Speakers Vibrate Rooms

[exorr]

My brother just moved in with us for awhile while looking for work and brought with him his Bose Accoustimas speaker system. It seemed a shame for it to sit in the box so we set it up in the family room (kitchen next door) and it while it sounds awesome, my wife (and I) are very concerned that it's shaking the room and adjacent room (kitchen). It does this all the time, even when just watching the Red Sox game and they flash to a replay (certain sound they always do when going between replay's and live action).

We turned down bass all the way and it continues to do it. We turned off the subwoofer and still does it. We turned off surround sound and that seems to of fixed it, but then again now the whole point of the speakers is lost...!

We have the speakers just sitting on plant stands and such around the room as we wanted to test them before mounting them all over the room. Not sure if this makes a difference.

Couple questions:

1. Will this vibration cause issues with the home foundation and structure? We bought our first home last year (built in 2004) and are concerned that constant vibrations will caused problems our eyes can't see.

2. Is there a way to get these vibrations to stop or lessen?

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.
Exorr

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

What is your home made of that a bose acoustimass system is able to shake it without the "subwoofer" on?

If 2" drivers can shake your room, you'd be in serious trouble if you ever got a real subwoofer in there

What is shaking in the other room? The walls? Objects in the room?

 

[montypythizzle]

Technically, and I am talking under >1000W, it should not cause any damage to your home. Even if the sub was >1000W it would have to be anchored to the wall and turning on a subwoofer test, and the most that would do is tear up the drywall/plaster. The only thing I would worry about is loose plaster, if you have plaster walls/ceilings.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: montypythizzle
Technically, and I am talking under >1000W, it should not cause any damage to your home. Even if the sub was >1000W it would have to be anchored to the wall and turning on a subwoofer test, and the most that would do is tear up the drywall/plaster. The only thing I would worry about is loose plaster, if you have plaster walls/ceilings.

Or one of these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Bkrypxzs4

 

[montypythizzle]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: montypythizzle
Technically, and I am talking under >1000W, it should not cause any damage to your home. Even if the sub was >1000W it would have to be anchored to the wall and turning on a subwoofer test, and the most that would do is tear up the drywall/plaster. The only thing I would worry about is loose plaster, if you have plaster walls/ceilings.

Or one of these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Bkrypxzs4

Um.

 

[exorr]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
What is your home made of that a bose acoustimass system is able to shake it without the "subwoofer" on?

If 2" drivers can shake your room, you'd be in serious trouble if you ever got a real subwoofer in there

What is shaking in the other room? The walls? Objects in the room?

Ok, I should of probably clarified. Nothing is "shaking" but you can feel the vibrations through the floor. I wonder if it's the placement of the sub. We we're eating dinner on the exact opposite side of the wall as the sub was placed (probably a full 4 feet away).

It could also be we're just not used to the way surround sound is...

 

[exorr]

Originally posted by: montypythizzle
Technically, and I am talking under >1000W, it should not cause any damage to your home. Even if the sub was >1000W it would have to be anchored to the wall and turning on a subwoofer test, and the most that would do is tear up the drywall/plaster. The only thing I would worry about is loose plaster, if you have plaster walls/ceilings.

This is good to hear. As I told my wife, it's not doing anymore damage then us walking around the house does

I'd still like to see if there's a way we can lessen the vibration though, maybe I'll try moving the sub to the other side of the room.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: exorr

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
What is your home made of that a bose acoustimass system is able to shake it without the "subwoofer" on?

If 2" drivers can shake your room, you'd be in serious trouble if you ever got a real subwoofer in there

What is shaking in the other room? The walls? Objects in the room?

Ok, I should of probably clarified. Nothing is "shaking" but you can feel the vibrations through the floor. I wonder if it's the placement of the sub. We we're eating dinner on the exact opposite side of the wall as the sub was placed (probably a full 4 feet away).

It could also be we're just not used to the way surround sound is...

I thought you said things were still doing it even with the "subwoofer" off? I was mainly confused as to how you were getting other rooms to vibrate using just satellite speakers that are basically incapable of playing much below 200Hz.

It tends to be lower frequencies that will produce vibrations that will vibrate floors / walls / objects.

You might have to worry about objects falling off walls etc.

Last time I had something fall was a glass in my kitchen fell off a table during X-Men 3, but I had things turned up quite a bit.

 

[exorr]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: exorr

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
What is your home made of that a bose acoustimass system is able to shake it without the "subwoofer" on?

If 2" drivers can shake your room, you'd be in serious trouble if you ever got a real subwoofer in there

What is shaking in the other room? The walls? Objects in the room?

Ok, I should of probably clarified. Nothing is "shaking" but you can feel the vibrations through the floor. I wonder if it's the placement of the sub. We we're eating dinner on the exact opposite side of the wall as the sub was placed (probably a full 4 feet away).

It could also be we're just not used to the way surround sound is...

I thought you said things were still doing it even with the "subwoofer" off? I was mainly confused as to how you were getting other rooms to vibrate using just satellite speakers that are basically incapable of playing much below 200Hz.

It tends to be lower frequencies that will produce vibrations that will vibrate floors / walls / objects.

You might have to worry about objects falling off walls etc.

Last time I had something fall was a glass in my kitchen fell off a table during X-Men 3, but I had things turned up quite a bit.

Yes, we turned the sub off and we still felt vibrations until we turned off the surround sound completely. I'm a bit confused as to why this would be. Could it be the placement of the speakers being on plant stands and such, would it be better to wallmount them?

Sorry, just not at all familiar with surround sound. Was going to buy a system a year ago but decided to wait until we finished our basement next year and then we're going to deck it out.

 

[montypythizzle]

No problems in my room, even though the whole audio setup is carefully balanced on my tuber, I have ran into problems with my parents room and their pictures on the walls.

 

[exorr]

Originally posted by: montypythizzle
No problems in my room, even though the whole audio setup is carefully balanced on my tuber, I have ran into problems with my parents room and their pictures on the walls.

Ouch, if pictures start falling off the walls my wife is going to not appreciate it...lol.

Maybe we just wait until the basement is ready

 

[montypythizzle]

Originally posted by: exorr

Originally posted by: montypythizzle
No problems in my room, even though the whole audio setup is carefully balanced on my tuber, I have ran into problems with my parents room and their pictures on the walls.

Ouch, if pictures start falling off the walls my wife is going to not appreciate it...lol.

Maybe we just wait until the basement is ready

Ok, while wife isn't at home... put in a bassy track off of one of your CDs or something, and detect rattling objects.

 

[exorr]

Good call. I'll do some testing this weekend.

 

[montypythizzle]

Originally posted by: exorr
Good call. I'll do some testing this weekend.

:thumbsup:

 

[EvilYoda]

Yeah, it's quite odd that those puny little speakers are still able to vibrate your room even with the sub off...maybe the sound effect is hitting a resonant frequency within the room and the power is building.

I'm still chuckling to myself, thinking about those tiny Bose speakers moving anything more than the air that's in front of them...but hey.

You should borrow one of our subs and tell your wife that you're testing for possible falling objects in the case of an earthquake.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: exorr
Yes, we turned the sub off and we still felt vibrations until we turned off the surround sound completely. I'm a bit confused as to why this would be. Could it be the placement of the speakers being on plant stands and such, would it be better to wallmount them?

Sorry, just not at all familiar with surround sound. Was going to buy a system a year ago but decided to wait until we finished our basement next year and then we're going to deck it out.

Well the whole point to getting speakers is so that they'll create vibrations in the air, so some vibrations are bound to happen. It just usually tends to be bass in the 40Hz and below region that really tends to get things going in my own experience.

I think it was some heavy material in the 25Hz range that caused my last accident. I don't remember experiencing anything noticable as far as unusual room vibrations go with frequencies in the range you must be using.

I guess it could be possible that it's the way they're sitting now that's creating some strange interactions with the tables they're on and it might be causing part of the issues. Attaching them to the walls might create different results.

 

[exorr]

Originally posted by: EvilYoda
Yeah, it's quite odd that those puny little speakers are still able to vibrate your room even with the sub off...maybe the sound effect is hitting a resonant frequency within the room and the power is building.

I'm still chuckling to myself, thinking about those tiny Bose speakers moving anything more than the air that's in front of them...but hey.

You should borrow one of our subs and tell your wife that you're testing for possible falling objects in the case of an earthquake.

It was only happening during one sound effect which was always the same, so it could of just been off for that one. As my brother was playing Xbox with the sound turned way up and there was no vibrations that I could feel. I'm going to play around with some things this weekend and see how it responds and see if I can isolate anything.

I'm also using an old receiver built for 5.1 (not 6.1 that the speakers are) so this could be messing with the power going to the speakers, etc. New receiver is in the budget for the next few months.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: exorr
I'm also using an old receiver built for 5.1 (not 6.1 that the speakers are) so this could be messing with the power going to the speakers, etc. New receiver is in the budget for the next few months.

That shouldn't be an issue.

What do you have the crossover set at though?

 

[sdifox]

Only way an Accoustimass can cause damage to the house is if you pick up the "bass module" and throw it at the drywall.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: sdifox
Only way an Accoustimass can cause damage to the house is if you pick up the "bass module" and throw it at the drywall.

Wouldn't the LDF, cardboard, and plastic just break?

 

[Savij]

How is the subwoofer turned off? Is it unplugged or is there some switch on the unit? I'm thinking that turning the subwoofer "off" just kills the lowest range on the unit, but it continues to produce everything else below the satellite speaker range.

I'm no expert, but couldn't you try moving the unit somewhere less annoying?

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: sdifox
Only way an Accoustimass can cause damage to the house is if you pick up the "bass module" and throw it at the drywall.

Wouldn't the LDF, cardboard, and plastic just break?

Well, it is stronger than drywall. Unless you hit a stud, it should have no problem damaging drywall. There is some metal in it.

 

[DannyLove]

get more furnitiure to absorb the vibration

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

My Hsu STF-3 often feels like it will vibrate my entire (small) house off its foundation. The house has been here for 99 years, though, so I'm not TOO worried.

 

[Rubycon]

Common Bose symptom: Is it switched on?

:laugh: