The Cheap Accessory Hi-Fi Pros Swear By to Boost Their Speakers

Vibrations are one of audio’s biggest enemies. They add noise (a.k.a. distortion) to the signal path, leading to a less detailed sound overall. In other words, if the surface where you turntable, speakers or other audio components are placed vibrates, your system won’t sound good.

Good vibrations

Ironically, vibrations are also integral to hi-fi. A loudspeaker must vibrate its drivers to produce sound waves, for example. And a turntable’s stylus needs vibrations from the record grooves to create a signal. But you want the component — be it the speakers or turntable — to be as still as possible. This ensures it has complete control of the vibrations it creates.

The best hi-fi systems are the ones that can preserve the audio signal without letting unwanted vibrations interfere. Each component is integrated with various bracing and absorption technologies to do this — one of the most common features you’ll see every hi-fi component have is rubberized feet.

Lay some rubber

These rubberized feet act as a barrier between the audio component and the surface it’s resting on. It absorbs the vibrations created by the speaker, turntable or other component.

If a speaker is playing loud music, for example, it will naturally shake the table or shelf it’s resting on. That vibrating surface could then cause unwanted vibrations for the rest of the hi-fi system (and even for the speaker itself).

Photo by Cam Oden for Gear Patrol

Of course, these rubberized feet are often limited by their size and can only do so much. The good news is that there are fairly inexpensive accessories that you can buy called “isolation pucks” or “isolation pads” that do essentially do a better job than those rubberized feet.

Damp down

Isolation pucks are pretty much exactly what they sound like: little pads that sit underneath your speakers and other audio components (such as a subwoofer or amp) to reduce distortion.

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If they are under a speaker, they’ll dampen the vibrations created by the speaker and the outside vibrations from affecting the speaker. They’re a safety net to ensure a system sounds its best.

When I interviewed Peter Hahn, co-owner of Turntable Lab, a New York-based hi-fi shop, he spoke glowingly about the effects that these little pucks can have.

“Recently, vinyl listeners have been adding [isolation pucks] to their setups — under turntables, speakers, and amps — for cleaner sound environments,” Hahn said. “A side-by-side speaker test with and without [isolation pucks] is a revelation. These pucks are a relatively inexpensive and versatile way to add the technology to your setup.”

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