How to reduce subwoofer rattle

[Mark Sztainbok]

In my home theatre, I have my subwoofer on a tiled floor and I'm finding in
some movies (such as Finding Nemo) which have some parts with a lot of bass,
there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the subwoofer which sounds
really bad. The level of the subwoofer is calibrated to 75db using as sound
meter to match my other speakers.I've also tried placing the subwoofer 1/3
of the way into the room and into a corner, and also tried inverting the
phase but none of these make any difference.

What techniques are there for reducing rattle and the effects of it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mark

[Miro]

"Mark Sztainbok" <mark@sztainbok.com> wrote in message
news:3fd3c2f1$0$29699$61ce578d@news.syd.swiftdsl.c om.au...
> In my home theatre, I have my subwoofer on a tiled floor and I'm finding
in
> some movies (such as Finding Nemo) which have some parts with a lot of
bass,
> there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the subwoofer which sounds
> really bad. The level of the subwoofer is calibrated to 75db using as
sound
> meter to match my other speakers.I've also tried placing the subwoofer 1/3
> of the way into the room and into a corner, and also tried inverting the
> phase but none of these make any difference.
>
> What techniques are there for reducing rattle and the effects of it?
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What have you tried ?

[Gunther Gloop]

Mark Sztainbok wrote:
> In my home theatre, I have my subwoofer on a tiled floor and I'm
> finding in some movies (such as Finding Nemo) which have some parts
> with a lot of bass, there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the
> subwoofer which sounds really bad. The level of the subwoofer is
> calibrated to 75db using as sound meter to match my other
> speakers.I've also tried placing the subwoofer 1/3 of the way into
> the room and into a corner, and also tried inverting the phase but
> none of these make any difference.
>
> What techniques are there for reducing rattle and the effects of it?
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>

Are you sure the rattle is coming from the sub itself and not from
vibrations from other things in the room?

I thought I had a substandard sub that rattled until I found there was a
piece of paper underneath it that caused the rattling.
Also, the sheet-feeder in my new printer rattles a lot with the sub so I
have to remove that when in use -but if it wasn't a new addition to the room
I would've found it harder to isolate & find exactly where the rattle was
coming from -it still sounded like it was part of the "sub noise".

-Kevin.

--
Reply to: news@SPAMBEGONEkevinforde.com

[R. Mark Clayton]

"Mark Sztainbok" <mark@sztainbok.com> wrote in message
news:3fd3c2f1$0$29699$61ce578d@news.syd.swiftdsl.c om.au...
> In my home theatre, I have my subwoofer on a tiled floor and I'm finding
in
> some movies (such as Finding Nemo) which have some parts with a lot of
bass,
> there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the subwoofer which sounds
> really bad. The level of the subwoofer is calibrated to 75db using as
sound
> meter to match my other speakers.I've also tried placing the subwoofer 1/3
> of the way into the room and into a corner, and also tried inverting the
> phase but none of these make any difference.
>
> What techniques are there for reducing rattle and the effects of it?
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Mark
>
>
>
Stick it on a bit of carpet / doormat.

[just me]

"Mark Sztainbok" <mark@sztainbok.com> wrote in message
news:3fd3c2f1$0$29699$61ce578d@news.syd.swiftdsl.c om.au...
> In my home theatre, I have my subwoofer on a tiled floor and I'm finding
in
> some movies (such as Finding Nemo) which have some parts with a lot of
bass,
> there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the subwoofer which sounds
> really bad. The level of the subwoofer is calibrated to 75db using as
sound
> meter to match my other speakers.I've also tried placing the subwoofer 1/3
> of the way into the room and into a corner, and also tried inverting the
> phase but none of these make any difference.
>
> What techniques are there for reducing rattle and the effects of it?
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Mark

What make & model of subwoofer is this? What are the rest of your speakers
and which AV amp are you using?

[Mark Sztainbok]

I tried that and noticed that it made a slight difference but there was
still rattle.

One thing I noticed in my experimentation is that when the subwoofer is
active, I can feel air coming out of the jacks and screws on the back of the
subwoofer. Is this normal? I wonder if it's related to my rattle problem the
rattle noise seems to come from the back of the subwoofer....

Mark

"R. Mark Clayton" <MClayton@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:br0lii$6ui$4@hercules.btinternet.com...
>
> "Mark Sztainbok" <mark@sztainbok.com> wrote in message
> news:3fd3c2f1$0$29699$61ce578d@news.syd.swiftdsl.c om.au...
> > In my home theatre, I have my subwoofer on a tiled floor and I'm finding
> in
> > some movies (such as Finding Nemo) which have some parts with a lot of
> bass,
> > there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the subwoofer which sounds
> > really bad. The level of the subwoofer is calibrated to 75db using as
> sound
> > meter to match my other speakers.I've also tried placing the subwoofer
1/3
> > of the way into the room and into a corner, and also tried inverting the
> > phase but none of these make any difference.
> >
> > What techniques are there for reducing rattle and the effects of it?
> >
> > Any help would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Mark
> >
> >
> >
> Stick it on a bit of carpet / doormat.
>
>

[What The!]

air should not be coming out anywhere except the port (if there is one). if
there is air escaping from anywhere else it means it has either been built
really badly or that there is a problem.


"Mark Sztainbok" <mark@sztainbok.com> wrote in message
news:3fd3e338$0$29697$61ce578d@news.syd.swiftdsl.c om.au...
> I tried that and noticed that it made a slight difference but there was
> still rattle.
>
> One thing I noticed in my experimentation is that when the subwoofer is
> active, I can feel air coming out of the jacks and screws on the back of
the
> subwoofer. Is this normal? I wonder if it's related to my rattle problem
the
> rattle noise seems to come from the back of the subwoofer....
>
> Mark
>
> "R. Mark Clayton" <MClayton@btinternet.com> wrote in message
> news:br0lii$6ui$4@hercules.btinternet.com...
> >
> > "Mark Sztainbok" <mark@sztainbok.com> wrote in message
> > news:3fd3c2f1$0$29699$61ce578d@news.syd.swiftdsl.c om.au...
> > > In my home theatre, I have my subwoofer on a tiled floor and I'm
finding
> > in
> > > some movies (such as Finding Nemo) which have some parts with a lot of
> > bass,
> > > there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the subwoofer which
sounds
> > > really bad. The level of the subwoofer is calibrated to 75db using as
> > sound
> > > meter to match my other speakers.I've also tried placing the subwoofer
> 1/3
> > > of the way into the room and into a corner, and also tried inverting
the
> > > phase but none of these make any difference.
> > >
> > > What techniques are there for reducing rattle and the effects of it?
> > >
> > > Any help would be greatly appreciated.
> > >
> > > Mark
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > Stick it on a bit of carpet / doormat.
> >
> >
>
>

[The Gadget Shop]

On 8-Dec-2003, "Mark Sztainbok" <mark@sztainbok.com> wrote:
> I can feel air coming out of the jacks and screws

Have heard of people undoing screws, plugging in some blu tack, then
re-screwing! Cheap n nasty, but does the job! Guess you could always use
silicon or similar too. Any air escaping around the edge of speakers can
be fixed by a similar technique, but using a gasket made out of thin rubber
(maybe door protector stick on strips?), then screwing the speaker back
in...


Cheers, Jason (remove === to reply)

Macrovision disablers
http://gadgets.shorturl.com

[Gareth Jones]

In message <8nRAb.18496$lm1.155125@wards.force9.net>, just me
<spam@nothanks.com> writes
>> there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the subwoofer which sounds
>> really bad.
>
>What make & model of subwoofer is this? What are the rest of your
>speakers and which AV amp are you using?

Yes, you really need to tell us this. A 'nasty rattling' in the can
often be attributed to a sub that's being driven past is usable
operating limits (and with cheap subs this isn't very loud at all!) -
maybe the driver cone is bottoming out?

--
__________________________________________________
Personal email for Gareth Jones can be sent to:
'usenet4gareth' followed by an at symbol
followed by 'uk2' followed by a dot
followed by 'net'
__________________________________________________

[JohnP]

"Mark Sztainbok" <mark@sztainbok.com> wrote in message
news:3fd3c2f1$0$29699$61ce578d@news.syd.swiftdsl.c om.au...
> In my home theatre, I have my subwoofer on a tiled floor and I'm finding
in
> some movies (such as Finding Nemo) which have some parts with a lot of
bass,
> there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the subwoofer which sounds
> really bad. The level of the subwoofer is calibrated to 75db using as
sound
> meter to match my other speakers.I've also tried placing the subwoofer 1/3
> of the way into the room and into a corner, and also tried inverting the
> phase but none of these make any difference.
>
> What techniques are there for reducing rattle and the effects of it?
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
Others have covered your rattle question but I have to ask is your entire HT
tiled? Do you use anything to deaden the sound reflections? i.e. a rug
etc?

[Nath]

"Mark Sztainbok" <mark@sztainbok.com> wrote in message
news:3fd3c2f1$0$29699$61ce578d@news.syd.swiftdsl.c om.au...
> In my home theatre, I have my subwoofer on a tiled floor and I'm finding
in
> some movies (such as Finding Nemo) which have some parts with a lot of
bass,
> there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the subwoofer which sounds
> really bad. The level of the subwoofer is calibrated to 75db using as
sound
> meter to match my other speakers.I've also tried placing the subwoofer 1/3
> of the way into the room and into a corner, and also tried inverting the
> phase but none of these make any difference.
>
> What techniques are there for reducing rattle and the effects of it?
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Mark

Make sure it's not the driver running out of cone movement- Darla hitting
the fish tank is quite loud. Work out if it's the sub rattling/cone
bottoming out or surrounding objects that are rattling.

[Mark Sztainbok]

From what I can tell the rattle noise seems to be coming from the back of
the sub. I put a doormat under the sub as suggested by someone else and this
dampened the rattle a bit but made me really notice the location of it.

Mark

"Gunther Gloop" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:br0gp9$27ia7s$1@ID-173227.news.uni-berlin.de...
> Mark Sztainbok wrote:
> > In my home theatre, I have my subwoofer on a tiled floor and I'm
> > finding in some movies (such as Finding Nemo) which have some parts
> > with a lot of bass, there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the
> > subwoofer which sounds really bad. The level of the subwoofer is
> > calibrated to 75db using as sound meter to match my other
> > speakers.I've also tried placing the subwoofer 1/3 of the way into
> > the room and into a corner, and also tried inverting the phase but
> > none of these make any difference.
> >
> > What techniques are there for reducing rattle and the effects of it?
> >
> > Any help would be greatly appreciated.
> >
>
> Are you sure the rattle is coming from the sub itself and not from
> vibrations from other things in the room?
>
> I thought I had a substandard sub that rattled until I found there was a
> piece of paper underneath it that caused the rattling.
> Also, the sheet-feeder in my new printer rattles a lot with the sub so I
> have to remove that when in use -but if it wasn't a new addition to the
room
> I would've found it harder to isolate & find exactly where the rattle was
> coming from -it still sounded like it was part of the "sub noise".
>
> -Kevin.
>
> --
> Reply to: news@SPAMBEGONEkevinforde.com
>
>

[Mark Sztainbok]

It's a Loewe LS81 subwoofer which I'm using with an Onkyo TX-SR800 amp with
2 Loewe L2A speakers and 4 Loewe L82A speakers for the surrounds.

"Gareth Jones" <usenet@nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:uZwmRX7UFG1$EwpQ@nospam.demon.co.uk...
> In message <8nRAb.18496$lm1.155125@wards.force9.net>, just me
> <spam@nothanks.com> writes
> >> there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the subwoofer which sounds
> >> really bad.
> >
> >What make & model of subwoofer is this? What are the rest of your
> >speakers and which AV amp are you using?
>
> Yes, you really need to tell us this. A 'nasty rattling' in the can
> often be attributed to a sub that's being driven past is usable
> operating limits (and with cheap subs this isn't very loud at all!) -
> maybe the driver cone is bottoming out?
>
> --
> __________________________________________________
> Personal email for Gareth Jones can be sent to:
> 'usenet4gareth' followed by an at symbol
> followed by 'uk2' followed by a dot
> followed by 'net'
> __________________________________________________

[Nath]

"Mark Sztainbok" <sz@myretsu.com> wrote in message
news:a87Bb.44937$aT.22421@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> From what I can tell the rattle noise seems to be coming from the back of
> the sub. I put a doormat under the sub as suggested by someone else and
this
> dampened the rattle a bit but made me really notice the location of it.
>
> Mark

Could be a loose amp module. See if the screws have worked loose. Or could
be something inside the subwoofer amp module, or shaking around inside the
subwoofer itself.

[Mark Sztainbok]

There is a rug in the middle of the surround setup. I tried putting a mat
under the subwoofer and also putting on the rug and it deaden it a bit but
still had the rattle.

"JohnP" <au.com.picknowl@jmp> wrote in message
news:DJidnTXErqqN8kmiRVn-gQ@giganews.com...
>
> "Mark Sztainbok" <mark@sztainbok.com> wrote in message
> news:3fd3c2f1$0$29699$61ce578d@news.syd.swiftdsl.c om.au...
> > In my home theatre, I have my subwoofer on a tiled floor and I'm finding
> in
> > some movies (such as Finding Nemo) which have some parts with a lot of
> bass,
> > there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the subwoofer which sounds
> > really bad. The level of the subwoofer is calibrated to 75db using as
> sound
> > meter to match my other speakers.I've also tried placing the subwoofer
1/3
> > of the way into the room and into a corner, and also tried inverting the
> > phase but none of these make any difference.
> >
> > What techniques are there for reducing rattle and the effects of it?
> >
> > Any help would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> Others have covered your rattle question but I have to ask is your entire
HT
> tiled? Do you use anything to deaden the sound reflections? i.e. a rug
> etc?
>
>

[Mark Sztainbok]

The rattle definitely seems to be the subwoofer itself and seems to come
from the back of the sub.

Mark

"Nath" <buggeroff@spam.com> wrote in message
news:3fd49aba$0$11175$cc9e4d1f@news.dial.pipex.com ...
>
> "Mark Sztainbok" <mark@sztainbok.com> wrote in message
> news:3fd3c2f1$0$29699$61ce578d@news.syd.swiftdsl.c om.au...
> > In my home theatre, I have my subwoofer on a tiled floor and I'm finding
> in
> > some movies (such as Finding Nemo) which have some parts with a lot of
> bass,
> > there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the subwoofer which sounds
> > really bad. The level of the subwoofer is calibrated to 75db using as
> sound
> > meter to match my other speakers.I've also tried placing the subwoofer
1/3
> > of the way into the room and into a corner, and also tried inverting the
> > phase but none of these make any difference.
> >
> > What techniques are there for reducing rattle and the effects of it?
> >
> > Any help would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Mark
>
> Make sure it's not the driver running out of cone movement- Darla hitting
> the fish tank is quite loud. Work out if it's the sub rattling/cone
> bottoming out or surrounding objects that are rattling.
>
>

[just me]

> "Gareth Jones" <usenet@nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:uZwmRX7UFG1$EwpQ@nospam.demon.co.uk...
> > In message <8nRAb.18496$lm1.155125@wards.force9.net>, just me
> > <spam@nothanks.com> writes
> > >> there tends to be quite a bit of rattle from the subwoofer which
sounds
> > >> really bad.
> > >
> > >What make & model of subwoofer is this? What are the rest of your
> > >speakers and which AV amp are you using?
> >
> > Yes, you really need to tell us this. A 'nasty rattling' in the can
> > often be attributed to a sub that's being driven past is usable
> > operating limits (and with cheap subs this isn't very loud at all!) -
> > maybe the driver cone is bottoming out?

> It's a Loewe LS81 subwoofer which I'm using with an Onkyo TX-SR800 amp
with
> 2 Loewe L2A speakers and 4 Loewe L82A speakers for the surrounds.

Never heard of the Loewe speakers before now. You said earlier you could
feel air blowing out of the back of the cabinet at a location which wasn't a
reflex port. Is it possible that the back panel has simply become loose?
This would rattle in the manner described if that were the case. Sometimes
this can be corrected by simple tightening, however you must be careful not
to overtighten and damage the thread into which the screw is fixed.

[R. Mark Clayton]

"Mark Sztainbok" <mark@sztainbok.com> wrote in message
news:3fd3e338$0$29697$61ce578d@news.syd.swiftdsl.c om.au...
> I tried that and noticed that it made a slight difference but there was
> still rattle.
>
> One thing I noticed in my experimentation is that when the subwoofer is
> active, I can feel air coming out of the jacks and screws on the back of
the
> subwoofer. Is this normal? I wonder if it's related to my rattle problem
the
> rattle noise seems to come from the back of the subwoofer....

You didn't say the rattle was internal - this is a fault, and so is an air
escape path.

Sounds like you need to dismantle, squirt wood adhesive down the joins and
reassemble, using mastic to plug any holes.

This should make it leak proof and more rigid, which IIRC is a "good thing"
with speaker enclosures.

[JohnP]

"Mark Sztainbok" <sz@myretsu.com> wrote in message
news:3d7Bb.44942$aT.30438@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> There is a rug in the middle of the surround setup. I tried putting a mat
> under the subwoofer and also putting on the rug and it deaden it a bit but
> still had the rattle.
>
No I was more concerned that your sound might be very harsh due to
reflections from a tiled floor.

[Stewart Pinkerton]

On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 00:20:35 +1030, "JohnP" <au.com.picknowl@jmp>
wrote:

>"Mark Sztainbok" <sz@myretsu.com> wrote in message
>news:3d7Bb.44942$aT.30438@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
>> There is a rug in the middle of the surround setup. I tried putting a mat
>> under the subwoofer and also putting on the rug and it deaden it a bit but
>> still had the rattle.
>>
>No I was more concerned that your sound might be very harsh due to
>reflections from a tiled floor.

At <100Hz? Hardly..............
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering