What your choice speakers with spikes or speakers with a vibration isolation device?

I have Vandersteen 5A's on spikes as factory recommends.   I tried Herbes gizmos ....absolutely ruined the sound. Each system is different and everyone should try them all to know for sure.

stringreen,

Herbie's gizmos "absolutely ruined the sound"

I've no doubt that's what you experienced, but I have to say in my experience I have yet to encounter any loudspeaker that didn't sound better with some form of isolation underneath. Even my portable Sony radio sounds a tad better when placed upon a compliant surface.

It's certainly possible that many loudspeakers were designed to be placed on spikes, and that's where they will measure and sound best. I just haven't encountered one like that yet, but that is far from conclusive.

It would be good to have designer feedback here, as the only thing I've read was by Alan Shaw from Harbeth who once said he was happy to test his top of the range M40s placed on top of some telephone directories.

However these are only just my impressions, and I prefer an organic midrange sound to one that might be deemed to have a tight precise bass output. This should be easy enough to test, at least with my radio, once I can get someone willing to assist me in a blindfold experiment without too much derision.

Anyway the evidence, what there is, seems to come in the form of baffle accelerometer readings which heavily favour any compliant feet over any spikes.

However panel resonance is a tricky business as this article tries to demonstrate.

http://www.tonestack.net/articles/speaker-building/cabinet-sound-insulation-measurement.html

In any case the old argument about Newton's first law of motion is not very helpful here. The forces generated by the movement of the low mass cone in comparison to the large mass of the cabinet are virtually insignificant.

For the driver motion to actually move the speaker, the cabinet would need to be placed on a very low friction surface and the volume output would have to be comparitvely huge, with huge panel resonances to match. 

Anyway the evidence, what there is, seems to come in the form of baffle accelerometer readings which heavily favour any compliant feet over any spikes.

Your speaking of spectral decay rates within the enclosure. A good enclosure there is really no need for that spec.

A lot of speaker repair people chime in with, decay rates, when it is such a simple fix.. Green concrete. If the enclosure sounds like green concrete it is good. Decay rates are important, for VERY old amps with no dampening ability, and poorly designed enclosures.

Undampened.. You’ll keep hearing it until tomorrow.

Same with phase shift, you or I are not going to notice the 20 hz PS, you can’t. It’s sub, you’ll feel it, or not depending. I like correction before it hits the speaker cable, not after.

A servo amp with a feed back correction circuit, is probably the fastest, to STOP, not correct the overshoot of the cone, and decay rate are once again, not an issue.. It’s an old spec. that in real world NEW SPEAKER application doesn’t matter.. Sound walls, yes, speakers NO.

Second, a speaker, mounted to the side of a taller, narrow baffle, that is deep, can rock side to side. I’ve seen it. It’s actually an upgrade on certain speakers I use. Remove the side firing woofer, and plug the space. They use to replace the woofer with a passive radiator, it still rocked the cabinet, ever so slightly.

Isolate the cabinet, decrease the vibration, and decrease the distortion, everywhere...

Think air ride, and a tractor trailer rig.. Think 100 foot jump off a building, into an air bag. and Walk away.. Green concrete and air, everything in between is an issue...

Regards

They have smaller ones for individual components, do you see a problem with floating a CD player in the air?

The magnetic field? How will that influence things... I'm always a little careful, with magnets.. Hard drives, eproms, tape decks, Reel to Reels
The steel plate in my head, my hip, my knee, my leg, my jaw, and the two screws lose in my head.. 

Bing.... Eyes Cross..

Regard

my mag lev feet Have arrived, I’ll install them and have a report soon.