Custom Design's Acoustic Steel - Resonance Noise Removal

Custom Design utilizes a specialized type material that goes well beyond any application of just steel alone. Acoustic Steel is a constained dampeneing layer system. Constrained Layer Dampening systems are created by sandwich 2 material pieces together with a polymer to form the componite material. In the case of ACoustic Steel, Custom Design developed a polymer specificallly designed to convert resonance energy into neglible heat. You can see Custom Design's owner Paul Morten explian Acoustic Steel here: Basics of Acoustic Steel Video. This miracle vibration removing material is exclusively avaiilable at Custom Design and the Speaker Stands, "iRAP" Anti-Resonance Platforms, Triphonic and Intraspecific HiFi stands and other items they make.

Tried and Tested!

Tests of Custom Design's Acoustic Steel were conducted at SouthHamption University in the UK. The testing illustrates quite clearly the significant effect Acoustic Steel has on resonance between speakers and the support stands. The Speaker Stands used in the test were the award winning RS 300 with the standard 4mm steel top and base plates.

The chart to the left shows the results of the testing conducted to measure the transfer of noise vibration from the speaker platform to one of the base spikes, measuring both vibration from the floor to the speaker and vibrations from the speaker to the floor.

The speaker stand was tested under four conditions:

1.  Undamped - no damping or inert filler in column
2.  Inert filler in column - filled to 2/3 full
3.  Inert filler plus replacement of regular steel top plate with an Acoustic Steel top plate
4.  Inert filler plus replacement of both regular steel top & base plates with Acoustic Steel top &base plates

View an Explanation of the Acoustic Steel Testing Results here or underneath the graph.

The graph clearly illustrates the extraordinary capabilities of our acoustic dampening materials and products. You can see that Acoustic Steel Speaker Stand Top and Base Plates have the extra ordinary ability to absorb energy in the form of resonance. The undamped noise is tremendously reduced through the use of their Acoustic Steel top and base plates. The absorption rate is clearly demonstrated in the graph.

As expected, the results show a remarkable reduction in vibration response, which could otherwise "colour" the sound produced. The Y- axis is in decibels with 5dB steps. A 10dB change in vibration level is a factor of 3 (i.e. a 10dB reduction means that the vibration has been reduced to one third) and a 20dB reduction is a factor of 10 (i.e. a 20dB reduction means that the vibration has been reduced by 90%). 30dB = x30: 40dB = x100.

The Acoustic top plate reduces the vibration by x100 or more over much of the frequency range. Adding an Acoustic base plate reduces the remaining resonance by a further factor of up to x100 (a total of x1000 at some frequencies compared with the inert filler alone).

Existing customers can purchase Acoustic Top Plates and Acoustic Base Plates as an optional extra to enhance the performance of their RS 300 Speaker Stand Supports.

Acoustic Steel Platforms or iRAPs are available to enhance the performance of your Hi-Fi and AV Support Systems.