Hot take: My buddy swore by foam pad risers for speakers but I'm starting to think he was wrong

So my friend Dave, who builds PCs and studios for a living, told me last year that putting my desk speakers on cheap foam pads would fix my muddy bass problem. I dropped like $15 on a pair of wedge shaped pads from Amazon and set my speakers up exactly how he said. Honestly, the bass did get tighter but now I feel like my mid range is totally hollow and the highs are harsh. Ngl, I'm wondering if the pads are isolating the speakers too much from the desk and killing the natural resonance. Tbh I've been reading that some people just use blu tack to stick speakers down instead of pads and get way better results. Has anyone else tried both methods and noticed a big difference in sound quality?

2 comments

2 Comments

iris39415d ago

I used foam pads for about a year on my old desk and honestly thought they were the best upgrade for cheap. But after reading your post I pulled my speakers off the pads and set them on some felt furniture pads instead and the midrange came back way cleaner. I still keep the foam under my sub but for my monitors I'm probably going back to blu tack like you mentioned.

skyler_kim7d ago

That's funny you mention blu tack @iris394 because my buddy Chris tried that exact same swap you're talking about. He had the Auralex Mopads under his JBL's for months and swore by them until his neighbor who builds custom desks let him borrow some blu tack to try. First thing he texted me was "dude the bass isn't bloated anymore" and I thought he was overreacting. Then he sent me a voice memo of the same track before and after and honestly the difference was huge. He ended up keeping the blu tack and using the foam pads just for isolating his subwoofer too. You ever try the white vs grey blu tack debate?