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If you've got a couple of small bags of lead shot or sand, you might want to try this to see if you like it. I took two flat lead shot bags (5 lb. each) and perched one on the top edge of each of my 3.6's (factory feet, on carpet). Not an earth-shattering difference, but one I appreciated more and more as I listened to a variety of recordings. There also seemed to be a slightly different effect depending on where the bag was placed. I would only try this on Maggies that are straight up, rather than being tilted back. I have purposely not included any highly specific descriptions of the changes I noticed so as not to bias anyone beforehand (tell me I'm not imagining things). But you've got to admit that those big, flat speakers appear inclined to vibrate, hence the variety of structural mods.In order to continue this experiment, I've ordered four 25 lb. bags of lead shot (McMaster-Carr). Just kidding, of course. But I am going to use the big bags to weight some highly rigid spiked feet I am going to build. It will be interesting to see what the new feet do, with and without the little bag of shot on the top edge of each speaker.
Follow Ups:
Boy, you guys are really serious about your Maggie structural tweaking! I had mine modified internally, but someone else did the work (I just forked over the cash). I also worked out a design for sand-damped aluminum stiffeners for my speakers, but decided I did not want to bother with the time and effort. Maybe I'll do it later; I'm enjoying the music too much right now!As far as changes resulting from placing a 5-lb. bag of lead shot on the top edge of each 3.6, the improvement seems to be cleaner sound everywhere but the extreme top end (which seems unchanged). Basically, the different voices and instruments in a recording seem sorted out noticeably better. I settled on placing the bag directly over the tweeter.
I would love to hear the professional opinion from mechanical engineers out there. You know who you are.It appears the "bag of lead shot" idea is the most effective, as it provides maximum inertia with a very effective coupling to the speaker frame.
Assume the speaker frame is a piece of soft wood badly in need of damping, what is the most effective way to go about this?
I intend to do a similar thing, except I'll extend the Maggies' top with a couple of steel bars and attach them firmly to the ceiling.I have a 80's classic house where they went nuts over sunken living rooms and such, so the bars will actually anchor onto a wall, not a ceiling, and that wall has little chance of getting hit with sound waves, etc.etc.etc.
nt
When playing my 3.6R’s at about 69-70db they have a tendency to vibrate as the bass rolled off, the sound from vibrating can be very irritating to the ears.To correct the problem I had some cherry wood extensions made a bit larger than my 3.6R’s side rails (can’t even tell the difference), and attached them to a steel I beam joist above the speakers. I also had some steel plates made to fit over the feet to attached them to the carpeted cement floor.
It would take an earthquake to move my maggies, and has fixed all problems associated to the vibrating issue.
Emmett
Here's an interesting thing to try with Maggies.Mount a couple of small screw-eyes on the top corners of each speaker and a matching pair into the ceiling directly above. (You'd have to catch a ceiling joist.) String some 1/8" poly line or equivalent and tension it enough to stabilize the speaker but not actually lift it off the floor.
The spouse acceptance factor would probably be pretty low, and of course you'd have a few holes in your ceiling, but I would think it'd work pretty well.
Anybody tried that?
Regards.
Davey.
I've been using paving stones on top of the stock feet for a long time. I definitely tell a difference when they are not there. In the spirit of Davey's post I won't give away the goods.
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