Spikes or Rubber feet for Loudspeakers, yes, I'll have both please

[haraldo]

In the Audio press I have read several articles comparing the advantages of using spikes as opposed to using some kind of elastic “rubber-like” feet.

On one hand, spikes provide for some upsides.....
While rubber feet may have other advantages.....

Now this is all fine, and I just keep wondering, why are people comparing one against the others, why not pick both in a combined setup that provides for all the combined advantages without any downsides?

What I Have done to provide for this is as follows.

1. Start out with a very heavy granite plate, ideally these should be significantly heavier than the speakers, this in order to provide for a firm foundation. The speakers should not be able to make the Granite plates move even just a tiny bit.
   
2. Glue or attach some elastic feet to what will be the bottom side of the granite plates, the feet that I have used for this purpose sre sourced from Valhalla technologies, these come in different flavours to support different weights:
   http://www.valhalla-technology.dk/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=1&Itemid=26&vmcchk=1&Itemid=26
   
3. Set the plates onto the floor... Now you have a very firm stabile platform for the speakers, because of the weight, the plates will not move, not even 1/100 of an inch , even at very very high volumes
   
4. Put some spikes on the speakers and set them on top of the granite plates. The foundation for the speakers are firm and the spikes will make excellent contact directly onto the granite. The speakers willliterally have a “rock-solid” foundation.
   Personally, I'm using superspikes: http://www.superspikes.com/
   Ideally you should have 3, not 4 spikes.

The result of this combo is that the speakers are never ever moving 1/100 of an inch, and the rubber like feet will provide for isolation of sound waves so they don't reach onto the floor and your equipment.

What results have I achieved with this, this is NO kidding, I can hear the difference:

1. More impact in the bass and even in the lower midrange
2. better imaging !
3. More inspiring to listen to the music.

This is a significant upgrade to my system...

This is a very inexpensive tweak that you may try, it's just to try and see if it works for you.... If it doesn't you haven't wasted much money anyways.

Regards

Harald N

 

[j_garcia]

Doing both sort of defeats the purpose. One couples, the other decouples - if you decouple, adding the spikes should make no difference at all. If you have the spikes, subsequently decoupling the speaker eliminates any benefit the spikes may have provided. Different speakers will react differently in each case as well.

I use Auralex MoPads; no transmitted vibration through them at all and they seem to work great.

 

[haraldo]

Doing both sort of defeats the purpose. One couples, the other decouples - if you decouple, adding the spikes should make no difference at all.

That's the whole point to both couple and decouple at the same time, it works for me....
The point of decoupling is that the vibrations are not transmitted to the floor
The point of coupling is that the speakers are coupled incredibly tight to the foundation, which in this case means the granite plate.

In my mind you get both the advantages of coupling and decoupling at the same time, without any cons....

It works for my and I can certainly hear the difference..... I don't listen with instruments, I listen with my ears )

Anyways, you can spot the setup at the front page here: http://www.affordableaudio.org/aa2007-11.pdf
(Disregard the outer set of spikes, they're not in touch with the granite plate)

 

[j_garcia]

I listen with my ears too I can say that decoupling usually only helps when you have a floor resonance problem - the decoupling cleans up bass and midbass because the sympathetic resonance of the floor is removed. Coupling is pretty much the same thing as just leaving the speaker in full contact. The harmonics of how the vibration is transmitted are modified, but the vibration is still transmitted. IMHO, proper placement of the speakers will make a bigger difference than coupling/decoupling (unless you have a vibration prone floor in the case of decoupling).

I've done somewhat the same thing in my setup - the MoPads sit under my speakers on the stands, the stands have the spikes into my carpeted floor. There is no direct transmission of vibration to the stand (not filled) and I could hear the difference immedately.

 

[haraldo]

proper placement of the speakers will make a bigger difference than coupling/decoupling

I certainly agree, but getting both things right doesn't hurt