Loudspeakers Speakers on castors?

rgodfrey

Member
Since my hobby has been lighting I have not had much do to with sound for most of my life (other than listening and basic setup) I am not exactly sure about this. The theatre we are renovating is both a movie and a live production venue. We recently installed a new surround sound system for the movies and the speakers on the stage are rather heavy. For a live productions we want to move the speakers off the stage to a designed storage area. Is there any affect on the sound output or quality of the speakers, including the two massive subwoofers, if they are mounted on castors to make it easier to move them?
 
I had a couple of SRS1500 subs in a road case on casters for years and it didn’t seem to detract from their performance. Mains hanging from chains don’t seem to be bothered either.

I think the physics of it (speaker mass compared to emitted sound pressure) would suggest the effects would be minimal if at all. And I would think subs are where you would notice it the most.

Worst case have a couple of pieces of wood you can prop the speakers on once you roll them into position.
 
I've seen speakers vibrate casters when they're mounted on the back of the cabinet which can be noisy, but that's easily amended with some gaff tape or by moving the casters to the bottom of the cabinets.
 
If the concern is about LF coupling with the floor, there will be no impact.

They can rattle and they will do what casters do... roll.
 
If the concern is about LF coupling with the floor, there will be no impact.

They can rattle and they will do what casters do... roll.
This is why if you're going to put casters on a sub put them on the opposite side of the driver and tip them. That way it won't be on it's wheels when in use.
 
Even if the speaker doesn't move from vibration, I wouldn't want it on the wheels during use because someone might accidentally push it. It won't be pretty if it gets shoved off the stage. Having the casters on the side or back is a good idea. Or just use dollies, which would eliminate the casters and the potential of them rattling.
 
This is why if you're going to put casters on a sub put them on the opposite side of the driver and tip them. That way it won't be on it's wheels when in use.

This is the way. Traditionally casters are mounted to the rear of the cabinets so they are off the ground when in use.

Or you build/buy a transport cart and take them off the cart when in use.

Don't cheap out on the casters either way. These are heavy loads and take abuse especially when rolling across dock plates, door thresholds, over cable ramps, etc. Cheap casters will get destroyed quickly and may rattle more when in use. I've seen it happen, and the material the caster is made out of will literally shatter when abused.

Even if the speaker doesn't move from vibration, I wouldn't want it on the wheels during use because someone might accidentally push it. It won't be pretty if it gets shoved off the stage. Having the casters on the side or back is a good idea. Or just use dollies, which would eliminate the casters and the potential of them rattling.

Yeah. It would not be unheard of that something on wheels starts to roll and inevitably anything put on top of the subs falls over creating a hazard to people nearby. Or if they're on the stage, the risk that they roll off of the stage when someone forgets to tie/ballast them down. Just so much easier to attach the casters to the rear or create a dolly and avoid all of the unnecessary risks of having the speakers ride on the casters while in their performance orientation.
 
Thanks for the info. It is what I suspected but did not want to take any chances. We always use heavy duty castors having learned decades ago that the cheap ones do not last. We are not concerned about the speakers rolling as they are behind the screen have have no real place to roll (they are never on stage during a live performance) but I had not thought of the rattling. They are all on dollies now but the wheels are too small to be useful (someone used creepers normally used for working under a vehicle). I am thinking we will build new dollies with the proper wheels.

Thanks for all your input.
 
We used bungee cords between the castors mounted on the rear of the cabinets to keep them from rattling.
 
It may be too late, but the room was likely tuned for the cinema sound with those speakers in a very specific position and orientation. Permanent spike marks backed up by replicable measurements are your friend to ensure the sound image isn’t compromised. This is more and more important with Atmos and similar object based audio decoding.
 
If the concern is about LF coupling with the floor, there will be no impact.

They can rattle and they will do what casters do... roll.
Will they also shake?
 
Heavy speakers on heavy duty casters. Altec center channel speaker on casters.
 

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Thank you everyone for your advice. We did go with heavy duty locking castors for all 5 speakers. The castors on the subs are mounted on one side so they have to be stood up (and they are heavy) before moving. The main speakers have the castors on the bottom. Since there are only a few people that get to move the speakers it was easy to stress to all that the castors have to be locked when the speaker is in place. Locking them also stops them from shaking, rattling, and rolling. No problems at all so far.
 

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