+1 for spikes on concrete and Gaia footers on suspended floors
Under my tower speakers -- Isoacoustics Gaia, other options?
I have Ascend towers (45lbs each) on a concrete floor covered in thin wall to wall with an area rug on top of that. I am looking into different footers for my speakers and am curious what people with towers on concrete have tried and liked.
To my mind, something as expensive as Townshend platforms do not seem worth it, as they'd cost about a third of the price of the speakers themselves.
If you've tried Gaia III isolators or other kinds of feet for your speakers, especially on concrete floors, I'm curious to hear your observations. Thanks.
- ...
- 131 posts total
I have Gaia IIIs under my standmounts/stands. The stands are adjustable for height, and the height was adjusted so that the speakers were the same height with/without the Gaias. The Gaias stay, they made a big improvement in terms of soundstage, and improved/better-defined bass plus they seemed to open out the music and make the whole experience simply more musical. This was on a carpet over suspended wood floor, with the spiked carpet cups (the latter are a PITA to setup). I would imagine that these are a lot easier to adjust on a solid floor. The Gaias are supposed to make a sticky contact with the floor and be difficult to move; Isoacoustics has a very nice video on their website that shows how to adjust the speaker positions using a tea towel. |
I'd kill for a concrete floor. My listening space is in an old room build in the 1890s and the floor is a little bouncy. I had my speakers on spikes but they basically turned the whole floor into a passive radiator. The house literally shook. I tried Gaia and while they did not help with the bass problem they really focused the midrange. I now have my speakers on 3" thick granite blocks which did help the bass problem built I also left the Gaia on. Things sound very focused.
Your concrete floor is great cause it's totally inert. Coupling to that with spikes should be very effective but Gaia may help bring some mids and highs into focus by stabilizing the speaker overall |
@hilde45 I posted an identical question a few months back. I looked at the Townshend and Gaia's. I just didn't want to spend that much $ and I really didn't want to raise my speaks any higher as they are already quite large (Revel Performa3 F208's). But I didn't want to use spikes on my carpet either as I have always had a hard time balancing and then moving them once they're in. So I wanted something that would isolate yet also allow the speaks to be moved/tweaked rather easily without lifting and tearing the carpet. Someone pointed me towards the Herbie's Gliders. They are PERFECT! They give me everything I was looking for at an extremely reasonable cost. They also have multiple models to fit pretty much every speaker out there.
Cone/Spike Decoupling Glider – Herbie's Audio Lab (herbiesaudiolab.com) |
- 131 posts total