stabilizing Nola Metro Grand - footers or something else?

cat6man · Jan 31, 2015

My Nola Metro Grand speakers are wonderful sounding but I'm wondering how much I might improve things mechanically.
The living room oak floor in my 85 year old house has a lot of give and certainly bounces a bit when walking around the room.

I'm using the supplied Nola spikes on the hardwood floor, and of course the Nola have a ball bearing system built into their stands.

What are your thoughts about

1. adding some type of footer (coupling, decoupling, ?) between the floor and the existing spikes
2. adding jacks in basement under speakers (or thereabout) to stiffen the beams/support below the speakers
3. any other suggestions?

zztop7 · Jan 31, 2015

Relevant

I would like to make a few suggestions if relevant.
First I need to know if you want to get rid of the bounce [relevant] in the floor? &
#2 If you are in the area below this floor; can you see and/or do you have access to the floor joists?
#3 Floor joist dimensions H X W X length?
#4 How are they connected to the other structure of the house?
#5 How much space is between the long lengths of joists?

If I have this info., I can reply in about 18 hours.
zz.

cat6man said:
My Nola Metro Grand speakers are wonderful sounding but I'm wondering how much I might improve things mechanically.
The living room oak floor in my 85 year old house has a lot of give and certainly bounces a bit when walking around the room.

I'm using the supplied Nola spikes on the hardwood floor, and of course the Nola have a ball bearing system built into their stands.

What are your thoughts about

1. adding some type of footer (coupling, decoupling, ?) between the floor and the existing spikes
2. adding jacks in basement under speakers (or thereabout) to stiffen the beams/support below the speakers
3. any other suggestions?

GaryProtein · Feb 1, 2015

1. Add Lally columns beneath the speakers.
2. Double up on floor joists by bolting to existing ones or halving the space between them throughout the room.

If your speakers have good bass output and you play it loudly (100+ dB), your floor may vibrate regardless of what you do. . . and so will your walls and ceiling.

Early on with the IRS, I had a couple of things fall off walls and shelves when playing loudly despite doubling all my floor joists and adding cross member support. There is little you can do for ceilings and walls unless you are building from scratch or are willing to dismantle your room.

thedudeabides · Feb 1, 2015

Check out the subdude from Auralex, Available on Amazon.

LL21 · Feb 2, 2015

thedudeabides said:
Check out the subdude from Auralex, Available on Amazon.

I use it under my sub to great effect. I also tried it under my Gryphon colosseum where it also worked. However, at 176lbs for the amp (which is vertically oriented), the platform rocked back and forth ever so slightly and eventually began to sag...despite being designed for 250+ lbs. You might need to get their latest, newest platform...and even then be careful.

I now have one of those under my sub...much better. But neverthless with speakers as tall as NOlas, i would be concerned about rocking...because part of the underside is supported with stiff foam and plywood board...which does not hold as much (in my experience) as it said it would. If this turns out not to be an issue, it is a great tool for relatively little money.

Big Dog RJ · Feb 2, 2015

Hey mate, I have come across this before in another country. Apart from the other advice given ref to floor and joint supports, this will certainly help no doubt. There is something else you could also try that will make your Nola's sound even better, and that is the Nordost Sort Futs. These can be placed under any type of speakers and do wonders with bouncey floors and carpeting.

However, they do cost a bit but worth every penny. Check them out with your nearest Nordost dealer.
Cheers, RJ

rbbert · Feb 2, 2015

I would try to talk to NOLA (Carl) directly. Given your speakers built-in coupling/decoupling mechanisms it seems unlikely that anything between your speakers and the floor will give any improvement; more likely it will make things worse. Firming up the floor seems likely to help on an intuitive basis, but your speakers' designer can probably give you the best information.

cat6man · Feb 25, 2015

time to catch up.
thanks for all the feedback.

i was leaning towards putting some supports under the speakers in the basement, from the concrete floor up to the wooden support beams.
the beams are 9" x 1 3/4", 16' long (~width of room) and 16" center to center, with 1 3/4" cross braces in the space between the beams.
the problem, however, is that above the furnace is a fire-proof material so that i cannot access the beams under the speaker positions at all

I did contact Carl at Nola and his only suggestion was that a 1" thick stone under the speakers might help.
So, any suggestions for type of stone or other inert material, size of stone vs. footprint of speaker?
Stone directly on (possibly not perfectly flat) wood floor?

I'm open to anything effective and attractive.
I'll probably pass on the cryogenically treated stone, lubricated with a 50/50 mix of pressed-the-same-day olive oil and the tears of virgins, with embedded crystals that respond sympathetically to Shumann waves

zztop7 · Feb 25, 2015

cat6man said:
Stone directly on (possibly not perfectly flat) wood floor?

Very simple: Use 3/8" or 1/2" heavy duty >wool felt sheet< under the stone. This would allow for the imperfections & allow the wood floor to Breath.

I would do some research on a type of stone that is less likely to crack.

Try to span as many beams as possible.

zz.

DSkip · Feb 25, 2015

Being a budget audiophile, I had similar issues with my 6311's in the fourth bedroom, located directly above my garage. The subfloor under the carpet gives to the point that when my wife and kid were in there dancing, the speakers looked like they were dancing with us. I found about 300+ lbs of granite slabs for about $50 and threw two slabs under each speaker. The give was reduced significantly. Its still not perfect, but improved nonetheless.

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stabilizing Nola Metro Grand - footers or something else?

cat6man

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