Diving bricks anyone?

es347

VIP/Donor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Midwest fly over state..
I remembered way back in the late 50s when we swam at the public pool having seen the lifeguards toss large rubberized bricks in the deep end and dive down to fetch them. Recently I googled "diving bricks" and sure enough there they were on Amazon. They weigh in at 10# and are comprised of lead covered in rubber. I thought why not use them as resonance attenuators on my speakers and subwoofers. They're not what you'd call aesthetically pleasing so I tried a couple of things that could more or less be described as polishing a turd but ended up spraying them with Rustoleum truck bed liner spray to give them a more uniform look. Anyway here a couple of photos of the final products. I stuck a medallion on the speaker brick and the urn atop the subwoofer bricks weighs in at 10# as well so I've added a total of 30# to each sub. The bricks sit on 1/4" neoprene sheets. Does it sound better? Well of course it does ;)

Diving brick M-T resized.jpg

Diving brick subwoofer resized.jpg
 

Orb

New Member
Sep 8, 2010
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LOL I like it :)
BTW you tried them under any of your equipment and on top of them (not just speakers)?
Serious question as I appreciate this may come across as sarcastic :)

Metallic/car paint could make them look nice.. possibly :D

Cheers
Orb
 

es347

VIP/Donor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
1,577
35
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Midwest fly over state..
Sarcasm welcomed! :D I thought about possibly having black leather sleeves made..
 

Orb

New Member
Sep 8, 2010
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Well works for those pebbles sold so why not for the weights :)
Tough call between that and quality metallic paint.
Although I guess less concern of damaging equipment with the leather sleeves.
So look forward to the photos with them prettied up :)

Cheers
Orb
 

Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
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Calgary, AB
I have a couple of old Fruitcakes that would work (I guess?) :p. Seriously though...I love these types of tweaks and I'm glad to read you're getting results.
 

es347

VIP/Donor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
1,577
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Midwest fly over state..
My VSA speakers are already as inert as it gets but the Velodyne Optimum 12s have a pretty lightweight cabinet so adding 30# to the cabinet as I've done can't but help with any resonance issues. The Optimums are known for their accurate bass already and I feel this has made things even more accurate...punchy..etc. With shipping the bricks can be had for about $40 each.
 

stehno

Well-Known Member
Jul 5, 2014
1,585
456
405
Salem, OR
My VSA speakers are already as inert as it gets but the Velodyne Optimum 12s have a pretty lightweight cabinet so adding 30# to the cabinet as I've done can't but help with any resonance issues. The Optimums are known for their accurate bass already and I feel this has made things even more accurate...punchy..etc. With shipping the bricks can be had for about $40 each.

Good job. But with all due respect, you're really missing the performance boat here. If, and I don't doubt you, you're able to hear improvements with minor mass-loading efforts on your already heavy speakers and sub, wait until you try it on your lighter more sensitive components. Remember that a feather is far more easily excited by mechanical vibrations than a concrete block.

And by all means why stop at 10 lbs.? Try 40, 50, or 60 lbs. You should notice some reasonable gains immediately but as with all things mechanical there is a settling in time so you have to be patient. If you try this with your components, make sure you bypass your components' stock rubber footers by placing metal spikes, cones, points, pucks, or maybe even some extra lug nuts.

Below is a pic of my early days of some mass loading experiments. It may look silly, but there was rhyme and reason to my madness over about a 9 month period of time until I completely saturated the components' top plates with weights (mass loading). I used whatever metals I had on-hand as you can see here.

Not only will your bricks damp / minimize the top plates' potential to vibrate in sympathy with vibrations already captured at the chassis (making a bad situation worse), but the mass loading combined with the metal objects between the components' bottom plates and shelves will help to create a superior mechanical conduit allowing mechanical (vibrational) energy that normally remains trapped within the components, will now possibly have an expedited path to exit the components before they start to dissipate within and induce their sonic harm.

I can assure you, whatever results you obtained at the speakers will pale in comparison to whatever you try at the components.
Early R and D med.jpg
 

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