Speaker spike feet?


I recently acquired a nice older hifi system with Aerial Acoustics 7B tower speakers.I am not an audiophile. The speakers have heavy iron bases on them but there are no feet of any sort on these bases. I emailed the owner/designer at Aerial and he sent me a schematic of the bases which show that they originally had spike feet. He said he could provide the spikes at minimal cost. I was afraid to ask what minimal meant since I seem to remember that these bases cost $400 when new. (I'm still getting accustomed to what things cost in the audiophile world.)

I am wondering if I really need the spikes. These speakers sit on a carpeted floor with hardwood on typical joist construction floor. They sound quite good to me but if spikes would help in any way and I can get them cheap then I will do so.

I'll ask Aerial how much theirs cost but I'm pretty sure that stainless steel tripod (for photography) spikes will fit the 3/8-16 threads in these bases. The cost would be about $40 for those. Maybe the actual Aerial ones wouldn't cost any more but they are longer and look very sharp which makes me wonder about floor/carpet damage since these speakers weigh around 110 pounds each.
n80

Showing 3 responses by kalali

If the speakers are on a carpeted floor over hardwood, you definitely want to use spikes that are long enough to go through the carpet and couple the speakers to the hardwood. If possible, a little space between the base and the carpet is preferred. You’ll notice a much more articulated and tighter and less boomy bass response as the result. The weight will make tiny pinholes on the wood floor from the spikes but they’ll be (obviously) not noticeable/seen.
"Isolating the speakers with springs, making them less rigid, sounds better"

In my experience, that depends on the specific conditions. That approach worked well for me when I had the speakers on a suspending hardwood flooring, e.g., second floor, above basement, etc. Direct/solid coupling worked better when I had the same speakers on hardwood floor on concrete slab or on tiles on concrete. I also think the results could vary depending on the speaker design and the location of the woofer and its relative proximity to the floor, assuming a floor standing speaker.