Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Best speaker bases for m60's

I need to raise my M60's about 4-5 inches. I have a wood suspended floor. I plan on making bases the shape of the speakers out of 1" high density MDF. I thought three layers thick with the middle cut out and filled with modeling clay, then veneered and painted. Under the stand I want to use Herbies "Big fat dots. Under the speakers I'll switch to the spikes that came with the speakers. Anyone have anything under their speakers already that sounds good? This is my first post so any input will be awesome!

Oh Ethnarch of Samaria, Judea and Idumea, you should speak to Axiom before you commit what may be an acoustic faux pas. If nothing else, try a temporary platform to determine if the acoustic performance of the speakers is audibly altered.

I would start off with a few hard cover books. As you change the height, you change the sound. Find a height that makes them sound the best for you first before making something.

From what you wrote, it appears you are coming up with a number for aesthetic purposes, rather than acoustic.

I called Axiom earlier today. They had no idea what anyone uses. I need to raise them so the tweeter is at ear level with the new furniture. I raised the couch and chairs a bit as I hate sitting with my knees higher than my butt.
I can't be the only out in analog land that had to raise the speakers or at least isolate them from a suspended floor....I guess what may be more pointed is what options do I have that may be in use in someone else's setup

It's not a matter of asking Axiom what others use but rather how or if the sound would be affected by raising them off the ground.

I also asked that very thing, and hey said they "didn't know."

It would seem the more inert and solid base they are on the better. Ideally I could cut a hole in the floor and poor a concrete footer. The wife said " nyet", go figure... I was just wondering if anyone else had a short platform like Auralex or a diy platform that worked well.

Raising them off the floor will cause cancellation and you can calculate the frequency at which that cancellation occurs by taking the difference of the hypotenuses of the driver and its imaginary reflection buried in your floor. The reflection is buried in the floor halfway between you and the speaker at a depth equal to the height of the driver. Divide half the speed of sound by that difference and that will be the null frequency.

The first hypotenuse is between the driver and the floor at the midpoint between you and the front baffle of the speaker. The second hypotenuse is between the driver and its image.

Wow!! Mojo, I haven't seen a hypotenuse in 40 years! Hell, I forgot how to divide fractions! I have a rudimentary understanding of what your saying, kind of, but the math is beyond me, and if I did figure it out, I have no idea how to utilize the data...

You can't do audio and not know about hypotenuses! lol! How far away are you sitting from the plane of the speakers? If I get bored over the next couple of days, I'll work it out for you.

Tower fronts are 12 feet from the center of the couch, my "sweet" spot! Tower centers are 9' apart. Any input would be helpful! Time to read up on hypotenuses. Hopefully my chronic math alergies won't kick in!

Look at isoaccoustics stands.

Arch, I'm not surprised that Axiom wouldn't really be able to answer your question as every room and scenario will be different.

When I was a kid, I build a turntable base to isolate the TT from infrasonics/bass. It was basically a "topless" box filled with sand, with a plywood, undersized "top" that the turntable sat on. This de-coupled the TT from sitting on anything other than that one piece of plywood, which touched nothing but sand. It worked well, and the same general design could be reworked for a speaker.

Still, though, bass waves are going to travel through floors if the speakers are playing loudly, though decoupling them might help.

Buy sand from Home Depot so you don't import Platypus eggs from the beach and wake to a room full of baby platypuss' (plattypussi?).

I don't have a photo so made this up to help describe what I'm talking about:

Is your sitting area on your wood suspended floor or is the wood suspended floor a "stage" for your speakers?

A flooring store, or a place where you can buy stone for counter-tops may have samples of polished granite or marble which you could stack. Should be pretty inert.

Mojo, my whole house is a suspended floor. Built in 1925, about 2.5 feet off the ground,1' thick subfloor covered with 1' thick pine boards.
I am familiar with using granite, slate, soapstone, Corian and sandboxes to isolate equipment. I know all of these "treatments" effect the sound of the equipment, either good, bad or no change.
That's why I asked the initial question, so as to get pointed in the right direction and possibly narrow my experimental options down. I really do appreciate the responses, I is humbling as a new "poster' to have others take the time to think and respond!

Hey, we're awesome people here!

We are! And the folks at Axiom are, too. In fact, they may be able to CNC a [name your height] speaker shaped pedestal in a finish that matches yours. There would be the obvious seam, but those not in the know wouldn't see it if you didn't say anything.

Hmmmmm....I think if you hear a difference with the tweeters 4 to 5 inches higher, then you may want to try 4 to 5 inch spikes. I don't know if there is such a thing.