Granite Slabs

I bought travertine tiles from Floor & Decor.

@skeptikal ,

That's a awful lot of brain you're toting around there.

Unrelated question: Where do you buy your hats?

Let’s break it down…:

If you have carpet on a suspended floor, such as on the second level of a house, spikes are useless. Spikes are only good to go through carpet onto e.g., a poured concrete floor. You need to dampen the vibrations.

Mass such as granite slabs does NOT reduce or isolate vibration. It’s a common misconception. Mass stores vibration and transfers it. It doesn’t absorb it. 

So, you need to dampen the vibrations. As some people here have already suggested, the Townshend platforms are great. They will you run you $1000-$1500 per speaker, though. Well worth it, so it’s a budget decision.

Another option is isoAcoustic dampeners. The version you need will depend on the weight of your speakers. And since you have carpet, then you add isoAcoustic  carpet spike plates under the dampeners so they don’t ride directly on the carpet.

Hop on their website and learn more about the dampener - weight options and the carpet spike plates.

Hi , I went down this road a few months ago. Search my history and read the thread as a lot of experienced people contributed. I have thick carpet , heavy pad on a concrete slab floor. Decoupling is the way to go as I tried other methods. One method was spiked 4” thick solid walnut and it was worse. There are 4-5 brands mentioned in the thread , most of which are very good. My speakers are 5’ tall and weigh 125 lbs. I took a leap of faith and purchased Townsend Isolation Platforms. They have different sizes and based on the weight of your speaker ship with the appropriate pods for your requirements. They are transformational regarding the improvement. What’s funny of the 4-5 ways I tried just letting my speakers sit bare bottom on the carpet was second next to the Townsends. BTW I’m an old school spike guy that has totally changed his ways. If you still want granite contact someone who cuts countertops and see what they can provide from remnants. I just purchased two slabs of Quartzite ( solid quartz ) they are about 1” thick and ran $7k to purchase and about $6-7k additional to cut and install. If you want something that’s 2” thick I’m assuming that they would have to glue layers to meet that thickness. But I would seriously look at Auva’s , Stacks , Herbies , Gia’s. Again look up my old post and read from the people that know, it’s worth 10 minutes of your time. Happy Hunting , Mike B. Also email Townsend directly as they are very responsive and they told me to “ Make an Offer”, it wound up being significantly cheaper than buying from a dealer. PM me if you want more info regarding my transaction with them. 

You would think that spikes on a cement would be good... they are not. They couple them to the ground and allow each other (speaker) to effect the other one. The seismic activity in any area is significant... I have a seismograph which shows how quiet it is at night... but also how walking hard across a cement floor actually causes vibration. Podiums barely raise the speakers (if you are using spikes... they raise them not at all.