To Spike or not to Spike?

[YNWaN]

I think Arthur was the first to use Aerolam in the hi-fi industry (for the PT chassis); Celestion did use it later for the cabinet of the 600 and 700's (difficult to do). It's also used in the aeroplane industry and in boats. I use the CF/Nomex version in my own deck.

[Reffc]

As my speakers are about the same weight as I am, I don't use spikes under them as the result would be big holes through the floor! I use adjustable inverted cups. Spikes are ok where you need to couple through carpet onto a sold floor. Not so good on suspended floors. Foam is extensively used in he recording industry but it's fun to experiment with your own DIY laminations of polystyrene/carpet squares or whatever at very low cost. One trick where boom may be an issue is to de-couple the bass from the floor boundary by raising the speaker further from the floor, as long as the tweeter is angled towards the listening position, or for stand mounts, invert the speakers.

[Yomanze]

Well, with respect, PT didn't invent Aerolam. Wharfedale did a speaker that used melamine skins over foam and you can now buy CF over foam.

The bridge and sounding board analogy is a nice idea but I don't think it is a very accurate one. My experience of spiking speakers to wooden floors is that they sound less coloured (not more).

Yes, my feeling too. I use little blobs of blutack - a requirement to properly mount speakers to Something Solid SL24 speaker stands - and floor spikes. My Mana rack is also directly spiked to my wooden floor, no phases, and this combination gives me the most natural and 'alive' sound. I did hear that Mana soundstages were originally designed for Mana Reference tables to work with concrete floors, but ultimately suspended wooden floors and spikes gives me the best illusion of real in my typical English house...

EDIT if I had a concrete floor then I would be looking at a level of decoupling, maybe some Auralex Platfoam or http://www.auralex.com/sound_isolati...ion_gramma.asp as spikes into concrete funnily enough sounds 'harder'...

[bobbasrah]

Oddly enough neil, the IPL speakers I have at home are set on tap washers on a spiked wooden raised platform filled with dry sand. A rather strange but remarkable combination with these TLs that Ivor designed, but they work well.
Tried messing around with them on a few occasions but they are heavy sods so it needs to be a serious improvement to be worth it. Every time I try it goes back to the original combo as best, although I have to add that these have only ever been on concrete floors.... The room is well treated but not overdamped, excellent and balanced reproduction in the main room, although I do get a slight bass boom when standing at the front door about 7 metres away with a bit of grunt... Keeps the gypsies away though...

[wee tee cee]

castors on original spendor stand sound fine on carpet, use them for the 63s to raise them up a bit aswell........nice to tuck them away at dinner time/kids visiting.....

[cloth-ears]

Sometime back in the late 70’s or early 80’s I had the good fortune to meet Dudley Harwood, (blatant name dropping). He told me that speaker cabinets were either “part of the problem or part of the solution”. He opted for thin but well damped walls. Not a spike to be seen, or for that matter any by-wire option. They sounded lovely as I recall, HLM Kk1 that is.

[johnB]

Indeed - plus, it makes things a damn sight easier when adjusting loudspeaker positioning...

With regard to spikes, I'm the spike-meister, as I reckon that there must be 100s of the buggers used (different shapes and sizes) in all my stacks of Mana!!

Marco.

Marco, I see that you sometimes run Celestion 66s.....what do you stand these on? Spikes? Granite?
I have wood laminate on a solid floor.
Cheers
John

[Sovereign]

castors on original spendor stand sound fine on carpet, use them for the 63s to raise them up a bit aswell........nice to tuck them away at dinner time/kids visiting.....

I also found casters sounded good on carpet under me big OB speakers. But I found popping oak cones under them made a significant improvement, that's on a concrete floor.
I would really like to couple the speakers directly to the concrete and see what difference that makes but as me OBs must be about 60kg so that won't be happening anytime soon