Spike Advice Please.

[icehockeyboy]

On a wooden floor, good old original floorboards, is it better to use speaker stands with spikes on ‘cups’ or whatever you might refer to them as, none at all, or some kind of rubber circular foot things?

[struth]

Probably. But you can never be sure. I e seen rubber feet working better.
There is no 100% right answer

[Edward]

I use SuperSpikes. Beats the pants off everything else I tried. YMMV of course.

[Yomanze]

If you have a suspended wooden floor, then spikes are a bad idea, especially under speakers, as they couple the gear to a moving floor. If you have a concrete floor, and don’t want to damage the wood, then any old coins under the spikes will do, or indeed some spike shoes.

[YNWaN]

I favour massive sharp spikes directly into the floorboards (though there is carpet hiding the inevitable gouge they make).

[YNWaN]

If you have a suspended wooden floor, then spikes are a bad idea, especially under speakers, ....

I entirely disagree.

[Pharos]

I think that hard and fast rules are not applicable, but have the view that very large heavy speakers do not benefit much, if at all from the whole consideration. So it is suck it and see.

[icehockeyboy]

I think that hard and fast rules are not applicable, but have the view that very large heavy speakers do not benefit much, if at all from the whole consideration. So it is suck it and see.

Not large, not heavy...at the moment I can only find 7 spikes! So I can’t even try it!

I can’t actually see a difference if a spike penetrates right through the carpet to make contact with floorboards, why would it be different as someone earlier points out?

[Edward]

I have Tannoy Berkeleys, each weighing over 40kg with a large footprint. Placing them on hardwood plinths which have spikes (SuperSpikes in my case) makes a massive difference. Sound gained more focus and is tightened up. This directly on suspended wooden floors (with probably 2/3 feet gap to the foundations.

Similar gains from standmount speakers on heavy Target stands when I added spikes.

[Yomanze]

I entirely disagree.

My neighbours don’t, who no longer can hear bass thuds etc. in their living room.

Since decoupling I have a cleaner, more focussed sound, with a significant reduction in “room boom”.

YMMV of course. My floor might just be very lively.

[graham67]

Another recommendation for soundcare superspikes which dont mark wooden floors and means no messing about with.spike cups which almost always result in new holes in floor when they dont line up or slide off ��

[Edward]

Another recommendation for soundcare superspikes which dont mark wooden floors and means no messing about with.spike cups which almost always result in new holes in floor when they dont line up or slide off ��One thing I have done at times is to cut small squares of think carpeting and place them under spikes. Not neat but useful for a temporary fix. Saves being yelled at by swmbo. [emoji23]

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[Gaz]

What exactly are spikes, granite/wooden blocks supposed to do concerning speakers?
My stands have spikes but for the life of me I can't see any logical purpose for them other than keep the stands level

[struth]

There are generally 2 types of spike. decoupling ones, usually used for speakers, and coupling used for speaker stands(these are longer and sharper)

[YNWaN]

All spikes couple, irrespective of how long or short they are. If you want to decouple you need some kind of compliant material v

[AJSki2fly]

On a wooden floor, good old original floorboards, is it better to use speaker stands with spikes on ‘cups’ or whatever you might refer to them as, none at all, or some kind of rubber circular foot things?

My friend has Tannoy Kennsington GR's, big M*****F***er's, he lives in a 2nd floor flat in and victorian converted house. The joists are 8" thick so a lovely void for transmitting music to below. He put sound deadening underlay directly on the boards of the room to help with this, and to stop the downstair TV noise as they are elderly and listen at high volumes. The sound deadening cut noise levels by 50%. He tried speaker on and off spikes before and after the deadening went down. His opinion is, and I agree having heard them, that with the spikes the soundstage id more focused and detailed bass is better controlled as well.

Recently he has made speaker plinths using left over solid Oak kitchen worktop, this is about 40mm thick and weigh a ton. He had loads of it as the supplier initially cut it wrong and had to re-supply. He had enough over for me and is bringing me some this weekend. The plinths sit directly on the carpet and then the speaker on top with spikes, he says this has improved focus even more. I have not heard them like this so cannot comment, but I presume it will be that the Oak is acting as a stabiliser and decoupling the speakers from the floor.

If you take the above aproach then I would be tempted to put the Oak plinths onto Sorbothane semi-spheres that are large enough to take the total weight of plinth and speakers. The Sornothane semi-spheres are not that expensive on Ebay, and from my experience they do work, having tried them on TT's and Amps. Alternatively you could buy some expensive isolation feet to try out.

[Pieoftheday]

Do the soundcare superspikes and similar effectively stop sound traveling through the floor to neighbour's ?

[AJSki2fly]

Do the soundcare superspikes and similar effectively stop sound traveling through the floor to neighbour's ?

See my reply above yours.

[Pieoftheday]

That reply doesn't refer to soundcare superspikes? Have missed it?

[Yomanze]

Do the soundcare superspikes and similar effectively stop sound traveling through the floor to neighbour's ?

No, you need a decoupling layer. My speakers are bolted to their stands, and the stand bottom plates are decoupled using squishy hemispheres.

[Pharos]

It seems to me that a hard and fast rule of thumb is difficult to arrive at when considering speaker to floor mounting, and that empirical trial is necessary.