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Subwoofer and bare floor

I have discovered that I get better bass from my speakers (hybrid electrostats with integrated subwoofers) if I put a folded up towel under the down-firing base drivers. I have them on bare floors, normally.

Does anyone have an explanation for this? Is it common for subwoofers to work better on carpeting than bare floors?

In case anyone is wondering, I discovered this while moving the speakers around to try different placements: I put them on towels to slide them around. Usually I take the towels out before playing them, but this time I forgot. The difference in sound is really striking.
steverw
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,424 posts
 
Depends on the woofer and the type of floor. I use Auralex Gramma (or SubDude) between my sub and the wood floor. It reduces the floor resonances.

Kal
schipo
1,267 posts
 
Auralex Gramma? What is this and can u send us a link?
programmergeek
322 posts
 
is it softing the bass and making it more defined? you still have the speakers spiked? Or is it coupling the speaker tot he floor where you are feeling more vibration.
steverw OP
30 posts
 
Each speaker has two 10" bass drivers in the same enclosure, one driving down, the other driving forward. Each has it's own internal amp.

The two drivers clearly must interact with one another, and on the bare floor it seems the forward-driver doesn't produce much sound. With towels underneath the bottom-firing units, there is a lot more sound coming from the forward-firing units. I wouldn't say the bass is softer, or more defined, it is not as subtle as that; I would say rather its more an issue of there being more bass or much less bass. I do care about quality, but right now I'm facing a much larger order of difference: if I can't even hear the bass note it's hard to tell how well-defined it is ;-)

Anyway, thanks for comments!

Regards,
steverw
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