How to stabilize speakers without spikes.


My wife won! In the interest of domestic tranquility I have relented. After living with carpet over wood floors and spikes on my speakers for many years, my wife wants to have a wood floor (maybe tile) installed in our house. I've always used spikes in my Vandersteens (2Ci) to stabilize them with a slight front tilt upward. What would you pros do now? As always, thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Tom
bookert2896c
Depending on what's under your hardwood floors, spikeless speakers might work well.

I recently sold my ProAc Response 2.5s to a co-worker who after almost 2 decades of being off the merry-go-round has begun building a system again. He had no idea how to install the ProAc plynths and spikes so he just placed the cabinets on his hardwood floors. When I went over to have a listen and help him tweak the placement I was shocked at how stable the speakers were and how great the bass sounded. It turns out he had concrete under the hardwood and the floors were well leveled.

I brought over some brass cups for his speaker spikes, but it turned out they weren't necessary.
you can still use spikes but you will need to get either the support discs or Target Spike Shoes. Support discs from Music Girect are all metal, they are affordable and do exactly what they supposed to besides there is no sound degradation. Target Spike Shoes that Cable Company sells are also affordable. They are metal on top but rubber on the bottom. I have spike shoes under my SolidSteel 5.4 component rack and Support Discs under my speakers. And use spikes without any damage to the floor.
After living with carpet over wood floors and spikes on my speakers for many years, my wife wants to have a wood floor (maybe tile) installed in our house
This will change the tonal balance of yr spkrs' response (usually upward). You'll get more mid-hi frequency reflections off the floor. This simply means that you probably have to change the spkr placement; you may get a more "airy", "detailed" (if slightly bass-light) sound -- and like it more.

As to the spikes you're using: you can continue using them by placing hard metal disks under the spikes (a nickel as suggested) -- but the result won't be exactly the same. Until now you've been coupling the spkrs to the floor mass... the metal disk will decouple them.

I strongly suggest you buy nothing and experiment with whatever you find at home -- or, in extremis -- just go to home depot & buy 3 vibration control puks.
Take one of your Vandersteen spikes to the local hardware store and purchase either hex or carriage bolts with the same thread size. They won't harm the floor and will provide solid contact and can be adjustable for desired tilt. This will cost less than $5. Another option is to find similar products from an audiophile web site and pay $100+ for similar, but much fancier, product.
The hardware store option worked great on my Meadowlark Shearwater HRs.