Speaker Spikes and Cones – What’s the point?

[dem beats]

To me spikes on a speaker or speaker stand is analogous to women wearing high heels. Very sexalating .

i had the exact same post in mind. Although when the volume goes up the speakers are always sexier then when the GF volume raises.

there is also a strong corelation between my speaker volume and how shrill she can get
=)

 

[Joe Schmoe]

To me spikes on a speaker or speaker stand is analogous to women wearing high heels. Very sexalating .

It's not the heels, it's the legs.

 

[DD66000]

Having added spikes to a vintage '77 speaker system, I found to things to happen.
First, the highs became more open and airy.
Second, the bass became tighter, clearer.

 

[Centurion]

Attracted to sound

I've been thinking about spikes for a while now, and believe one thing was left out of this.

The fact that spikes on the underside of speaker stands heps stabilize the speaker stand on carpet is kinda clever and no doubt true, they do little else ofc.

What I'm thinking about is spikes/rubber feet which manufacturers and even ppl stick/screw to their speaker cabinets.

They can have a negative or positive effect depending on their placement.
Think about it, if looking at the underside of a square speaker bottom plate, what point is less likely to vibrate?

The corner where the center line of the wall thicknesses "meet", seems to my understanding to be the "deadest" spot as two walls and one bottom plate unite.

The key is to lift the bottomplate off the floor/speaker stand, and let it rest on it's corners.

The less rigid your given speaker kabinet is, the more effect you'll get from doing this.

I don't see any use in using spikes unless they have rubber insulating them from the cabinet themselves. Besides the cosmetic value ofc.

(Who knows, maybe your neighbour in the apartment below will let you listen to music in peace or you might even hear a difference yourself)

 

[Audiophiloholic]

So do they work? On speakers sitting on carpet they are one of the cheapest tweeks to make your system sound better.

Here ends my rant...

I agree. I just spiked my speakers that had been sitting on very thickly padded carpet and immediately and easily heard an improvement in imaging focus and bass definition.

 

[smitty69]

coupling, not isolation

Actually, the whole point to spiking/coning your speakers to the ground is to allow the vibration to run through the stands and into the ground, where they can be absorbed. In this respect, the study which was indicated above about how the use of cones between the speaker and stand increased vibration in the stands by up to 100 times would indicate that they were doing exactly what they are supposed to do. If all these vibrations are allowed to stay in the speaker box, then there will be smearing of the sound of the drivers, as the added vibration of the box will inherently impart unwanted vibrations to the driver as well.

De-coupling cones are generally made of some sort of rubber composite, and theoretically would be best served under very sensitive components like turntables, cd players or tube amps or pre-amps where the tubes can have a tendency to get microphonic when they are exposed to a lot of vibrations.

 

[Gustavo]

And what about that 5th foot under those Yamaha Aventage Receivers? What is it supposed to do?

 

[3db]

And what about that 5th foot under those Yamaha Aventage Receivers? What is it supposed to do?

Its clearly a "male" receiver.

 

[digicidal]

I've always used a pair of stands I have with spikes as I always had carpet... but I've also always had cats and allergies and something had to change. (The obvious solution was not acceptable - since I didn't want to be single again and my wife really loves having cats).

So I tore up all of my carpet and laid down wood in the bedrooms and tile in the front rooms. First I tried using the little brass pucks that had come with the stands and was very disappointed in their performance - not only because it didn't seem to do much of anything except make moving them around during the placement phase a huge PITA but because I could actually hear the spikes vibrating in the dimple in the brass pucks. My first solution was to simply fill the dimples with silicone - which helped a great deal, but still seemed less than satisfactory since it seemed to make the speaker stand itself less stable.

Final solution - ordered some FLOR tiles... which were like a dream come true... the knap of the carpet was very dense, and they were backed by a rubber backing which was smooth (as opposed to grippy). This allowed me a couple of nice advantages... the first was the spikes would now bite into the carpet and the stands were stable, the rubber backing helped dissipate the vibrations instead of them just bouncing off the tile and back into the stand, and finally... I could drag the carpet + stand around on the tile fairly easily (although still requiring enough effort to be assured that the speakers would not move once placed).

With that done I could find the right placement for the speakers, then marked on the tile with tape where the corners should be - and now I can move the speakers out of the way if we have a party or something where I need to maximize floorspace and have them back into position within minutes when the guests leave.

Although I never had any proof... I always questioned the reasoning behind spiking component racks... simply based on the observation that if they actually served the 'audiophile purposes' of hard-coupling the speakers to the floor plane... then that same logic would dictate that the last thing I would ever want on my component rack was the same thing - since I'd then only be assisting any vibrations in the floor climb up the rack and into my components... When I bought my rack it came spiked... first thing I did was take the spiked feet off and put rubber stoppers on them (the kind you buy at HD/Lowes for leveling refridgerators/ovens/washing machines).

 

[sasami]

Isolation feet is very confusing. Isolation means remove connection between 2 object.
However most isolation feet works 2 ways coupling and decoupling 2 objects.
Means it either reduce the connection of 2 objects (rubber feet).
Or it harden connection between 2 objects (cone/cup, ball/cup feet).
These 2 method works on 2 compelte different theory.
By decoupling it allows free movement of 2 object i.e. reduce motion from 1 object transfer to the other.
When most think of antivibration they think this way so vibration from surrounding don't pass onto the gear.
Howeve by Newton's second law F=ma while Force (vibration) is the same the larger the mass less the accleration or motion.
So by coupling your gear to your rack then to your house using cones.
Means the same force that vibrate you gear now needs to vibrate your house, so it just end up moving nothing.
So rubber feet stop vibration pass to your gear when harden cones stop gear movingby increase total mass.
Since in most case the vibrating end is your gear rather then your house.
Unless you have a vibrating floor let hope you don't, a harded feet is better for stopping vibration.
As for the sound that really depends on personal opinion.

 

[cpp]

Tried it with spikes on, spikes off. Couldn't hear any difference AT ALL.

 

[John Moore]

Don't know if spikes work, however, Re - accelerometer test, the greater amount of energy measured in the stand may be a result of the spikes insulating the stand from the floor, any vibration transferred to the stand would need to radiate or be converted to heat, energy cannot be destroyed and must either radiate or be converted, if the other methods of mounting transfers the energy to the standing surface (in this case the floor) then that energy will transfer and cause less measurable effect on the stand, this may not be the full story nor may it be correct, but is something not touched on in the article.

 

[Dane Saunders]

Much to what "sasami" is referring to. I would assume that by increasing the connection between the speaker and the large mass that is your solid floor, you are in effect making the speaker more rigid. With the goal of deadening a cabinet in the first place, this falls in line. The more solid the speaker mass becomes, the better it acts as a foundation for recoil. Less losses to cabinet vibration during recoil (driver moving back and forth), should augment the energy going into creating that sweet sound we desire coming directly from the drivers, and not the cabinet. This is why cabinets are braced and made of dense materials. If you already have a dense, rigid, heavy cabinet relative to the size of the drivers in it, then you might not see much benefit from spikes, since the speaker's own weight is enough to counteract the drivers (the "motor's torque"). A lighter cabinet with powerful drivers, might benefit from spikes since the cabinet is moving (vibrating) too much when the drivers are pushing hard. Increasing the hold with the floor or shelf should act as if the you've increase the mass of the speaker. That's good. There's probably a power to weight ratio that could be used to calculate a sweet spot, understanding that at some point there would be diminishing returns from using spikes (ie: the cabinet is plenty rigid already, relative to the drivers it employs). Room acoustics are a big factor too, and are very likely much more important than spikes! "Get the engine running smooth, before you start polishing the chrome."

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Much to what "sasami" is referring to. I would assume that by increasing the connection between the speaker and the large mass that is your solid floor, you are in effect making the speaker more rigid. With the goal of deadening a cabinet in the first place, this falls in line. The more solid the speaker mass becomes, the better it acts as a foundation for recoil. Less losses to cabinet vibration during recoil (driver moving back and forth), should augment the energy going into creating that sweet sound we desire coming directly from the drivers, and not the cabinet. This is why cabinets are braced and made of dense materials. If you already have a dense, rigid, heavy cabinet relative to the size of the drivers in it, then you might not see much benefit from spikes, since the speaker's own weight is enough to counteract the drivers (the "motor's torque"). A lighter cabinet with powerful drivers, might benefit from spikes since the cabinet is moving (vibrating) too much when the drivers are pushing hard. Increasing the hold with the floor or shelf should act as if the you've increase the mass of the speaker. That's good. There's probably a power to weight ratio that could be used to calculate a sweet spot, understanding that at some point there would be diminishing returns from using spikes (ie: the cabinet is plenty rigid already, relative to the drivers it employs). Room acoustics are a big factor too, and are very likely much more important than spikes! "Get the engine running smooth, before you start polishing the chrome."

You're not miles away but actually the opposite is true. What you want to do is de-couple from the floor. This keeps the vibrations from transferring to the floor and coloring the sound. Here's an experiment. Stir a glass of water while it's on a counter. Then while stirring, pick it up and keep stirring. Notice how the sound changes. At this point all your hearing is the spoon, water and glass. Not the added sound of the counter. Diminishing returns is also good to note. On concrete for example, there isn't much benefit. But on a wood floor there is. Stomp on a concrete or wood floor and you'll immediately see what I mean.

 

[Dane Saunders]

You're not miles away but actually the opposite is true. What you want to do is de-couple from the floor. This keeps the vibrations from transferring to the floor and coloring the sound. Here's an experiment. Stir a glass of water while it's on a counter. Then while stirring, pick it up and keep stirring. Notice how the sound changes. At this point all your hearing is the spoon, water and glass. Not the added sound of the counter. Diminishing returns is also good to note. On concrete for example, there isn't much benefit. But on a wood floor there is. Stomp on a concrete or wood floor and you'll immediately see what I mean.

Interesting. So then wouldn't rubber feet be much better at decoupling?!? It seems hard spikes would actually increase coupling. The article stated that the spikes between the speaker and stand increased vibrations in the stand. I imagine that coupling is actually beneficial only when it's to a heavy mass...not to a rickety wooden floor of course. So, I would argue that coupling to a concrete floor is exactly what you want, since the concrete floor is difficult to vibrate. The ambiguity I see still, is whether or not spikes actually serve to decouple, which is "sounds" like they don't...pun not intended. From my understanding of mechanical forces, spikes would concentrate the vibrations into a smaller area, but wouldn't reduce the total force.

Pulling back out of the vortex, I'd say spikes on braces are used on tall slim speakers simply to increase their grip with the floor, to avoid tipping over...plane and simple. Now that makes sense to me. So does your de-coupling analogy....thanks for the engagement! This all helps in my education toward designing some awesome speakers! Cheers

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

and like clockwork, every few years some goes on a bit of thread digging and finds this 10 year old thread...

 

[Tri-amp craftsman]

"Spikes" Miths and Reality

This is one of my sore points...Spikes are good for one thing and one thing only... To COUPLE the speakers to the floor. Not ISOLATE as some would advertise. Speaker Spikes COUPLE by JOINING the speaker to the floor and make the whole speaker more solid. Kind of like making a baffle out of cement or 4inches of MDF. Same idea... You are trying to make the cone be the only thing that is vibrating.

Rubber (or some poly based compound) ISOLATE. They keep your vibrating floor, equipment rack or shelf from vibrating your CD Transport or turntable. If you couple your equipment by using spikes on your CD player and slam the door... It will skip. However, they allow sound to cause the vibration of the component because the component is free floating and more likely to vibrate. But a good poly based pad under each foot will dampen the vibration. So If your floors, racks and shelves are solid, then spiked will COUPLE the equipment to the shelf, rack and floor. If your floor , rack and shelf vibrate, you may want to use some sort of poly based rubber ISOLATORS to stop the component from vibrating.

So do they work? On speakers sitting on carpet they are one of the cheapest tweeks to make your system sound better. On the components, you may need to evaluate your environment. Possibly a high end enclosed rack coupled to the floor with the components inside on rubber pads will make the best difference.

Here ends my rant...

Your “…couples the speakers to the floor…” is spot on!
I’ve known about and used cones and spikes since 1984 making the “recent years” remark in a 2007 article seem off to me. I’ve read & wondered about “isolation spikes” discussions for some time knowing they’re for coupling and stability.

rant over. Tony