Coupling / Decoupling

[jimbob]

What is coupling / decoupling, how is it achieved and how to know which method is best for your speakers?

[terrybooth]

There's lots of discussion about this. Use the search. e.g.
http://www.hifisubjectivist.org/viewtop ... ing#p95098

[Daniel Quinn]

There are many many interesting comments in the archive on this .

coupling is anchoring what ever it is to earth . ie speakers with spikes .

decoupling is isolating it from earth .[ ie spekers with townsend seismic frames ]

It is a means of dealing with and controlling vibration .

you dont know what is best for your speakers without trying , it is system and more importantly room dependent. In particular concrete or suspended wooden floors have in my experience been the determining factor .

[ i remain skeptical as to air borne vibration unless you have a 747 in your living room ]

[jimbob]

Thanks guys I will dig through the archives. Something tells me there will be lots of trial and error in seeing what works...

[zebbo]

There are many many interesting comments in the archive on this .

coupling is anchoring what ever it is to earth . ie speakers with spikes .

decoupling is isolating it from earth .[ ie spekers with townsend seismic frames ]

It is a means of dealing with and controlling vibration .

you dont know what is best for your speakers without trying , it is system and more importantly room dependent. In particular concrete or suspended wooden floors have in my experience been the determining factor .

[ i remain skeptical as to air borne vibration unless you have a 747 in your living room ]

Eh? you're joking aren't you? you simply have to go and place your hand on the glass in your lounge window, or the lid of your TT if it's in place, when your music is playing to confirm that.
For me, with concrete floors and block walls, I think it's the MAIN source of vibration problems for my TT.

[Daniel Quinn]

How do i conclude the window is not moving from structural vibration but SPL ?

[zebbo]

For you to hear anything the air must vibrate which in turn vibrates your eardrum. Air carries that vibration, hence in space "no-one can hear you scream" cos there's no air. Why should any surface not react like your eardrum?

[Daniel Quinn]

My ear drum is designed to vibrate at very small spl's .

why do you not feel it ? cause your skin is not designed to feel it . Hifi is more like skin than an eardrum.

I hold the opinion that the air must move so it can be felt for its vibrational effects to have any consequences to my hifi and then only on the moving coil . Placing my tt behind my speakers nullifies any spl as far as i can appreciate .

[zebbo]

Or THIS?

For your argument to work, those vibrations would have to travel through a soft, squidgy human body, into the ground and hence into the walls to vibrate the window?

[Daniel Quinn]

Not so . I contend all the vibration you need worry about comes from the speaker/floor relationship .

Are your windows not attached to the walls which are also attached the floor

sound waves travelling through air i fail to see how these can have any effect on cantilever at moderate to high listening levels .