hardwood floors and spikes

Meech & Herman:

Yes, sharp spikes will go through pennies (often within a matter of a few months).

A friend of mine ended up using the pop out slugs from electrical boxes which were scattered throughout the house following a re-wire (two per spike) and with these the spikes went through the first (top) one within a year's time, but after making a dimple in the second/bottom slug they stopped moving.

He eventually replaced them with little discs purchased @ Audio Advisor (probably the ones mentioned above) as he needed a bunch for a new audio/vidio rack that has eight legs, but the slugs worked fine.

His speakers weight approx. 100 lbs each and the rack/gear @ least 200-300 lbs.

With nice new floors @ stake (even though I'm a cheapskate) I would pop for something designed with the application in mind.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ymisc&1057401457&openusid&zzJeffloistarca&4&5#Jeffloistarca

"Audio Points" makes a tiny litle brass footer for spikes to fit into. I use them under my Audio Point Cones, between stacked components. They are available on-line, from Music Direct or Sistrum (the manufacturer).

Depending on the hardness of the wood floor i.e. maple or oak, I would rest the point tips right onto the floor.

If you use Audio Points(TM), simply place your equipment carefully without dragging it. The indentations are so minute, that nobody would probably notice. One drop of polyurethane could take care of that slight indentation.

The coupling discs are the next best thing and yes they preserve the floor surfaces but also compromise performance.

I would stay away from all the other ideas of plexiglas, etc., etc., as these would denegrade performance much more than coupling discs.

-IMO

I agree about the brass footers. Just make sure they are sized for your speakers (larger diameter for larger speakers) to avoid leaving indentations on the floor. Old hardwood flooring is much harder than newer hardwood flooring made from faster growing trees -- you may not have an issue with size if your house is older. There are many sources for these footers. They are normally 1.5 to 2.5 inches wide and about .25 inches high and they should have a dimple in them to accommodate the spike. Good luck. If you need to get some great sources, let me know and I'll look up the folks who sold me mine.