Spikes between speakers & stands, up or down?


Okay so I am curious, I might try a set of spikes between a speaker and stand for a friend of mine. We are looking to replace the rubber stopper type pads to see how it sounds.

Coupling - Decoupling?

So I have seen both orientations of spikes, with them sticking "POINT UP" into the bottom of the speaker, which means installing the spike into the stand top plate, yes easier and less modification to messing with the speaker bottom.

Or "Point Down" which I assume is to drain the energy from the speaker down into the stand…

The bottom of the stands also already have nice solid brass spikes pointing into the floor of course, but I have just seen them again done both ways for the Stand to speaker but never reversed to the floor.

Another option which honestly might be the best is to try something that is NOT a spike device but rather a hard material of a metal flat foot or like Brass puck between the stand and speaker to transfer the energy vs. damping it and maybe loosing some resolution with the current Rubber pads?

Just looking for experience and what is suggested.. I think we rather stay away from spikes just due to the damage to the "spiked surface" and also due to drilling one or the other out to install them..

Also I have some Myrtle wood blocks which might even be a better Idea to give a shot? Keep it in the wood family and maybe get a solid energy transfer to the floor thru the stand that way?

Or maybe taking away the rubber will cause worse results who knows without experimentation right? I would assume the rubber is acting as a De coupler and any other hard material would work more as a Coupler.. So which would be better I guess?

Just don't want to buy anything till' there is a clear concensus on which is the correct direction to go with this.

Thanks      
undertow

Showing 3 responses by shadorne

If you have thin wall speakers like Harbeth's then this can obviously make a big difference.

If you have very heavy braced speakers with thick walls and a highly damped cabinet then it probably matters very little what you use...

So it depends mostly on the Speakers and how much coloration the box puts out.
I'm with Jeff and Cytocycle, I prefer blu tak or rubber...so that less vibrations travel to the stand and floor...to me any vibration that is not coming from the speaker or through the air is unwanted. My exception is when you have thin-walled speakers (such as Harbeth) where the box itself is acting like a speaker cone and intended to add to the sound itself as the cabinet waffles like a wooden instrument - in this case, depending on the room/placement, it may help to allow the cabinet to "resonate" freely, as it is designed this way - so spikes may be better than damping material.
They are very heavy 1" plus Thick walls, relatively braced MDF with internal damping.. They are ported as well.

Then I would be careful about spending huge sums of money on spikes....rubber pads should be fine. Since the box should not be adding too much coloration then my guess is that it won't make a huge difference either way...