+ Reply to Thread
Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 16

Thread: Floor standing speaker supports

  1. #1
    Join Date: Mar 2017

    Location: Norfolk

    Posts: 109
    I'm David.

    Default Floor standing speaker supports

    I've had a pair of B&W 804s' for a few years now and they've always been on the supplies spikes. The lounge floor is carpeted with concrete underneath.

    My question is, would these benefit (as in the sound) from additional support? i.e. Granite blocks or the like.

  2. #2
    Join Date: Nov 2008

    Location: Valley of the Hazels

    Posts: 9,139
    I'm AMusicFanNotAnAudiophile.

    Default

    Possibly.
    Experiment - you could try 2p pieces under the spikes.
    Chris



    Common sense isn't anymore!

  3. #3
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Deleted

    Posts: 6,585
    I'm Deleted.

    Default

    Every way you support your speakers will make a clear, and pretty obvious, difference. That includes expensive third party spike options and simple granite slabs. All I can tell you for sure is that you will hear a difference and you will genuinely prefer one over the other. You may end up preferring the expensive spikes and you may prefer the granite slabs. Invest in time and experimentation and then spend your money knowing you’ve got what you want. If you prefer the effect of the expensive spikes buy them - if you honestly prefer the slabs buy them - if you feel you are being influenced by value for money / honestly, don’t buy anything!
    Account Deleted

  4. #4
    Join Date: Apr 2018

    Location: South East Cornwall

    Posts: 322
    I'm Dominic.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Vanzapp View Post
    I've had a pair of B&W 804s' for a few years now and they've always been on the supplies spikes. The lounge floor is carpeted with concrete underneath.

    My question is, would these benefit (as in the sound) from additional support? i.e. Granite blocks or the like.
    You probably know this already, but the spikes are there to puncture through the carpet to make contact with the concrete floor and keep the speaker coupled to a firm surface. You are effectively connecting the speaker cabinet to a large mass - the concrete floor.

    Plonk speakers directly onto a carpet and they tend to wobble about. Remove the spikes, put the speakers onto a granite slab on the carpet and . . . . . it will wobble about. The wise ones tell us this is rather undesirable because a wobbling speaker acts like the recoil from a gun firing, because as the drivers move there is an equal and opposite force acting on the cabinet, which are then wobbling about while this goes on.

    Max Townshend produces speaker supports that - wobble about, yet the difference they make to sound quality has to be heard to be believed. Touch the speaker cabinet and they flop around quite frerely which really is counter-intuitive to what we have been told for so many years.
    CD player = Marantz CD6006
    DAC/pre = Rotel RC 1572
    Power amp = ADA PF201
    Speaks = Quadral Chromium Style 6

  5. #5
    Join Date: Feb 2013

    Location: W Lothian

    Posts: 99,005
    I'm Grant.

    Default Floor standing speaker supports

    Got same floor. I use rubber feet. Cheap as chips and do a good job. My carpet is too thick for spikes to get to concrete
    Regards,
    Grant .... ؠ ......Don't be such a big girl's blouse

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply-doesn't-work
    .... ..... ...... ...... ................... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
    FIIO K7 BT, M11 PLUS, BTR7, KA5 - OPPO BDP-103D - PANASONIC UB450 - PANASONIC 4K ULTRA HD TV - PIXEL 6 - AVANTREE LR BLUETOOTH - 2* X600 SOUNDCORE - HEADPHONES INCLUDE, FIIO, NURAPHONES', FOCAL, OPPO, BOSE, CAMBRIDGE, BOWER & WILKINS, DEVIALET, MARSHALL, SONY, MITCHELL & JOHNSTON - 2*ZBOOK'S- MERCURY BD ROM, ROON, QOBUZ, TIDAL, PLEX, CYBERLINK, JRIVER - MULTI HDD'S -

    Oh my god! There's nothing wrong with the bidet is there?

    “Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy".

    “You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

    "You don't have free will. You have the appearance of free will.”

    “There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!”


    ***SMILE, BE HAPPY***

  6. #6
    Join Date: Mar 2017

    Location: Seaford UK

    Posts: 1,861
    I'm Dennis.

    Default

    Interesting old chestnut.

    It seems established that spikes couple. (Running shoes, nails in wood). This will allow energy to be sunk away if the mechanical impedance is appropriate, which it probably is not from cabinet to concrete.

    Granite slabs are good because they can present an impedance which is very different from that of the wooden cabinet, and hence stop energy from being transmitted to wooden floors where it may be re-radiated, and make a din. (They are behaving like a concrete floor in this case).

    The 'rocking theory', claimed to lessen transients, is IMO very questionable, especially with substantial speaker weight.

    Mine are 77kg each and I use S/S domes filled with PVC which screw into the bases, and rest on the carpet, on a wooden floor, manipulating that weight with spikes is asking for trouble of one sort or another.

  7. #7
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: N E Kent

    Posts: 51,624
    I'm Geoff.

    Default

    Concrete slabs on rubber blocks will act as an 'energy sink', it takes a lot to make them vibrate. Obviously this principal can be overridden if the speakers are hugely heavy and the weight overcomes the compliance of the rubber blocks.

  8. #8
    Join Date: Aug 2012

    Location: Sunny Portsmouth

    Posts: 9,165
    I'm TheMostHonestPersonYouWillMeet.

    Default

    The best method I used was heavy paving slab with a double layer of some bitumen type flashing on top cut to the correct size for the speaker base and no spikes.. absolutely no movement and I found it worked much better than spikes

    I think it was Bitubond, like this:

    Bev


    Mark Levinson N°390s CD Through:Atlas Elektra XLR's To: Mark Levinson N°383 To: Magneplanar .7's

  9. #9
    Join Date: Mar 2017

    Location: Norfolk

    Posts: 109
    I'm David.

    Default

    Some great insight and advice, thanks Guys. The speakers weigh 28kg, so not massively heavy, and they're tall. I've seen some supports from Sound City but they are in the USA. They look like they'd increase stability but coupling/de-coupling, don't know. Not sure I'd get away with with concrete slabs in the lounge...I think 'She who must be obeyed' might have have an opinion on that. Experimentation seems to be the answer. I'll have a play.

  10. #10
    Join Date: Aug 2012

    Location: Sunny Portsmouth

    Posts: 9,165
    I'm TheMostHonestPersonYouWillMeet.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Vanzapp View Post
    Not sure I'd get away with with concrete slabs in the lounge...I think 'She who must be obeyed' might have have an opinion on that.
    If you can't get away with concrete slabs then something like this looks very nice:

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2XSPEAKER...MAAOSwneRXQ2M-

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-Granit...oAAOSw~1FUVd2U
    Bev


    Mark Levinson N°390s CD Through:Atlas Elektra XLR's To: Mark Levinson N°383 To: Magneplanar .7's

+ Reply to Thread
Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •