair ties, did wonders and basically created "spring" effect. Also adding a small mass like drum-skin silicone pads or bluetack on the woofers lowers the bass octaves.
My bookshelf speakers sit on top of my Realistic Mach 2 speakers with hand towels between them. True audiophile trickery.
My best-ever budget hack was when I was in the home theater world, put a nice microfiber glasses cleaning cloth anywhere you have a remote control lol. I wear glasses, and it doesn't matter how good my HDMI cables are if I look through dirty glasses. hahaha
By far the most improvement in sound I’ve ever heard in my vinyl playback setup was to completely isolate the turntable from mechanical vibration/feedback from the floor or cabinetry. This was done by suspending a floating platform in a living room closet I converted to equipment shelving. The platform was held up with monfilament fishing line, islolated from hooks imbedded in 2x4 runners, with the hooks covered in surgical tubing. The opposite end of the fishing line went to rubber covered turnbuckles that were attached to rubber tarpaulin straps running under the platform. Platform itself was two sheets of 3/4” dense mdf separated with an inch of modeling clay. Balancing was done with table on platform and tweaking it to level with the turnbuckles. A full octave increase of bass frequency response for $22.00. Additionally a separate dedicated electrical circuit out of your service panel is worth the cost if you cannot do it yourself. Have your electrician tighten the lugs on your main disconnect switch while they’re at it.
Good valid tips. Comes down to little micro optimisations too eek out all you can from a setup. I use sand in my stands and half a pack of blue tack under each speaker to affix to stands while offering some damping. For my subs i use round hard rubber furniture feet onto thick paving slabs again to dampen things. A useful tip is also to use sticky back resonance reducing mat inside your speakers on all sides. This helps reduce cabinet resonances but only generally beneficial if the cabinet is built on the lighter side.
Reverse the speaker polarity on one speaker to see if it improves the sound. I bought a set of speakers that the previous owner had for 3 years that the center image was non existent when listened to them before buying them. After getting them home and listening for another 20 minutes I check the wires, which we correctly installed, but reversed the wiring on one of the speakers anyway and everything improved immediately. I found the source of the problem when I upgraded the crossover, the internal wiring on one of the speakers was backwards from the factory.
Weights on your kit, even speakers stops vibrations. Isolation under kit, squash balls, wooden door knobs or sorbothane. Sound deadening inside a turntable on the metal bits and the baseboard and also isolation, the Ikea bamboo chopping board with sorbothane feet is good. Clean the pins on your electric plugs with sandpaper to get better contact. All good and free or cheap.
I bought some 1/4" foam rubber adhesive pads for my desktop speaker stands which helped isolate the speakers. Of course speaker placement is huge. I also bought some really cheap plastic diffusers (~$20) to put behind my speakers. Which really seemed to clear up the mid range in the room. I've had my speakers for a few years now, I'm thinking it's time to see if the drivers are loose.
I have the Iso Acoustics stands for my JBL L82 Classics on my Vintage System. They sit on some wooden stools I got from amazon. (I’m not paying $400 for the L82 stands) My CM5 surround speakers are on sand filled stands, spikes and Herbie’s spike gliders. My CM10’s are on spikes and sit on Herbie’s spike gliders. All my racks are on Herbie’s gliders. My subwoofer sits on SVS Isolation Feet. I also have my turntables and most components on Herbie’s pucks. It all ads up to a massive improvement in clarity, separation and soundstage. The CM’s, the sub all sit on a floating hardwood floor. The isolation products were essential to deal with the boominess the floor created. Well worth the expense.
Cheap/free adjustment: put the tweeters at ear level. related, if you have the speakers on a table, put them on the front edge of it so you're not getting reflections off the table
I made two full turns on some screws of my Lintons! It made no difference in sound quality but I feel much better now! WOW
I love Better Off Dead, when the group of news paper kids chance him down hill on the race. Good video!!
Nice video, nothing wrong with cassettes especially for people who grew up with them. I never bought pre-recorded ones because the quality was not the best, but I made tons of them using TDK tapes with an Aiwa recorder and my faithful Technics TT, which I still have today. I have all those cassettes, or most of them, and I listen to them in a couple of older cars with tape decks. I still have a functioning Walkman too, uses AA batteries. Great drive down memory lanes, Mr. Randy, well done and truly enjoyed.
Number of things to isolate speakers, or are worth trying. Paper egg cartons ( the bottom half) taped together side by side cab work. There is sound deadening insulation they use in cars that sometimes auto body repair places might have scraps you can get for the asking. There is also insulation that is foam covered by metal used in attic insulation. Foam insulation board ( they sell small pieces at home Depot) may work. I would wrap it in cloth or even shelf paper so it doesn't look tacky.
The drinking straw thing was pioneered by British speaker manufacturer Celef, way back in the 1970's. It was incorporated into their Celef Monitor speakers. I had a pair and it worked.
Proac also does this.
Adding car audio sound dampening material to the inside of the cabinet and the bass port. The difference on my klipsch sub was like a different unit was there. 😮
I pull my front speakers away from the wall a few inches and angle them slightly toward the listening position. It was advice that I think makes a positive difference and doesn’t cost a penny. 🤘
For speaker isolation i would prob look into sorbothane for stands and drum gel pads for the speaker bottoms.
Listening in a complete or almost completely dark environment reduces distractions and improves listening enjoyment
SPEAKER PLACEMENT! I'm running a vintage - 1989 Technics SU600 'New Class A' integrated amp, with 2 midrange Sony bookshelf... And... I spent some time placing the speakers out and wide around me (measured EQUALLY), facing direct to my chosen 'Listening spot', and the difference IS SERIOUSLY noticeable! Previous to this I just had them set either side of the amp to give a wide stereo, but... As soon as I rewired two of them to be at around 2.5 metres away from my head at a 45degree angle and placed them on some good speaker stands so they were at head height while I was seated, the difference was NIGHT AND DAY! My next mod WILL need my wallet, as I want to get a good 8" or 10" Sub to compliment my setup for those very low frequencies (the Sonys tend to fall off around 45/50Hz). But even so, detailed music, Live performances... Wow, just WOW! And all it cost me was a reel of speaker wire, a smidge of effort and time to think about where and how to move/mount the speakers! 👌👍😏
😎🇬🇧
Proac speakers back in the 80s used drinking straws packed into the ports of some of their models they were sprayed black on the front. 👍
Speaker placement. Free! Make your own absorption panels. Used discarded palette wood for frame. Towels work for absorption, though I went Roxul 80 and had some of my photos printed on breathable fabric on Etsy. Reduced slap echo, and get good soundstage. Did not bother with the whole first reflection stuff, just put them on the bigger walls like art.
I have left over marble slabs under my Klipschorns . Its a crawlspace house & yes the bass became tighter.
Firstly, "I want my 2 dollars!", is from Better Off Dead (a classic). The straws trick creates what is known as Laminar Flow, where the air is uniform in direction and velocity.
Better Off Dead is such a quotable flick. Love it.
@@ComputerGeeks-R-Us you and me both amigo.
...Didn't ask for a dime...
*Worth it* TY CAM
@@danieljohnson6370 "Gees Ricky, real sorry your Mum exploded like that. I guess she won't be able to eat any spicy food for a while."
I checked my wharfdales driver screws.
They were a little loose.
It was a noticeable improvement.
Thanks man!
Wood rack for hifi , dedicated ac power line for lps and separate for switch power supply, fill the hifi electronics with cristal sand, treat first reflection of sound, a chair insted of a couch for listening sweet spot
"I want my 2 dollars" is from Better Off Dead. Ancient Cusack, Van Halen in the soundtrack, wacky claymation sequences, good times. Watch it (again) if you can.
SVS's subwoofer isolation "feet" made a huge difference in my system; well worth the expense. They truly did outperform other "feet" I tried. Tightened and defined bass and greatly reduced room rattle.
Lol. I hear you, Randall. I will def tighten up my speakers in an upside down pentagram as you drew in space!
Re. speaker isolation: I bought a £20 (probably $22-25) pair of foam isolation mats that fit the dimensions of the bottoms of my speakers, to stop the desk they're on resonating with them. I can hear a marked improvement, especially in the bass and mids. The bass is cleaner and more detailed, and the mids sound crisper and clearer. Probably because they're not being muffled by the resonating bass from the desk.
I use hockey pucks for isolation - Do they work? Well - I'd say they don't hurt... i mean unless you get smacked with one.
Taking the extra effort to measure the distance from the speaker to the walls for both main speakers did a lot to improve output. I also found that the placement of the subwoofer affected overall performance. And finally, measuring the distance from each main speaker to my listening position to ensure I was an equal distance from both speakers also made an improvement.
Onkyo Integrated amplifier
Onkyo CD Player
Q Acoustics 3020
Polk Subwoofer
Fan cooling amps makes a big difference too if you like music loud like I do. So put some amps in the path of that fan and crank it up.
I use hockey pucks for speaker isolation, between components and under my turntable. Very dense rubber,inexpensive and they don't look bad.
Speaker isolation on a budget - thick felt layered with rubber gym mat cut to fit bottom of speaker cabinets. My stack is 2 layers of rubber mat sandwiched between 3 layers of felt. If you want to more "audiophile" frame it with timber, metal or your a cover of choice!😜
Cover you TV with something. Ad rug on you floor if you got wooden floor. Basically just do some acustic in your listening room.
Tighten your drivers I said! You got a video out of it. It works and it was about three-quarters of a turn for my three year old PMC’s. 👍
I use anti-vibration mats for my speakers, floor speakers but sitting on hardwood. I got a roll from Amazon for about 20 bucks... put some under my stereo cabinet as well... huge difference and plenty left over!
The straw thing, it's my understanding that the straws eliminate turbulence in the airflow. The exact same thing is used in wind-tunnels to get rid of all the twisting vortexes.
As for the background fan noise, it makes a huge difference. It's also good to put some sound dampening panels on your walls. you can make them cheap. Since you mentioned cars, back when i bought my 2016 Audi S4, before i got my license plates.... i dismantled the trunk and all the door panels and applied Dynamat to all the metal panels. The trunk lid i then filled with minimum expanding foam. Also, i pulled the carpet and did the floor panels. Doing all this reduced road noise by an incredible amount.
Lastly, if you strip out one of those screw holes, an easy quick fix (A proper fix requires much more work) is to take some steel wool, roll it between your fingers so it twists it up, then stuff it into the hole that is stripped. Keep doing it until you cant get any more in, then clip off the excess that is hanging out. Reinstall speaker. Works great.
Since my two sealed subwoofers were resting on spikes through carpet and into the subfloor of a suspended floor over my garage, the spikes were transmitting the energy from the subs into the floor which was causing some serious bass exaggeration and room resonance issues. Once I removed the spikes and set one sub on the SVS isolation footers, and the other sub on a Subdude platform, the bass cleaned up tremendously. My main speakers are 2-way stand mounted monitors. They rest on 3 brass points in a triangle pattern atop the stand top plate. The points are designed to allow the cabinet resonances/vibrations a path to exit the speakers and go into the stands. The stands have two vertical steel tubes which are filled 3/4 with sand. The stands do sit on floor spikes however. Since I cross the mains at 80hz low bass is not an issue with them.
My best cheap hack is using silicone powder paint plugs to isolate speakers on wood flooring. Best free hack is cleaning rca cable plugs and jacks at least once per year, often when people hear a difference changing cables it is sometimes attributed to inadvertently removing or displace oxidization. My absolute favorite is modifying passive crossovers to suit the room but that is not for everyone. BTW, anything you stick in a speaker port will adjust the bass response between total to partial air restriction, you can use anything from foam, polyfill, sock or your wife leggings.
Where you say cleaning your RCA cables. I assume you mean just pulling them out and pushing them back in. Or do you actually mean applying some sort of cleaning material. And BTW I assume the same would apply for speaker cables as well. Cheers
@totalplonker824 I mostly rotate, unplug and plug back in periodically. During serving I will clean chassis connectors with contact cleaner. I use a special brush to clean inside the connectors. Every few years I adjust amplifier bias where applicable, they always drift a bit.
Set my speakers on felt furniture slides.
You cost me a lot of $$$ this year Randy. Even your 'free' hack just had me order need aquarium filters. You reminded me that they rattle when you spoke about fan noise!
Throwing the wife out reduces background noise, but probably won’t be cheap… As a standard for all my bookshelf speakers, I buy cork mat with adhesive on the bottom which are meant fir kitchen cabinets. Cut it and stick it on the bottom of the cabinet. Same as some of the Klipsch bookshelf speakers.
Ear buds, About £1. I clean the wax from my ears, also drink coffee it wakes up your senses stops you drifting off to sleep.
hi, I like to play with old speakers also. I took two old speakers and hot glued coffee cans to them. One end completely open and the other I drilled about 5 holes. To me I feel that it works like a horn speaker and it is producing highs with a little metal sound for cymbals. It has worked fine for me ,I think it is worth a try.
Camping sleeping matts, or yoga matts for isolation. Cut to fit and stack to your liking.
Marble Plates under the floorstanding speakers will blow you away with how better it will sound. The thicker, the better, but not too crazy, 1-3" should be just perfect
Can't believe you just made a "Better of Dead" reference!! "Two Dollars!!"🤣
To isolate the speakers? I use thick adhesive felt pads you might use for furniture. They've pretty much prevented all vibration through to the floor.. Bought them for a couple bucks at the dollar store
I have always used hockey pucks to isolate components. Greeting from very rural Tennessee.
Tighten all connections. Everything vibrates.
Tight too, the RCA plug inside and outside.the speaker, it reborns a good sound with old drivers
Try 3M Command Strips between the speakers and the stand, one on each corner. Makes it safer for kids and improves the sound.
100% agree. Excellent approach for very little money. I’ve also had great results with Blu Tack, which really tightened up the sound.
I use Concertmeister foam feet for my speakers - they come in different weight ratings and different colors, really nice and definitely affective. Will still transport lower frequencies which is nice for watching movies
Here in the UK, I find that polishing the brass positive & negative pins on our 3 pin mains safety plugs can improve clarity, mostly with the treble. Don't know what the effect would be on a US 2 pin plug would be. Most metal polishes are OK to use for this.
The straw hack, straws were used in the reflex port of some Celef speakers many years ago - Celef later became ProAc!
Speaker isolation. I made Granite stands on spikes to the floor, for my CerwinVega! Speakers then sorbothane between the speaker and the granite works for me.
My Celef PE1's had the drinking straws built in as standard back in the 80s great speakers ...
I think it's all about fluid dynamics. I helped conduct an experiment (more a demonstration than an experiment) about 15 years ago in a pool. We squirted water with some dye from a 2" nozzle under water and measured the speed and geometry of the water as it pushed across the pool. Then we filled the nozzle with straws and did the same. The water stream traveled significantly faster, went farther, and the geometry was more coherent. (I should note the water pressure was still about the same, but the stream pushed the impeding water more efficiently) We theorized that lots of small jets created lots of small eddys instead of one large jet creating a few large ones. These little swirls were much more easily moved along instead of being pushed aside by the aggregate flow.
Air is mathematically just another fluid with a different viscosity. Your results should depend on whether it's a front or rear firing port. But the result should be similar. The sound waves should be more directional, and a bit louder on axis, giving the illusion of extended bass.
But there is a tradeoff. If the other theory is correct, and it actually lowers the port tuning, a properly tuned port will already extend the bass smoothly with no dropout. Lowering the port tune can cause a dropout between the bass driver and the port, resulting in uneven bass tones. This is all just theory. Obviously, someone would have to make some measurements, and not just with your ear. I don't have the tools for it.
The problem here is that fluid dynamics is usually post graduate level stuff. Even when we measure it, it is still going to take some pretty heavy math to explain it. Mathematica experts, where are you?
When you said "I will delete it" I got a hint of alien in Galaxy Quest 😆. Best thing for any speakers is Harbor Frieght furniture mover. Wood platform with carpet. 4 ball bearing swivel casters which touch the floor in a tiny padded contact point. The bottoms are open. So a down firing port still isn't blocked. You can roll your speakers around to find the sweet spot. I usualy keep 5-6 pairs on these stands and 4 pairs conneected running off a Niles switch.
Recaping of old active PC-speakers.
I just change 90% of capacitors on amplifier from low-quality noname to ELNA from my electronic thrash with same capacity and same or better voltage. And now... I don't want to change these speakers from 2003-2005 years, they REALLY OK now 🎉
I use 1/4 inch sorbothane pads on top of cheap Ikea end tables with my homebuilt speakers. The improvement is dramatic verses no pads.