Loudspeaker Spikes
Spikes: they couple speakers firmly to stands and floors. They are reported to significantly sink cabinet vibration away and ergo to reduce coloration. Interesting Stereophile article here: http://www.stereophile.com/features/806/index.html
Triangle Electroacoustique obviously rate spikes, my speakers have 5 each (they are Antal ESW if you want to Google them). They have an oversized front central spike which purportedly sinks baffle vibration to ground, the other four spikes providing leveling and presumably sinking more cabinet vibration away.
The four 'standard' spikes can be replaced with rubber feet. The large front spike has a big round washer to protect solid floors, or stop the spike being defeated by deep pile and underlay.
The thing is, with 5 spikes I can't really get the speaker solidly coupled with the concrete floor underneath the carpet. This is partly because the front spike, sitting on it's washer won't couple firmly with the floor. Without the washer the thread isn't long enough to go right through to concrete. Given these behemoth speakers have far more active cabinets than their diminutive predecessors, I'd reason that firmly spiking them to the floor would be of greater importance in order to reduce cabinet vibration. Also, given the height of the tweeter, the exaggerated movement of the top of these tall speakers could modulate the output somewhat.
Maybe I will use the four rubber feet and drive the large spike through to the concrete floor, and see how easy it is to perceive a difference. That's actually a big maybe, I don't usually get the time to muck about with the hifi. I'm only here now due to a cancelled job, but the idle speculation is fun.
Triangle Electroacoustique obviously rate spikes, my speakers have 5 each (they are Antal ESW if you want to Google them). They have an oversized front central spike which purportedly sinks baffle vibration to ground, the other four spikes providing leveling and presumably sinking more cabinet vibration away.
The four 'standard' spikes can be replaced with rubber feet. The large front spike has a big round washer to protect solid floors, or stop the spike being defeated by deep pile and underlay.
The thing is, with 5 spikes I can't really get the speaker solidly coupled with the concrete floor underneath the carpet. This is partly because the front spike, sitting on it's washer won't couple firmly with the floor. Without the washer the thread isn't long enough to go right through to concrete. Given these behemoth speakers have far more active cabinets than their diminutive predecessors, I'd reason that firmly spiking them to the floor would be of greater importance in order to reduce cabinet vibration. Also, given the height of the tweeter, the exaggerated movement of the top of these tall speakers could modulate the output somewhat.
Maybe I will use the four rubber feet and drive the large spike through to the concrete floor, and see how easy it is to perceive a difference. That's actually a big maybe, I don't usually get the time to muck about with the hifi. I'm only here now due to a cancelled job, but the idle speculation is fun.
Comments
Certainly spikes on concrete seem to have produced the best results for me (all other things being equal).