Anti Vibration Pads For Speakers & More

Introduction

The search term anti vibration pad can mean many things. First, we must decide why we need an anti vibration pad to begin with. What are we trying to minimize the transfer of energy from one thing to another? Anti vibration pads can be used to isolate the vibrations from speakers to the surface area the speakers are sitting upon. Anti vibration pads can also be used to isolate sensitive electronic equipment from vibrations.

Amplifiers amplify that is their task in life. They can amplify both sound and vibrations. You want to make sure the lower frequency energy from your subwoofer is not flooding the amplifiers in your studio with excessive vibrational energy for that to be heard. Sound is produced and reproduced through vibrations. An anti vibration pad can be used in many situations. At Acoustic Fields we have many anti vibration pads.

Tailored Anti-Vibration Pads

Speakers must be isolated from vibrations along with any other sensitive audio equipment such as dacs and pre amps. Anything that works by using vibrations to create sound energy can use an anti vibration pad. The pad must be designed to deal with the full range of energy that the device produces. In order to design the proper anti vibration pad, the frequency and amplitude of the vibrational energy must be managed correctly.

It is one thing to design an anti vibration pad for a subwoofer versus a small monitor that sits upon a mix desk. The frequency or where the energy is found in our human hearing system along with the amplitude or strength of each frequency or octave band must be analyzed to determine what type of pad to use for that particular vibrational issue.

Elevate, Isolate, and Absorb

Our subwoofer platform is an anti vibration pad that works to do three things when it comes to low frequency energy within your room. First, our platforms elevate the subwoofer off the floor to assist in smoothing out room response. Secondly, they isolate the subwoofer from the floor which minimizes the transfer of vibrations from the subwoofer to the floor.

Thirdly, our platforms contain our carbon technology and absorb sound energy at the frequencies produced by the subwoofer. Our platforms are designed to minimize vibrational energy transfer along with providing a high rate of absorption to lower the impact of energy into the room.

From Surface to Shell in Noise Management

When you are managing vibrations within the domain of surface to surface contacts, you must also take into account the room or shell of the structure. The shell is a term used for the barrier design that strictly focused on noise transmission. Noise transmission is vibrational acoustics. It is the transfer of air borne energy into structural vibrations that can be managed. The outside noise from a garbage truck moves through the sir and strikes your room’s exterior walls.

When it strikes the walls, it is turned into vibrational energy that causes the walls to start vibrating. Remember our goal in any critical listening environment is to reduce the number of components with the room that can move and produce noise. The barrier or shell construction can be designed with multiple layers of materials to produce an anti vibration pad or wall construction. 

Optimizing Acoustic Performance

Sound is produced by vibrations. Vibrations cause objects to move and this movement can have many negative sonic effects that should be minimized by using vibrational management techniques. One method of vibrational management is to use multiple layers of materials types arranged in such a manner that vibrations must struggle as they move through the solid structure.

As you change the density along with the material type and you arrange those different material types to minimize the frequency and amplitude of the vibrations you create a situation where you may have a full range frequency issue along with the strength of each of those frequencies. It is a combination of both frequency and amplitude treatment that will create a product that performs.