Auralex MoPADs Monitor Isolation Review

Auralex MoPADs Monitor Isolation Introduction

In an ideal world there would be no war, disease or hunger and our loudspeakers would be perfectly placed in perfect rooms for perfect sound. While Auralex probably can't help resolve world issues, they certainly can help with speaker placement, room acoustics and isolation as evident by their isolation pad devices they refer to as MoPADs and the up and coming new acoustically treated room for the Audioholics Showcase home premier reference system .

Auralex MoPADs Monitor Isolation Overview

My family room system is at a bit of a disadvantage for the front three speakers since they are mounted about six feet in the air on top of a built in entertainment center that houses my equipment and 56 舡 Toshiba 1080p DLP display. While I chose excellent loudspeakers for the task, their biggest hindrance was their placement which was about three feet above ear level.

My initial solution was to toe them down using door stoppers and a thin rubber pad to help decouple them from the base of the entertainment center. This was certainly a very good cost effective and practical solution, though I never seemed to be entirely satisfied with the look (especially when viewing the speakers on the sides) or even the sound. Thus I called on Auralex for their suggestions. It was then that they introduced me to the concept of their MoPADs. They didn't offer them to me as a sonic cure all, but as a means to perfectly decouple the speakers from the entertainment center, while also providing a more optimal downward angle towards the seating area and even more importantly a more aesthetically pleasing solution for my significant other. Hmm, so I could kill three birds with one stone? Where do I sign up?

Auralex MoPADs Setup, Listening Tests and Conclusion

The MoPADs come in two pairs per package (four individual units) which can serve a pair of normal sized (under 1cu^ft) bookshelf speakers or one center channel speaker mounted horizontally. The MoPAD base is about 1 inch thick, 12 inches deep, 4 inches wide and with the use of their wedge adjustor pads (included in the kit) provisions for variable pitch of your speakers between -8, -4, 0, +4 and +8 degrees. Since I obviously needed to pitch my speakers downward, I oriented the wedge adjustor pad so that the speakers would fire at a pitch of 8 degrees downward. For those installing a center channel on a floor or stand under a projection screen, pitching the speaker upward would be most useful. I intend on taking full advantage of this once I get my primary reference system up and running.

My center channel required a pair of MoPAD kits spaced out about 3.5 inches.

Listening Tests

I've been spending a lot of time lately listening to the fabulous recorded demo disc from AIX records. Recordings like this really help drive my point home about the Dumbing Down of Audio and the complacent tolerance most consumers have towards low fidelity, highly compressed media. Recordings like those found on this disc truly make your playback system live up to its full potential. Before installing the MoPADs, the surround experience on this disc was nothing short of stunning. The bass was pronounced and the instruments sounded real and uncompressed. After the MoPAD installation, I felt as if the vocals from the front soundstage became more focused and the upper mid bass sounded even tighter and more defined. The pitch downward from the MoPADs allowed for a more uniform dispersion of the front three speakers showering the listening area with a more direct sound experience and bringing me closer to the performance rather than reflections and refractions caused by poor speaker placement and the room. I couldn't help but to give my speakers more juice because for the first time since I installed them above the entertainment center, they seemed to be properly imaging. The nasally characteristic caused by interaction between the entertainment center and the speakers and inadequate pitch towards the listener I had heard before seemed to be significantly reduced. Lowen and Navarro's "Cold Outside" sounded absolutely stunning. The vocals came across as dynamic and airy, while the instruments were clearly defined and well placed within the listening space.

Recommendations

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Ergonomics & Usability
Ease of Setup/Programming/Integration
Performance
Value