Granite Plinths For Better Speaker Isolation.

[Yasvanth]

Hi

Are there any hifi enthusiasts who use granite isolation slabs under there spks to help to tighten up the bass and to prevent vibration from causing havoc with there systems?

I've heard great things from this, and maybe thinking of buying a pair to place under my floorstanding spks.

Anyway tell me what you think!

Thanks

Yas

[twitch54]

FWIW, tried it under my sub......... didn't like it.

[audioqueso]

I tried it back when I had my 600's. I think it improved the bass ever so slightly, but I didn't use spikes back then either.

[whoaru99]

Isn't a good portion (maybe most) of vibration going to be acoustically coupled/induced into the room regardless of the granite slabs?

[Yasvanth]

Hi

There is a chap on E Bay UK who is selling these granite spk slabs, and by reading his feedback he has a lot of happy and content customers.

Will I get great improvements by by buying these granite slabs?

Thanks
Yas

[Martyn]

Great improvements? Probably not.

Slight improvement? Maybe.

Bear in mind that you're already a fair way up the "diminishing returns" curve if you're already on spikes.

I'd expect that there might be a difference between real granite and synthetic granite too. The latter is a balanced mixture of granite "aggregate" in a resin matrix (just like concrete is a balanced sand and gravel aggregate in a cement matrix). It is not only dense, but also has good internal vibration damping properties. You can buy slabs of this stuff 2" or 3" thick from industrial tool suppliers - they're used as reference surfaces in the engineering world because they are flat and stable. I can't say whether you'll find any just the right size to slide under your speakers. Alternatively, go to your local counter-top supplier and get them to cut you a couple of pieces of the real thing of the colour of your choice and give that a try.

Either way, you'll need to decouple them from your floor as whoaru99 says, so put 'em on spikes.

[Yasvanth]

Hello

The chap who sells them has guaranteed that they are 100% granite and by reading his feedback he has received a heck of a lot of contented customers so it must be working to help to tighten up the bass and make the midrange must faster.

The best thing of all is it's British Granite.

Anyway let me know whether other people have tried granite slabs under there spks.

Yas

[Martyn]

I suspect that there are few people who will spend significant money on an audio tweak and then admit that it doesn't work.

The last time I was in my local ceramic tile store, they had some granite floor tiles that were 18" square by 3/4" or 1" thick. Since they will usually let you sign out a couple of samples to take home, this would provide a simple way to do a test.

Although British granite is very effective, it is said that Norwegian Blue is best of all, especially if it is free of quartz. Quartz inclusions exhibit the piezo-electric effect when excited by vibration, which creates stray electromagnetic fields that cause distortion.