Floor standing speaker supports [Archive]

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Vanzapp

21-04-2018, 19:20

Stratmangler

21-04-2018, 19:43

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

YNWaN

21-04-2018, 19:49

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!

nonuffin

21-04-2018, 20:36

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.

struth

21-04-2018, 20:45

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

Pharos

21-04-2018, 22:23

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.

walpurgis

21-04-2018, 22:35

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.

Ninanina

21-04-2018, 23:07

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:

http://i.imgur.com/3vT2MEY.jpg (https://imgur.com/3vT2MEY)

Vanzapp

22-04-2018, 09:51

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.

Ninanina

22-04-2018, 17:02

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-PLATFORMS-STANDS-PLINTHS-B-W-MONITOR-AUDIO-KEF-PROAC-PMC-ATC-QUAD-ELAC/362256346121?hash=item5458292c09:g:2VMAAOSwneRXQ2M-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-Granite-Plinths-300x300x12mm-speaker-isolation-platform/172861418710?hash=item283f57ecd6:g:k7oAAOSw~1FUVd2 U

Vanzapp

22-04-2018, 19:18

Thanks Bev. Worth a closer look.

hifinutt

23-04-2018, 15:54

RobbieGong

23-04-2018, 16:36

these are also brilliant dave , as i mentioned and suitable for the 28kg 804s

http://store.hificorner.co.uk/isoacoustics-gaia-iii-threaded-isolation-feet.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqYPRnODQ2gIVzrftCh2h5g awEAQYAiABEgLUe_D_BwE#fo_c=1460&fo_k=023a869e744f96b1cd30f3957553172e&fo_s=gplauk

Indeed ! A mate / work colleague is getting some for his B&W CM9's.

Wouldnt mind some myself but a bit rich for me. I'll have to stick with the SoundCare SuperSpikes :)

mikmas

23-04-2018, 16:56

.. or save a load of dosh and pop down to your local builders merchants for a pair of marble floor tiles ..

I did ;)

Vanzapp

24-04-2018, 18:11

these are also brilliant dave , as i mentioned and suitable for the 28kg 804s

http://store.hificorner.co.uk/isoacoustics-gaia-iii-threaded-isolation-feet.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqYPRnODQ2gIVzrftCh2h5g awEAQYAiABEgLUe_D_BwE#fo_c=1460&fo_k=023a869e744f96b1cd30f3957553172e&fo_s=gplauk

...So these go down on to the carpet? They sure look purdy.

Vanzapp

24-04-2018, 18:12

.. or save a load of dosh and pop down to your local builders merchants for a pair of marble floor tiles ..

I did ;)

I may yet do that.