Better monitor isolators than Auralex MoPads?

[dickiefunk]

Could anyone recommend a better monitor isolators than the Auralex MoPads?

[HudHudson]

Primacoustic Recoils.

[britdick]

This is the best thing for ya. i don't know why everyone doesn't do it. For eons they've been decoupling speakers from the floor with spikes in the "audiophile" world. The cost is nothing, i think these were $10 and they completely place the speaker in its own space, devoid of contact with anything. i have my Adams AND my Gene's on them. Perfect solution.

Try it. So cheap, if you ain't into it, you can move on to something else with little guilt. You won't though.

[HSLand]

What is that? How do I do it? Looks like they'd slide off easily!

[Oliver Chesler]

Prepare your wallet: Ardan Audio

[SRS]

Yeah, monitor/speaker isolation spikes are the exact opposite of what the recoiled stabilizers are trying to accomplish. The recoils are attempting to take the forward/rearward movement (however slight) and "stabilize" it with a massive steel platform covered with rubber. Mopads are more in line with the spike theory, as the open celled foam makes an effort to isolate the monitors from the surface they sit upon. I would be very concerned (living in southern California - earthquake territory) with any monitor or speaker sitting on skies without them having some reliable means to keep them from hitting the floor or console in a decent sized shaker.

That being said, I have both, the Mopads on one set of monitors and Recoils on another. They both decouple the monitors from the stands well, and in the end, that's really what the goal is, so the bass does not get transmitted to/through the monitor stands/console/meter bridge/whatever.

[Drumsound]

Originally Posted by HudHudson

Primacoustic Recoils.

They made a huge difference in my monitoring.

[Old Goat]

Office Max mouse pads.

[bgrotto]

Originally Posted by HudHudson

Primacoustic Recoils.

+1

[ronwasserman]

Originally Posted by HudHudson

Primacoustic Recoils.

Huge difference using these.

[Aisle 6]

+1 on the Primacoustic Recoil stabiliser. But as mentioned, speaker spikes are a good option.

[dft3670]

25 lb. theatrical sandbags with a piece of rubber on top.

[captshiznit]

Originally Posted by britdick

This is the best thing for ya. i don't know why everyone doesn't do it. For eons they've been decoupling speakers from the floor with spikes in the "audiophile" world. The cost is nothing, i think these were $10 and they completely place the speaker in its own space, devoid of contact with anything. i have my Adams AND my Gene's on them. Perfect solution.

Try it. So cheap, if you ain't into it, you can move on to something else with little guilt. You won't though.

hahah thats awesome

Are monitor isolation pads actually worth it? or just a gimick?

[bassam_m]

I just bought the m-audio bx5 d2 monitors and they have isolators with them but they seem to be too thin (more like mouse pads). Are these isolators good? Or would I be better off buying isolators such as the MoPads?

[Granny Gremlin]

Originally Posted by britdick

This is the best thing for ya. i don't know why everyone doesn't do it. For eons they've been decoupling speakers from the floor with spikes in the "audiophile" world. The cost is nothing, i think these were $10 and they completely place the speaker in its own space, devoid of contact with anything. i have my Adams AND my Gene's on them. Perfect solution.

Try it. So cheap, if you ain't into it, you can move on to something else with little guilt. You won't though.

Actually, spikes couple a speaker to the surface NOT decouple like mopads. Big difference.

I never heard talk of spikes actually helping with mechanical isolation until very recently; when they first came out it was considered a good thing to be coupled to the floor (you do get more bass that way.... I said more bass not better bass). I suppose when pro audio guys started trying to do the opposite the audiophile marketing talking points flipped to match.

...a cone or spike might not reduce the amount of actual force transmission, but actually help ensure effective transmission. Hence spikes and cones – far from “isolating” – might sometimes give a more effective link for vibrations to pass though.

In some recent issues of the audio magazine, ‘Hi Fi News’ [ref 1], Keith Howard used an accelerometer to measure the levels of vibration in various objects. When he tried measuring the vibrations produced in a loudspeaker stand by playing the speaker he found a result that surprised him. With the speaker unit sitting on cones the level of vibration of the stand was over one hundred times greater than if the cones were replaced with small rubbery feet. This indicates that cones are of doubtful use if the intention is to stop vibrations passing from the speaker to the stand, or to any other solid objects against which the speaker may sit.

Speaker Spikes and Cones – What’s the point? — Reviews and News from Audioholics

This would not be a surprising result to any physicist, but it seems that sometimes audiophiles need to really be hit over the head with something before they can accept that the overpriced and needlessly gold plated pointy headed screw they bought is not doing what they think it is.

As for the original question:
- mousepads or whatever foam you have on top of a phone book
- a pc of wood on top of a sandbag (sand will act like a fluid - in theory a gel pad would also work but sand is usually cheaper and easier to DIY) on top of another pc of wood
- 2 tennis/raquetball/squash balls cut in half and used as 4 dome feet under the unit (better for audio components, such as turntables, than speakers as speakers vibrate a lot more, but should be adequate for smaller/lighter speakers that don't go too low )

Absorbtion = mechanical compliance + sheer mass and NOT concentrating the vibrations that would otherwise be spread over a much larger area into 3 or 4 tiny points

[Aisle 6]

Thanks for ceasing up the spikes theory. I must admit that although never having used them, I just blindly assumed that the folklore was true. Cheers.

[monkeyxx]

phone books and mouser catalogs...

cheaper = better, free = good

seems to work well, to me

[travisbrown]

Originally Posted by Oliver Chesler

Prepare your wallet: Ardan Audio

Aren't those the turret guns from the Imperial Battleships in Star Wars?