Marbles for your monitors....

[jasedee]

Just thought I would share some more studio arrangement experiments with everyone!

A technique I picked up from *Mike Stavrou's 'Mixing with your mind", where he places 3 marbles underneath each speaker, like a tripod, with a bit of blu-tack under each marble to hold them in place.....

Just tried it then......I just seem to keep squeezing more performance from my monitors each week!!!!!!

I've said it before (Actually, I think I stole this from the book as well):

"You owe it to yourself to get the best from your monitors....."

*Wink wink

[3o3]

I had a friend who did a similiar thing acctually - i haven't heard the difference yet however. Maybe because everytime i visit him we gotta listen with headphones since his neighbours are idiots that call the cops if you use your monitors in the middle of the day

[jasedee]

his neighbours are idiots that call the cops if you use your monitors in the middle of the day
Thats bloody terrible!!! It is midnight here and I am pumping it!!

[3o3]

Thats bloody terrible!!! It is midnight here and I am pumping it!!

My neighbours never complain thou; i can watch a movie on my projector and blast away on my 8 'movietheater'-soundsystem which by the way is a joke but i can make the walls shake.

They have never complained once, and in return i never complain whatever/whenever they do stuff like that.

[Tomer=Trance]

i didnt quit understand how this technique works
can you upload a picture and explain step by step?
what exacly does this prosses do?

[Juho L]

It is midnight here and I am pumping it!!

Eww!

[jasedee]

It is midnight here and I am pumping it!!

Eww!
You sick freak!!!!!! I dont know what you get up to when everyone is in bed.....actually, I dont want to know!!!

:?

[jasedee]

i didnt quit understand how this technique works
can you upload a picture and explain step by step?
what exacly does this prosses do?
Basically, the idea is to physically decouple the moitors from the surface they are on. Bass/energy likes to travel through surfaces and dissapate, where it would be better to have that energy focused on delivering the sound to you, and not converted into some other energy.

Im not giving very technical descriptions here, I know.....maybe Juho knows something about this???? Or what I am trying to say....

So, anyways, the marbles, with some blu tack underneath to help with stability and absorption....arranged in 3 points underneath the monitors, as this is the most stable way (Think mic stand, camera stand etc) I dont even know if I am doing it right, and whether or not I can actually hear a difference, or my brain playing tricks on me, Im not too sure either....

I guess you need to experiment, and try yourself. Some pics below:

http://www.24bit192k.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/marbles_01.jpg

http://www.24bit192k.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/marbles_02.jpg

[hatembr]

do u really think that is stable enough ?? :roll:

[Juho L]

Im not giving very technical descriptions here, I know.....maybe Juho knows something about this???? Or what I am trying to say....

Yup. You're right. The speaker doesn't have to waste the energy on vibrating the table (or any other surface). Those marbles with tack absorb much less energy. For example a speaker hanging on a string sounds very different from a speaker on a table... I winder have anyone ever hanged their speakers from a roof with a strings. Hoho.

[jasedee]

do u really think that is stable enough ?? :roll:
I bloody hope so!!!!!! I cant afford to have to fix them if they fall.....

[Tomer=Trance]

there are spacial absorving pads which can work in the same way
or just laying 10 mouse pads :lol:
i use thos white plastic thingys called kalkar that were originaly in the box that the monitors came with
i just cut it to the right size
they absorve rather nicely
before i bought the monitors i had a sub wofer+2 small speakers dirrectly on the table there was a very strong reasonating freq coused by that so i see what your trying to prevent...

[jasedee]

I guess this is a "cheap" way of doing it......or like a last resort????

The new Genelecs come with some cool little "Feet" on the bottom, like little pods or something. I used to have a mouse pad underneath, but I dont think it helped too much..

They also have metal spikes or cones, that you place underneath (with the pointy end down) and apparently these work very well

[jasedee]

After some discussions with a friend, I have discovered Blu-Tack may not be the best option for the underside of the marbles..

Something like a very thin washer from the hardware store would be more suitable, which the marbles would sit in..

The traditional round marble can also be replaced with one of those 'flat' type marbles, with a dome on only one side..

[Onkel Dunkel]

The best is to have as little surface touching as possible. Spikes must be the best choice.

[Tomer=Trance]

They also have metal spikes or cones, that you place underneath (with the pointy end down) and apparently these work very well

yeah heard of thos
trying to get a hold of some.

[Gopal]

Just thought I'd chime in here and share a little of my knowledge about vibration dampening and conduction. The idea of placing your monitors on marbles is good in theory, but by no means the most effective way of achieving the results. A mousepad under your monitors will only degrade the sound, never do this!

You have to think about what you are trying to achieve here. Your speakers are little pistons moving back and forth very rapidly, and you don't want them to waste any of their energy in moving the cabinet back and forth with them. This is why is is absolutely essential that your speakers are as stable as possibly. If your cabinet is is allowed to move back and forth with the drivers, then the drivers can never return to a fixed and precise zero reference point, therefore resulting in distortion.

There is alot of energy moving being transmitted both through the materials of the cabinet and through the air from the sound. You don't want either of these energies to get back to the driver and effect its performance. That is why the commonly accepted method of dealing with vibrations these days is to conduct them and give them a short and easy path to earth. This is where spikes are so good. They perform both of the functions described above. When balanced and positioned properly they give the speaker an incredibly solid base to work from and the cone shape of the spike conducts any vibrations from the air and the cabinet away and into whatever the speaker is sitting on, which ideally should also have conical shaped poles and be on spikes as well so as to continue conducting those vibrations from the air and the speaker completely to earth where they cannot be looped back into the system in any way whatsoever.

For the reasons outlined above I urge everyone to abandon any attempts to use isolation or absorbtion feet or materials as the leading cause unwanted vibrations actually comes from the air in the room which you can never really isolate anything from. Just give the vibrations a clean and fast path to earth and never worry about them again.

A bit of a rant here I know, but understanding these theories will really help you to maximise the potential of your monitors.

[jasedee]

A bit of a rant here I know, but understanding these theories will really help you to maximise the potential of your monitors.
No probs ;) Thanks for giving us some tips! I think most people out there, including myself can still squeeze some more from our setups, without much effort at all....