audiosensGeneral rule to couple (spike) or de-couple (not spike) speakers to the floor, comes down to what floor you have. 1: Cement slab floor on mother earth (not cement sheet) = spike (couple) 2: Suspended floor wood, sheet, (includes cement sheet) = no spike (decouple) If you spike a speaker into a suspended floor as in 2, you transfer the bass of the speaker into that floor, making it a sound board for the bass and ruining it. Cheers George |
I've experienced significant gains in transparency and cleanness of sound by decoupling my speakers from my carpeted basement room. After hearing the improvements in the main speakers, I decoupled the subs. Have great tight deep bass and greater transparency still as the ruckus inherent in subs. is not vibrating my rack mounted gear. YMMV. |
Generally, it's best to follow the directions of the speaker mfg with regard to whether use spikes or other footers based on type of floor. You especially don't want to mess with speakers that already account for a certain resonance with their cabinet. Many speakers use this to their advantage versus trying (usually in vain) to rid all cabinet resonances and floor born resonances. On the flip side...a lot of speaker makers don't put much effort into their feet/stands. In those cases, I would actually recommend this one combo that I've found works generally well. Take the spike footers that come with most speakers/stands and insert them into Oyaide INS-BS pucks. Whether it's on wood floors or carpet, they seem to have a positive impact for a much more reasonable price than other exotic options. Another option is to construct a sandbox with a floating top and put your speakers on top of that without spikes. Nothing dissipates the significant vibrations of speakers while also providing a solid base like sand...especially at a cost effective price. |
