Isoacoustics Gaia and speaker wobble

@richardbrand is right. Ideally, one's speaker cabinet will be rigidly attached to the floor so that the forward and backward motion of the woofer cones will not cause an opposite motion in the cabinet. In theory, this could "muddy" transients. Spikes simulate this sort of rigid mounting, and are especially useful with carpets (obviously, the speaker can "wobble" every which way on a carpet—which is why using the Gaia feet in conjunction with a carpet is kind of nonsensical).

However, this is not the whole story. If your floor is not itself rigid—not a concrete slab, but a suspended wood floor, for instance—then the floor itself will act as a transducer, absorbing sound from the speaker rigidly mounted to it and reverberating in an uncontrolled way. The acoustic effect of this is far worse than the minimal blurring or muddying caused by very slight reactive movements of the cabinet in response to cone movement.

Bottom line: use spikes for concrete slabs and carpets but isolation devices (Gaia, Townshend platforms, sorbothane) for suspended hardwood floors. 

I've tried Gaia and Townshend, but have settled on cheap sorbothane feet to isolate my tower speakers (Scientific Fidelity Teslas) from my hardwood floor. Soundstage and instrumental location in space are enhanced, and bass is tighter as a result. The sorbothane feet (about $50 for eight) work as well as the expensive Townshend.

By the way, Townshend has a video that shows how speakers mounted on their platforms do visibly wobble. But a seismograph mounted on top of the speaker remains flatlined even when someone is walking heavily nearby.

in my opinion, just find the Gaia setting that removes any wobble and that is all you need to do.

Look into the Auva products. They dampen without any wobble. I have them under my B&W 804, & love what they've done to the sound.

Did you notice in the instructions it wants you to have them unscrewed partly (so there’s a gap between them and the speakers - they should not be screwed on tight) and also with the letters on the units facing either forward or backwards?  They are supposed to have movement.  I watched a video with the designer and they said they are directional in this way - that is, the speaker drivers have a pistonic effect that moves forward and backward with the speakers (front to back), and the Gaias move along with that.  Now, if the wobble is the same as if you had speaker spikes on hard floor for instance, that were not leveled out properly, I would be concerned about the installation.  
 

My interpretation is similar to @jimmy2615.

Beyond this and from prior responses in the thread, I haven’t seen any information from IsoAcoustics indicating that the GAIAs were purposefully designed for left to right or right to left subtle flexing. In my experience, this usually indicated an imbalance from uneven flooring or installation of the GAIAs..

I always thought that some subtle movement from front to back if pushed with two fingers was considered normal, but like all things, could be wrong. 

@hazeloop 

I saw your last video with the GAIA II on the hardwood floor.   That is exactly what my GAIA I look like when I try to move the speaker.  So, you are on the right track.  If you can just get the spikes to get through the carpet padding and hit the floor below, you should be able to save some coin and get the right performance.  Hopefully, if the spikes are a little short, the weight of the speaker should keep the pad compressed.  If the carpet pad causes the spikes to float even with the weight of your speaker, then, you are probably SOL with those spikes.   It does not look like Isoacoustics makes longer spikes.  If it was me, I would take the speaker off the spikes, then , put a block of wood on the spikes and push them down as hard as I could while at the same time hitting the block of wood with a hammer or sledge.  That should drive the spikes through the compressed pad to the floor below.