For those with Auralex MoPads...

[Wolfeman]

....How long does it take to get used to the new sound? I just got mine, and everything I'm listening to through my monitors that used to sound great now sounds like absolute shit. On the plus side, I can crank em a bit louder without my desk rattling to all hell..... Maybe isolating my monitors caused the rest of my shit room to sound even worse? I don't really have anymore money to blow on more room treatment crap. Meh.

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

What happened that made your room sound worse? Any room treatment you do could be DIY, by the way. I treated two rooms for $120 using Roxul insulation. World of difference, and it outperforms $1000 worth of Auralex.

 

[Wolfeman]

What happened that made your room sound worse? Any room treatment you do could be DIY, by the way. I treated two rooms for $120 using Roxul insulation. World of difference, and it outperforms $1000 worth of Auralex.

I think I figured it out. Isolating my monitors made my crap MP3's sound more like they should, which is, well, crappy.... Listened to a few of my .wav's and CD's, everything sounds A-Ok

 

[deanbailey]

I've notice things aren't as "audible" as they should be. Lately i've been burning my mixes to CD's to listen on different sources, and my car (which always sounds great for some reason) sounded better/clearer. I did the same with the new MH just to make sure it wasn't just shitty mixing...then again it could be my bass heavy KRK's thats the problem.

Ps. my room is treated with auralex products aswell

 

[STINNETT]

....How long does it take to get used to the new sound? I just got mine, and everything I'm listening to through my monitors that used to sound great now sounds like absolute shit. On the plus side, I can crank em a bit louder without my desk rattling to all hell..... Maybe isolating my monitors caused the rest of my shit room to sound even worse? I don't really have anymore money to blow on more room treatment crap. Meh.

I can't imagine the sort of drastic degradation in quality that you're describing, but if you had alot of vibration or resonance in your desk I could see it sounding alot different. It's certainly not going to make something that sounds proper sound worse. Like you said, perhaps you're just hearing faults that you couldn't make out before.

 

[Wolfeman]

Another question.... What do you guys do with the left over wedges from the pack? Instead of having them sit in my closet for years I could put them to use.....

 

[Gnash]

Left over wedges? I use both sets to make the monitors level. The pads are angled, so the extra wedges are a priority! haha You just reverse them (extra wedges) to make the pad flat. Yeah, any extra lows or noise from your monitor's surface were causing you to think those were in your mixes. After I treated my room, I can hear exactly what's coming out of the speaks, with no added shit going to my ears. It's really cool, making your ears focus on the sound coming from the speaks, and not from wall reverb or lows building up in a corner. The desk in front of me gives a reflection, but that's unavoidable. I'm thinking of foaming out my desk.

 

[Wolfeman]

Left over wedges? I use both sets to make the monitors level. The pads are angled, so the extra wedges are a priority! haha You just reverse them (extra wedges) to make the pad flat. Yeah, any extra lows or noise from your monitor's surface were causing you to think those were in your mixes. After I treated my room, I can hear exactly what's coming out of the speaks, with no added shit going to my ears. It's really cool, making your ears focus on the sound coming from the speaks, and not from wall reverb or lows building up in a corner. The desk in front of me gives a reflection, but that's unavoidable. I'm thinking of foaming out my desk.

They way my monitors are positioned relative to me, i need them to be angled, so i have left over wedges.

 

[Gnash]

Ahh, yeah I thought of that after I posted.

My bad.

 

[Wolfeman]

Ahh, yeah I thought of that after I posted.

My bad.

I threw them under my set of small reference monitors. 2 for the price of one!

 

[dreamcatcher]

So, mousepads won't do the same thing?

 

[sparkyness]

A mousepad will help somewhat, but probably not to the extent that the MoPads will (Sound on Sound recommended this as a cheap option). Neoprene works as well.

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

For neoprene to decouple properly, you need between 5% and 25% compression. This is the same if you're floating a floor, or your speakers. For most passive monitors, you're going to need 4 one inch squares roughly, and not that much for for active monitors. Its a trail and error process where you measure the whole thickness of the neoprene (or mouse pad) and then slowly cut bits away until you get about 10% compression. This works really well, but its only about 80% the performance of mopads. Still, not bad for FREE! Also, neoprene breaks down. You want to use a new mouse pad, not an older, hardend/flaky one.

 

[PhilR]

Auralex Mopads? Pfff.... Cut-in-half tennis balls is where it's at.