Sorbothane Hemisphere Rubber Bumper for Soffited speaker Iso

[MOSHWITZ]

Sup?

It's been a Long time since I've posted But I still lurk pretty regularly and refer people here all the time, and I'm still always learning new stuff every time I'm poking around

OK,, I've been toying around with wanting to change the fabric on all of my acoustic panels and might have a line on some killer black Walnut boards to re-face the front of my soffits with. While thinking about this I got to wondering ( as I have over the years from time to time)... just how good the rubber pads that I have under my speakers are decoupling them from the soffits.

I built my soffits and room from the modular design that John graciously kicked to me in my design thread here..
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... f=1&t=8836

Construction thread
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... f=2&t=9401

in this design, the soffit is built as an upper and lower cabinet and the speaker baffle is screwed directly to the upper cabinet. The speakers sit on the rubber pads on the floor of the upper cabinet and I have the back side of the Baffle routed out to allow the speaker face to be flush with the front of the baffle due to the JBL4328 having a rounded face, although in a question to John he had stated that if they protruded an inch out the front like Warren Jergens JBL's it wouldn't make that big of a difference.
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... 11&t=14335

So, I'm still debating if I get this walnut, if I want to rout the backside or just square it off and let them poke out like Warren's

anyway,,
I did not build the tight box around the speakers that is in Johns orig. soffit design
( I still could when I take the face apart though..... and please someone clarify this for me) because

Most soffit builds seem to have the speaker and framing as one unit, and the baffle as a separate piece that does not touch.

Mine being modular self contained stacked units,,If I put my speaker in a box, and that box is screwed/or glued to the cabinet , then screw the baffle onto the cabinet,,,,would this not be coupling the whole thing together? especially being the box and the baffle are so close to each other even though they don't touch?


OK,, back to the pads,, i was looking around and came across these..
1.5" Sorbothane Hemisphere Rubber

They are rated at 7 to 14 lbs each. My JBL's are 29 lbs each. I know the rubber has to compress a little bit to be loaded properly. If I am using 4 of them for feet. are the loading properly to decouple the speaker from the cabinet floor? Might I need bigger ones that are rated for more weight?, or perhaps lots of little ones rated for less weight but evenly distributed that add up to speaker weight?

Some clarification on these things would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

MOSHON
DAVE

[MOSHWITZ]

Sup?

Anyone? .....bueller....

MOSHON
DAVE

[Soundman2020]

Oooops! Long delay in responding....

Mine being modular self contained stacked units,,If I put my speaker in a box, and that box is screwed/or glued to the cabinet , then screw the baffle onto the cabinet,,,,would this not be coupling the whole thing together? especially being the box and the baffle are so close to each other even though they don't touch?

Yes, it would be coupled, if I understand what you are saying. What I suggest is to make the box that surrounds the speaker a bit bigger than the speaker itself, by the thickness of the rubber less 15%, then line the box with rubber and out the speaker in. Of course, you can't actually get the speaker in like that, since the rubber is too tight, but if you loosen the screws that hold the box together enough, then the speaker can go in, and re-tighten the screws, That entirely decouples the speaker from the box, so after that you can do whatever you want with the box: attach it to the shelf, or the front panel, or whatever.

OK,, back to the pads,, i was looking around and came across these..

Sorbothane is the best stuff for speaker decoupling, but I would just buy a sheet of it and cut it as needed to fit the box. It ain't cheap, though!

- Stuart -

[smithjon]

,, I've been toying around with wanting to change the fabric on all of my acoustic panels and might have a line on some killer black Walnut boards to re-face the front of my soffits with. While thinking about this I got to wondering ( as I have over the years from time to time)... just how good the rubber pads that I have under my speakers are decoupling them from the soffits.

[RJHollins]

As I follow this thread ...

Recently I added sorbathane 'bumpers' under my main monitors. I hesitated to do this, as I had already used [what I thought] was a good ISO. Monitors are placed on a stack of concrete block. Listening via stethoscope to the blocks seemed minimal to no transfer issue.

Reading much discussion on GS thread, I had to then test for myself.

My ONLY regret ... I didn't do this from day one. The difference was significant ! Having a very nice control room [designed via this forum and 'Gulfo'], made the change so obvious ... for the better. I did have to make some adjustments on the monitor settings afterward. The important thing .... the new adjustments made absolute sense BECAUSE of the improved isolation.

Just my 1/2 cent experience

[Samjose25]

This is interesting. I should try this one. Thanks guys.