I have had the Gaia II footers with carpet spikes under my Goldenear Triton One speakers for about 4 months. I have tried four different spike/cone/footers with these speakers as described below.
I originally had the speakers installed in a room with carpet over a concrete slab using the factory supplied spikes. I had good results with Audio Point brass cones under previous speakers (Wilson W/P 7, Dunlavy SC-V, Mirage M-1), so I tried the Audio Point 2.0's on the Triton Ones. Unfortunately, this did not work well at all. Dynamics were restricted, transients were softened and the sound became dull and lifeless. I actually preferred the sound of the speakers sitting flat on the carpet with no spikes or cones at all compared to the Audio Points.
Next, without expecting much, I tried the Track Audio stainless steel spikes ($119 from Music Direct). These resulted in a nice improvement over the stock spikes with tighter bass, better defined images and a more dynamic presentation. I was pleasantly surprised by how much of a performance increase the stainless steel spikes made.
I then moved to a new house with a second floor music room over the garage that had carpet over plywood flooring. I tried both the stock spikes and the Track Audio stainless steel spikes to see how each worked in the new room. I was disappointed to find that while the Track Audio spikes were still better than stock, it wasn't to near the degree of improvement they had been on the concrete slab.
I used the Track Audio spikes for about 2 years before installing the Gaia II footers with their matching carpet spikes. The Gaia's made the largest improvement of any of the previous solutions. Bass became even more defined and articulate, images are more three dimensional, stage depth improved and the speakers disappear into the sound stage to a greater degree. The overall sound is more relaxed and enjoyable while revealing more subtle details.
This experience has demonstrated to me how different floors can have an impact on which speaker supports will work best. It would have been interesting to see how the Gaia's would have performed against the Track Audio spikes on the concrete slab, but for my current environment, I am very pleased with their performance.
I originally had the speakers installed in a room with carpet over a concrete slab using the factory supplied spikes. I had good results with Audio Point brass cones under previous speakers (Wilson W/P 7, Dunlavy SC-V, Mirage M-1), so I tried the Audio Point 2.0's on the Triton Ones. Unfortunately, this did not work well at all. Dynamics were restricted, transients were softened and the sound became dull and lifeless. I actually preferred the sound of the speakers sitting flat on the carpet with no spikes or cones at all compared to the Audio Points.
Next, without expecting much, I tried the Track Audio stainless steel spikes ($119 from Music Direct). These resulted in a nice improvement over the stock spikes with tighter bass, better defined images and a more dynamic presentation. I was pleasantly surprised by how much of a performance increase the stainless steel spikes made.
I then moved to a new house with a second floor music room over the garage that had carpet over plywood flooring. I tried both the stock spikes and the Track Audio stainless steel spikes to see how each worked in the new room. I was disappointed to find that while the Track Audio spikes were still better than stock, it wasn't to near the degree of improvement they had been on the concrete slab.
I used the Track Audio spikes for about 2 years before installing the Gaia II footers with their matching carpet spikes. The Gaia's made the largest improvement of any of the previous solutions. Bass became even more defined and articulate, images are more three dimensional, stage depth improved and the speakers disappear into the sound stage to a greater degree. The overall sound is more relaxed and enjoyable while revealing more subtle details.
This experience has demonstrated to me how different floors can have an impact on which speaker supports will work best. It would have been interesting to see how the Gaia's would have performed against the Track Audio spikes on the concrete slab, but for my current environment, I am very pleased with their performance.