Sean de Silva
Well-Known Member
I will try to keep this short. Well before I decided to buy them, I knew that the Q3050i floorstanders lean towards being slightly bass heavy which is not a bad thing at all but which can feel boomy and overwhelming in untreated small rooms with no breathing space between the speakers and surrounding walls. My experience was no different. Initially, I had put the supplied rubber feet underneath the spikes and the speakers stood directly on the floor tiles. Much to my dismay, I felt the tiles vibrating approximately half way across the living room. Hence began the quest to try and decouple the speakers from the floor. After scouring the www with so many suggestions and counter-suggestions on many forums, I decided to take the plunge with a combination of rubber tile + green marble slab and luckily for me it has done the job of decoupling the speaker from the floor which means no more tiles vibrating even with bass-heavy tracks. So that was one problem solved!
There was still a bigger unresolved issue! The boomy bass and room reverberations on certain passages. I don’t enjoy the luxury of space hence pulled the speakers forward by around 8 inches from the rear wall so that their rear bass port would get some breathing space. To add to this, the wooden unit which houses the amplifiers and CD player fits just about in the space between the speakers so there is no breathing space between speakers or between speakers and unit thus compounding the room reverberations. Thanks to our toxic humid climate, dust and saline air which is murder on HiFi gear, I wouldn’t go down the open rack route hence have enclosed the amps/cdp and CDs inside this humongous unit. As a result of the asphyxiation, the wooden unit, chassis of amplifiers and CD player vibrates during bass-heavy tracks. I placed soundfoundations isopods underneath each foot of the amps & cdp but no tangible reduction in vibration as I soon realized these are airborne vibrations travelling directly from both speakers to the wooden cabinet! Hence began the second quest to reduce the wooden unit & chassis vibrations as well as the room reverbs. Fortunately I discovered Aural Exchange and contacted them desperately hoping they’d have some solution. I spoke at length with Ashutosh and he suggested their NanKarrow NeoFuse High Density Quadratic Absorber & Diffuser. https://www.auralexchange.com/product/nankarrow-neofuse-acoustic-diffuser/
These panels are available in two sizes i.e. 4ft x 2ft x 4inch & 2ft x 2ft x 2inch. I chose the 2ft x 2ft x 2inch square foam panels (set of 4) as I do not have space to accommodate the bigger 4ft variant.
Ashutosh comes across as very professional and knowledgeable on phone advising the following course of action: fix a panel to the wall directly behind each speaker, on the wall between the speakers, the side wall next to each speaker and at ceiling reflection points approximately midway between each speaker and listening position. I didn’t want to get into the ceiling territory for the obvious fear of being rendered homeless lol so I decided to go the rear wall route with one panel stuck to the wall directly behind each speaker and the other two at the same level between these panels behind the wooden unit. He insisted that Fevicol Heatx has a better grip when sticking foam panels to a wall compared to other sprays/adhesives.
A few pics of the labour.. Amidst the confusion of speaker wires, tt grounding wire & power cables running all around the place I had my heart in my mouth as I had to literally slink into that small space like a cat burglar and mount these panels slowly and steadily on the wall without tugging on the tt grounding or accidentally shifting the speakers.
Then came the part of pushing the heavy behemoth back into place..
The unit is 7 inches from the back wall..which means adequate space for the panels to do their job.
As you can see the panels aren’t very conspicuous. Early days but hoping that prying eyes and sticky fingers won’t get anywhere near them. After the back-breaking endeavour and not being thrown out of the house for destroying that wall with the paint bubbling off (my folks haven’t yet discovered the collateral damage lol) I’m sure you are eager to know the end result.. so enough with all the rambling and time to play some music.
The wooden unit & equipment chassis still vibrate but not like before. There is an appreciable reduction. So I will look into solutions to try and isolate the amps & cdp especially since these are airborne vibrations. Ashutosh had suggested that I line the inner walls of the unit as well as the surface beneath the amps & cdp with their NanKarrow Isomat-HD High Density Impact & Airborne Sound Barrier. https://www.auralexchange.com/produ...d-high-density-impact-airborne-sound-barrier/
I must confess I was extremely skeptical and didn’t expect any difference post installation but EUREKA!!!!!!! ….. THE ANNOYING ROOM REVERBERATIONS HAVE GONE!!!!!
I find very satisfying improvements in the soundstage. The irksome bass boom has gone resulting in warm deep tight bass, mids and treble resolve with good coherence. As is well known, the Q3050i’s forte is its ability to reproduce the human voice exceptionally well and vocals now shine through even better than before with warmth and articulation. Even at low volume, the resolution and forwardness is impressive. Crank it up and the living room gets enveloped in a warm beautiful sound. I love what these floorstanders are capable of. To say I’m pleased as punch with these magical absorber-diffuser foam panels from Aural Exchange would be an understatement! Highly recommended! Thanks for taking the time to read.
There was still a bigger unresolved issue! The boomy bass and room reverberations on certain passages. I don’t enjoy the luxury of space hence pulled the speakers forward by around 8 inches from the rear wall so that their rear bass port would get some breathing space. To add to this, the wooden unit which houses the amplifiers and CD player fits just about in the space between the speakers so there is no breathing space between speakers or between speakers and unit thus compounding the room reverberations. Thanks to our toxic humid climate, dust and saline air which is murder on HiFi gear, I wouldn’t go down the open rack route hence have enclosed the amps/cdp and CDs inside this humongous unit. As a result of the asphyxiation, the wooden unit, chassis of amplifiers and CD player vibrates during bass-heavy tracks. I placed soundfoundations isopods underneath each foot of the amps & cdp but no tangible reduction in vibration as I soon realized these are airborne vibrations travelling directly from both speakers to the wooden cabinet! Hence began the second quest to reduce the wooden unit & chassis vibrations as well as the room reverbs. Fortunately I discovered Aural Exchange and contacted them desperately hoping they’d have some solution. I spoke at length with Ashutosh and he suggested their NanKarrow NeoFuse High Density Quadratic Absorber & Diffuser. https://www.auralexchange.com/product/nankarrow-neofuse-acoustic-diffuser/
These panels are available in two sizes i.e. 4ft x 2ft x 4inch & 2ft x 2ft x 2inch. I chose the 2ft x 2ft x 2inch square foam panels (set of 4) as I do not have space to accommodate the bigger 4ft variant.
Ashutosh comes across as very professional and knowledgeable on phone advising the following course of action: fix a panel to the wall directly behind each speaker, on the wall between the speakers, the side wall next to each speaker and at ceiling reflection points approximately midway between each speaker and listening position. I didn’t want to get into the ceiling territory for the obvious fear of being rendered homeless lol so I decided to go the rear wall route with one panel stuck to the wall directly behind each speaker and the other two at the same level between these panels behind the wooden unit. He insisted that Fevicol Heatx has a better grip when sticking foam panels to a wall compared to other sprays/adhesives.
A few pics of the labour.. Amidst the confusion of speaker wires, tt grounding wire & power cables running all around the place I had my heart in my mouth as I had to literally slink into that small space like a cat burglar and mount these panels slowly and steadily on the wall without tugging on the tt grounding or accidentally shifting the speakers.
Then came the part of pushing the heavy behemoth back into place..
The unit is 7 inches from the back wall..which means adequate space for the panels to do their job.
As you can see the panels aren’t very conspicuous. Early days but hoping that prying eyes and sticky fingers won’t get anywhere near them. After the back-breaking endeavour and not being thrown out of the house for destroying that wall with the paint bubbling off (my folks haven’t yet discovered the collateral damage lol) I’m sure you are eager to know the end result.. so enough with all the rambling and time to play some music.
The wooden unit & equipment chassis still vibrate but not like before. There is an appreciable reduction. So I will look into solutions to try and isolate the amps & cdp especially since these are airborne vibrations. Ashutosh had suggested that I line the inner walls of the unit as well as the surface beneath the amps & cdp with their NanKarrow Isomat-HD High Density Impact & Airborne Sound Barrier. https://www.auralexchange.com/produ...d-high-density-impact-airborne-sound-barrier/
I must confess I was extremely skeptical and didn’t expect any difference post installation but EUREKA!!!!!!! ….. THE ANNOYING ROOM REVERBERATIONS HAVE GONE!!!!!
I find very satisfying improvements in the soundstage. The irksome bass boom has gone resulting in warm deep tight bass, mids and treble resolve with good coherence. As is well known, the Q3050i’s forte is its ability to reproduce the human voice exceptionally well and vocals now shine through even better than before with warmth and articulation. Even at low volume, the resolution and forwardness is impressive. Crank it up and the living room gets enveloped in a warm beautiful sound. I love what these floorstanders are capable of. To say I’m pleased as punch with these magical absorber-diffuser foam panels from Aural Exchange would be an understatement! Highly recommended! Thanks for taking the time to read.
