DIY roller blocks??

[Nick B]

Was cleaning out the garage last week and found some 3/4” thick foam sheets and may cut those into small pieces and try that as well. Before doing that, I’d like to buy the low noise 19v power supply for my asus router, but the eBay seller wants too much money for it imo. Guess I could just make an offer…

[tmazz]

I saw a featured system at Agon and the owner used various footers including Eden Sound Terra Stone bearings and a guy who posted a comment said that he could elicit quite a change by simply changing the bearing materials on diy roller blocks. His wife could easily note the improvement.

What do diy roller blocks look like? Anyone tried this and used different materials? My setup is sounding so nice nowadays that isolation tweaks are absolutely worth a try. My rack is a Pangea, which is nicely built and quite sturdy. I see videos of them being used at shows. The shelves, however, are not isolated from each other.

I was looking at some ISO Gaia’s, but they’re a little pricey and I have 5 components that might benefit from resonance control. Was also at Herbie’s. Anyone used any of his stuff?

Would appreciate any thoughts/experiences.

Nick

Hi Nick,

I have some blocks that use steel balls, and the type of steel ball material makes a sonic difference in my system as well. I don't use them anymore, completely switched to isolation, and now use 12" bicycle inner tubes that are partially blown up. Walmart has them for ~$5.00 each. 

Cheers

steve

I know several guys who have had success using bicycle tubes, but you have to be careful about how the weight is distributed in the component you are using them with. If it is a fairly light unit or the load is evenly distributed across the case you will have no problems. but in components that have weight concentrated in one area say because of a heavy transformer , the unit will not sit level on the tube will compress more under the heavy leaving the unit unlevel and possibly unstable. Depending on the size of the unit you can sometimes use different tubes with different pressures to compensate for the weight distribution, but this will not always work. Not a reason to abandon the idea of using bicycle tubes, but something you should be aware of when you try them.

[Nick B]

I saw a featured system at Agon and the owner used various footers including Eden Sound Terra Stone bearings and a guy who posted a comment said that he could elicit quite a change by simply changing the bearing materials on diy roller blocks. His wife could easily note the improvement.

What do diy roller blocks look like? Anyone tried this and used different materials? My setup is sounding so nice nowadays that isolation tweaks are absolutely worth a try. My rack is a Pangea, which is nicely built and quite sturdy. I see videos of them being used at shows. The shelves, however, are not isolated from each other.

I was looking at some ISO Gaia’s, but they’re a little pricey and I have 5 components that might benefit from resonance control. Was also at Herbie’s. Anyone used any of his stuff?

Would appreciate any thoughts/experiences.

Nick

Hi Nick,

I have some blocks that use steel balls, and the type of steel ball material makes a sonic difference in my system as well. I don't use them anymore, completely switched to isolation, and now use 12" bicycle inner tubes that are partially blown up. Walmart has them for ~$5.00 each. 

Cheers

steve

I know several guys who have had success using bicycle tubes, but you have to be careful about how the weight is distributed in the component you are using them with. If it is a fairly light unit or the load is evenly distributed across the case you will have no problems. but in components that have weight concentrated in one area say because of a heavy transformer , the unit will not sit level on the tube will compress more under the heavy leaving the unit unlevel and possibly unstable. Depending on the size of the unit you can sometimes use different tubes with different pressures to compensate for the weight distribution, but this will not always work. Not a reason to abandon the idea of using bicycle tubes, but something you should be aware of when you try them.

Jack suggested these cool looking doorstops and they would work well to counter the weight imbalance of a transformer. I bought a pair a few months ago. I believe they’re 5 lbs each.

https://www.amazon.com/FLORA-GUARD-Brushed-Stainless-Cylindrical/dp/B07MJQCWQY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Flora+door+stop&qid=1625216479&sr=8-1

[tmazz]

The discussions on this thread got me thinking about those cork blocks and the fact that I have a few left in the basement. So yesterday just for kicks I tried putting them under my subs. I have 2 Carver True Subwoofer Super Juniors. I had then up on spikes,but to prevent the spikes from damaging the wood floor in the living room I finished a couple of 12x12 pieces of 3/4 inch I had laying around to match the floor and put them under the subs. So just for what the heck I put 4 of the cork blocks between the wood squares and the floor.i didn't expect much, but boy was I wrong. the subs tightened up and sounded better than they ever have. I guess the wood squares sitting directly on the floor were transferring too much energy to the floor itself cause the bass to sound loose. It seems counter-intuitive that the combination of coupling the subs to the wood squares but the isolating the square from the floor would provide such good results. You never know what will work until you try.

Next experiment when I get the time and energy will be to pull out the spikes and see how it sounds with the subs sitting directly on the decoupled wood. It may be better, it may be worse. The only way to know for sure it to try it.

[Nick B]

The discussions on this thread got me thinking about those cork blocks and the fact that I have a few left in the basement. So yesterday just for kicks I tried putting them under my subs. I have 2 Carver True Subwoofer Super Juniors. I had then up on spikes,but to prevent the spikes from damaging the wood floor in the living room I finished a couple of 12x12 pieces of 3/4 inch I had laying around to match the floor and put them under the subs. So just for what the heck I put 4 of the cork blocks between the wood squares and the floor.i didn't expect much, but boy was I wrong. the subs tightened up and sounded better than they ever have. I guess the wood squares sitting directly on the floor were transferring too much energy to the floor itself cause the bass to sound loose. It seems counter-intuitive that the combination of coupling the subs to the wood squares but the isolating the square from the floor would provide such good results. You never know what will work until you try.

Next experiment when I get the time and energy will be to pull out the spikes and see how it sounds with the subs sitting directly on the decoupled wood. It may be better, it may be worse. The only way to know for sure it to try it.

Very interesting you should mention that. I have the Herbies fat dots and the spike puck things under the spikes on my speaker stands. I recently put sand in the columns with an excellent result. But I still noticed a little vibration when touching the stands, so I was thinking of putting a 1” block directly on the floor, then putting the sone puck things on that and then resting the spiked stands on that. The extra inch shouldn’t affect tweeter performance.I think it will be work quite nicely.

[steve]

The discussions on this thread got me thinking about those cork blocks and the fact that I have a few left in the basement. So yesterday just for kicks I tried putting them under my subs. I have 2 Carver True Subwoofer Super Juniors. I had then up on spikes,but to prevent the spikes from damaging the wood floor in the living room I finished a couple of 12x12 pieces of 3/4 inch I had laying around to match the floor and put them under the subs. So just for what the heck I put 4 of the cork blocks between the wood squares and the floor.i didn't expect much, but boy was I wrong. the subs tightened up and sounded better than they ever have. I guess the wood squares sitting directly on the floor were transferring too much energy to the floor itself cause the bass to sound loose. It seems counter-intuitive that the combination of coupling the subs to the wood squares but the isolating the square from the floor would provide such good results. You never know what will work until you try.

Next experiment when I get the time and energy will be to pull out the spikes and see how it sounds with the subs sitting directly on the decoupled wood. It may be better, it may be worse. The only way to know for sure it to try it.

Very interesting you should mention that. I have the Herbies fat dots and the spike puck things under the spikes on my speaker stands. I recently put sand in the columns with an excellent result. But I still noticed a little vibration when touching the stands, so I was thinking of putting a 1” block directly on the floor, then putting the sone puck things on that and then resting the spiked stands on that. The extra inch shouldn’t affect tweeter performance.I think it will be work quite nicely.

Changing the height, or angle up/down definitely changed the sound. So altering sound will probably be a combination of height as well as coupling. Good luck on your endeavors Nick.

Cheers

steve

[Nick B]

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