Setting Up Speakers?

[jameslee]

I've just moved from an apartment where I was isolated to an apartment where i have neighbors above, below, beside, and behind my apartment.

Not bad, but I like to play my music fairly loud and at all hours of the day. My main concern is the vibrations coming from the speakers. Any suggestions on how to reduce the vibrations short of turning down the bass (e.g. speaker stands (do these work to reduce vibration?), suspending the speakers in the air using super-conductive magnetics..., etc.)?

[BADFlSH]

Basicly the vibrations are the sound. That is what you ear is picking up. So about all you can do to get rid of them is turn down the volume or minimze the frequencies that would annoy people, which like you said would probably mean turning down the base. The other thing you could do is cover your walls with some sort of dampening material which would probably be more trouble than its worth. Not to mention it would completely change the sound of your system. Maybe a nice set of headphones (wireless?) would be the way to go.

[jameslee]

Damn, i was afraid of that.

Is there anthing i can place between the speakers and the floor/walls to reduce the amount of direct speaker cabinet-to-wall vibration?

(i.e. as proof i know nothing of the matter: something like a gaint sponge/shock absorber?)

[BADFlSH]

Yes, that can be done. That is pretty much what they do in movie theaters. The walls are several feet thick and filled with something like sand. Or maybe now they have some more modern way of doing it with special materials. I can't give you many details about that but I am under the impression that it would probably be expensive, very troublesome, and pretty ugly. You might want to just go to your local stereo store and ask them. I would go someplace that actually specializes in stereos though, not someplace like good guys or best buy.