Floor isolation for your Infinity floorstanders

[bluescat]

Was wondering what you guys do about floor isolation with your floor standing Infinity's. I have my RSIIIA's sitting directly on wood flooring. Generally this hasn't posed much of a problem, but with some bass heavy music, I think that some isolation might help with intermittent resonance. I guess it would be easy enough to get some small rugs to put under the base, but being the cheap,lazy bastard that I am, I thought I would ask for opinions first. Would small rugs be enough? Should I have padding under the rugs? Should the rugs extend out into the room, beyond the base of the speakers? I'm thinking that I will try some bass traps behind the speakers, although the speakers are 3 1/2 ft. from the corners, and placing the traps behind them will probably look like hell (the wall is 16'high and the speakers are right beside the fireplace). Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[tubed]

Best thing for wood floors is to go under the house and add extra support under the area where the speakers are located.
Carpeting will improve the overall sound quality.
Then evaluate bass traps etc.
Have Fun.

 

[AZDean]

I think the best thing is spikes into the floor. I'd rather mechanically ground the speakers to reduce the speakers vibrating. With my last speakers, I used spikes through the carpet into the slab. When I went from carpet to laminate, I switched the spikes out with round head carriage bolts. If you don't have a slab, tubed's advice makes sense to add support from underneath to reduce vibration, but then I would still try to couple the speakers firmly to the floor. I would use a rug in front of them to absorb the first reflection. I still have to deal with that with my RSIIs. They rest on the front edge and the leg in the back. I'd like to install some kind of firm button on the front two corners and the back leg. I thought about keeping my Vandersteen 2Ce bases and installing them, they would have worked well, but the buyer of those wanted the bases.

If you do put something soft under them, listen for changes in bass and midrange clarity, as that can be affected. Are your speakers 3.5 ft from both the side wall AND the rear wall? If so, that will cause some peaks, I would move them a bit so the distance from side wall and rear wall are significantly different. If you want some very good reference info on speaker placement, see a Vandersteen manual. Here's the manual for my old speakers. The methods Richard describes for speaker placement are applicable to any floorstanding speaker. Lots of good info in there.

 

[bluescat]

Thanks guys, I skimmed the Vandersteen manual over my morning coffee, and will read it in depth after I'm fully awake. Seems like a lot of good info in it. I just moved these speakers in from the side wall's to help with imaging. They were about 15' apart, and are now 8' apart, and 1' out from the back wall. The room is very live, with the only soft furnishings being a sofa. Everything else is either wood, drywall, metal, or glass. I have a 31 band equalizer in the chain and have been playing with that, but would like to eliminate it, because it is just a pita, I'm constantly fiddling with it. I found some old bathroom rugs, I'll try them under the speakers and see if that is going to help. I don't want to bolt the speakers directly to the floor, the resonance is only occasional, and that seems pretty drastic to me. I'll report back after I try the rugs.

 

[AZDean]

That all sounds good. I'd try them further from the back wall, though I've never heard the RSIII. For me, the triangle formed by the speakers and the listening chair form a fairly equilateral triangle. But I've seen other high end speakers further apart. Dunlavy used to put their speakers quite far apart and then toed in a lot. I'd continue to experiment without the EQ in the chain. When you get the distances from back and side wall right, you'll smooth out the bass response. The hope is that those locations work fairly well for decent imaging. That's the challenge, getting a good soundstage AND even bass response.

Also, when I mentioned the bolts, they were upside down, screwed into the Vandersteen bases, with the round head resting on the laminate flooring. They weren't fastened to the floor, it just gave me a similar connection as the spikes without damaging the laminate.

 

[chef free]

When I finally installed the spike feet on my ML Depth i sub, I think the bass got a little clearer but it's pretty subtle. I'm on a concrete floor so there is a big difference between our rooms. I've been wondering about "spiking" my QLS-1s...

 

[Maxamillion]

Herbie's Giant Fat Gliders did the trick for my RSIIB speakers. Four under each speaker results in a very stable, easy to move and well-isolated speaker. Removed a persistent bass resonance between the speakers and the hardwood floor. Highly recommended.

 

[bluescat]

Herbie's Giant Fat Gliders did the trick for my RSIIB speakers. Four under each speaker results in a very stable, easy to move and well-isolated speaker. Removed a persistent bass resonance between the speakers and the hardwood floor. Highly recommended.

Thanks for that, I'll look into them right away.