Improve the Performance of Your Sound System with Speaker DecouplersDecoupling speakers – Acoustical Foams

If you have an impressive sound system but notice the quality is hampered by distortion, distracting vibrations, or boomy bass, there’s a sound treatment strategy that may help. That method is decoupling your speakers from the surface they rest on; effectively separating the subwoofer or speaker from the building structure by adding cushions to separate the connection.

There are many variables that can impact sound and an audio system’s performance, but identifying if decoupling will be of benefit to you is a very simple procedure. Simply have a friend carefully lift the potentially offending speaker or sub off the ground by an inch or two while you sit in your primary listening location. If the sound quality improves, and/or distortion and vibration is reduced, your system can benefit from decoupling.

There are many ways to more permanently recreate the performance of your friend holding your speaker. Some solutions are simplistic DIY strategies, like halving racquetballs or using inflated bicycle tire tubes to lift the speaker off the ground. One of the easiest, most functional, and most reliable methods is the use of acoustic foam decouplers, a type of foam sound treatment. These absorb the vibrations generated as speakers hit and fire without allowing transmission throughout a room’s structure. Some are also designed with an angled pitch to help you aim sound and target areas for enhanced listening and performance. Many of the decouplers that have angles are available in sets that feature additional wedges of the same angle for doubling the pitch of the original piece or creating a zero degree, flat surface if you don’t want or need the angle.

If you aren’t getting the performance you should be from your speakers, the problem may rest in their environment and not in the speakers themselves; a situation that may be remedied by the acoustic foam decoupling of speakers.