AudioAficionado.org - New loudspeakers inbound!

Hi Greg,
I'm getting there. The Resonant Woods stands arrived last Friday, and I am still fine-tuning the setup with them and Harbeths.

http://photos.imageevent.com/puma_ca...s%20Photos.jpg

The stands came with some brass coupler discs that are held in place with non-hardening clay, and adhesive-backed polyurethane bumpers. You can see them if you look carefully between the 'Beths and stands in the top photo.

http://photos.imageevent.com/puma_ca...ds%20Discs.jpg

Initially, I tried the polyurethane bumpers on top of the brass couplers, but I didn't like the way they sounded, so I peeled off the bumpers and removed the brass couplers. I replaced these with some Herbie's Audio Labs Tenderfeet I had around, and placed them directly on the wood frame of the stand under each corner of the speaker, and this improved the sound and opened up the 'Beths quite a bit.

The stands come with some ball-shaped feet with 1/4-20 studs that screw into the bottom and are supposed to provide the same functionality as spikes, but make it easier to slide the stands around. But I just found out these are plastic and that may not be the best material. I've ordered some of Herbie's dBNeutralizer threaded stud gliders for mounting in the stands as I think these will work quite a bit better than the plastic ball feet.

http://photos.imageevent.com/puma_ca...40.55%20AM.jpg

I use these on the bases of my big Dyns, and they work very well and really cleaned up the sound of the Dyns on carpet.

http://photos.imageevent.com/puma_ca...%20stuff-4.jpg

http://photos.imageevent.com/puma_ca...%20stuff-5.jpg

I've also been playing around with platforms to place on the carpet under the Resonant Woods stands. I tried solid wood and travertine stone, but interestingly, a hard MDF board under the stand sounds the best.

As he also has Hartbeths on open-frame wooden stands, Caelin messaged me and suggested I go back to square one, and just put the 'Beths directly on the stands as a "starting reference point" and then try different thin materials of different composition between the speakers and stands to function as a constrained layer. I did this and placed the 'Beths directly on the stands with nothing under them. This was better than the polyurethane bumpers on the brass couplers; & improved the mids, but the highs were a bit dark and rolled off compared to being on top the Tenderfeet. Once I had that as a "baseline", I placed just a single layer of tissue paper (Kleenex) between the 'Beths and the stands, in the middle part of the frame, instead of the corners. The thin layer of tissue paper actually helps to couple the speaker to the frame more effectively, and to my pleasant surprise, actually sounded really very good, the highs opened up and became more natural and extended, the texture of the mids improved. I think the single layer tissue paper functions as a "constrained layer" which is why I think it works and sounds as good as it does (who needs Stillpoints? :D). I'm going to try other thin materials of different compositions including beeswax cloth, so I now have some beeswax cloth to try as well! ;)

I also have some Herbie's Square Fat Dots coming in with the dB Neutralizer threaded stud gliders and will try those between the stands and the 'Beths, and maybe those in conjunction with the beeswax cloth.

So, lots of things to play around with....I expect things will take jump forward when the decoupling stud gliders arrive tomorrow for use as feet under the stands.

Stay tuned!