Opinion About Floor Spikes?

[bikdav]

Hey Everybody:

Floor spikes for speakers and subwoofers. What do you think about them _ pro or con? Please be serious about your experiences with them and your thoughts about them. I've never seriously tried them, but I'm curious about them since I've been seeing them more frequently.

 

[Alex2507]

Speaker Spikes and Cones

 

[Adam]

I use spikes on my carpet only because it provides a sturdier base for my speaker stands (the spikes keep the bases locked in place). Sonically, I have no idea if it makes any difference. I've used my stands with and without them, and I never noticed any difference.

 

[lsiberian]

Anything that secures your speaker from falling has to be good IMO.

 

[Alex2507]

Please be serious about your experiences ...

That's such a tempting opening but I'm going to resist ...
Doug, you can stop reading now. I'm not going to do it.

This has been discussed at least a few times and there are wildly differing opinions that won't ever be reconciled. Similarly differing opinions can be found on other audio topics like amps, speaker wire and interconnects. It comes down to two groups, subjectivists and objectivists. I have recently met some DIY'ers and listened to some of their home grown speaker designs played on high dollar amps with fancy DAC's fed by MIT interconnects. At least a couple of these guys like their spikes. They swear by them. Other guys say they don't make a difference. Some people are better at discerning what they are hearing even though their hearing is just like everybody else's.

Try running a search to track down these discussions but the bottom line is that this is something you are going to have to hear for yourself and it may take some time and effort to determine what you think you hear. The best part about other people's opinions is that it provides a point of reference.

The real question is what kind of spikes are you going to get? Which ones are on your radar? I need to know these things because if I can afford it I want to get the next model up in order to feel superior.

 

[3db]

Speaker spikes are used to keep the speaker in place and from rocking around a carpeted area. I don't think they do much sonically. However, visually, its like this... It just completes the ensemble

 

[cpp]

Well spikes just won't work in my home as we have these pretty wood floors.. So I use a product by Auralex and Herbie's Audio Lab to isolate my speakers and sub. We also use the stuff to isolate drums, amps etc.. Not sure if it helps sonically but the WAF is satisfied

 

[Cruise Missile]

Floor construction is the biggest factor here.

3" shag carpet over a concrete slab and spikes are the way to go. (Stability)

Wood/laminate/tile over concrete and rubber feet get the nod. (Protection for floor)

Any floor built on joists calls for isolation to prevent sympathetic resonance. (Noise control)

 

[MidnightSensi2]

The only 'decouple'/'couple'/'modifier' whatever I've used that I noticed a difference with is the Auralex SubDude. Others have stated the same. Just helped my shaking bass bins from shaking other stuff in the room.

For speakers, spikes are great on carpet to keep them stable. Wood floors use some rubber feet to keep the speakers from scratching them. As far as sonic improvement, I doubt I could hear it lol.

 

[sholling]

Hey Everybody:

Floor spikes for speakers and subwoofers. What do you think about them _ pro or con? Please be serious about your experiences with them and your thoughts about them. I've never seriously tried them, but I'm curious about them since I've been seeing them more frequently.

I don't think they do a lot but the theory behind spikes is that on a spongy surface like thick carpet that spikes will prevent an equal and opposite reaction of large speaker cones going in one direction and the speaker cabinet moving the opposite direction however minutely and thus canceling very-very-very fine detail. Is it real? I have no idea. I know I do like spikes for stability on thick carpet.

What spikes are not for is isolation. Yes they are sometimes sold for that but all you are doing is focusing the contact into 4 smaller areas. For isolation you want an isolation pad. I happen to be a fan of isolation when dealing with (decoupling from) hard surfaces but I use products like Mopads for decoupling speakers. Subwoofer isolation pads make sense of you have hard surfaces or neighbors below you.

 

[bikdav]

I use spikes on my carpet only because it provides a sturdier base for my speaker stands (the spikes keep the bases locked in place). Sonically, I have no idea if it makes any difference. I've used my stands with and without them, and I never noticed any difference.

This is what I figured. I can picture there usefulness on carpets. But, on other surfaces, I just couldn't get a grip on any advantage that spikes offer. But, I wanted to see what experiences some you had with them.

 

[toddious]

I think in certain circumstances they can make a big difference.