To Spike or not to Spike?

[cloth-ears]

Some aspects of Hi-Fi are so ingrained in our psyche that we accept their existence without challenge. Spikes are a case in point. Who in their right mind would be stupid enough not to use spikes on a speaker.

A few weeks ago I was at a friend’s recording studio in Bedford. He was showing off his latest acquisition, a pair of Dynaudio M1.5 speakers. To my surprise these were mounted on sponge bases, not spikes (sacrilege). When I asked him why he said that everybody uses sponge. The reason being that they stopped any vibrations in the cabinet being transferred through the mixing desk and muddying up the midrange.

Always being one to experiment I got my old Kef Cresta’s out of the loft and tried them on sponges. Half expecting them to sound awful I was surprised as to just how good they sounded. The midrange was indeed less muddy, quite spacious in fact. I put the spikes back in and remembered why I had put them in the loft in the first place. They sounded dull and lifeless. Placing them back on sponges they were a completely different speaker. I listened to them for hours. Even the wife noticed the difference and that’s saying something. She preferred the sound they made on sponges.

Anybody else tried this?

[Rothchild]

Coupling vs Decoupling is a fairly contested and apparently not definitively understood aspect of speaker mounting.

I think the ideal solution is fairly context dependent. If it were a suspended wood floor I'd think I'd be looking to decouple (so the floor doesn't act as a boom box) indeed I have in the past on these surfaces used a paving slab with a couple of layers of carpet underneath and put the stand on those. On a solid concrete floor I'd be looking to couple the speakers to it (as the mass of the floor is probably sufficient to absorb the lowest frequency energy that may not be absorbed by the stand itself).

There's some useful 'leaping off' points for considering the various elements at work here: http://www.ecoustics.com/electronics...io/630091.html

[cloth-ears]

Coupling vs Decoupling is a fairly contested and apparently not definitively understood aspect of speaker mounting.

I think the ideal solution is fairly context dependent. If it were a suspended wood floor I'd think I'd be looking to decouple (so the floor doesn't act as a boom box) indeed I have in the past on these surfaces used a paving slab with a couple of layers of carpet underneath and put the stand on those. On a solid concrete floor I'd be looking to couple the speakers to it (as the mass of the floor is probably sufficient to absorb the lowest frequency energy that may not be absorbed by the stand itself).

There's some useful 'leaping off' points for considering the various elements at work here: http://www.ecoustics.com/electronics...io/630091.html

Thanks Marc, an interesting read. I’ll have to do some more experimenting.

[icehockeyboy]

Some time back, following a similar debate about coupling etc, I removed the spikes on my FB 1's and replaced them with some simple self adhesive pads, the sort you get from those cheap £1 type shops, and then put them onto the granite blocks again, to my ears it was an improvement.

[cloth-ears]

So the debate goes on, spikes or rubber? Hang on; I think I can see a business opportunity here. “RUBBER SPIKES” Everybody wins…………………………….

[Sovereign]

My speakers are large open baffles on caster wheels. I have always been a fan of coupling with cones.
After listening t my speakers for six months or so on caster wheels I popped some oak cones under them and everything tightened up and was way more focused and transparent. The mid range was more open and communicative.
Always interested in the topic .

[Thing Fish]

My speakers came with big arse spikes that screw into the base. They sound good to me.

[YNWaN]

Just spike, to the max

[Marco]

I like castors

Marco.

[realysm42]

When I first had my ushers, I didn't fit the (cast iron) bases and spikes, when I did, the sound tightened up considerably, made them sound a lot better.