Spikes versus wall coupling

Rushton Your point is well taken:)
But I looked at the prices on Walker - yikes! Any lower cost points that you like, perhaps mapleshade? I think that I will try both points and cork (or cork-pucks) and see what sounds best

There is a product which might serve your needs. They are called "Superspikes". It's a spike which fits on top of a flat disk. However, it's all integrated into a single unit. I don't know who manufactures them. However, you can see them at www.uhfmag.com Just link to "The Audiophile Store" when you get to their homepage.

The purpose of spikes is to decouple the speakers from the floor. The tiny point creates an impedence mismatch (mechanical, not electrical impedence) It makes it more difficult for sound waves to pass through to the floor and shake, rattle and roll the rest of the house.

If you couple a speaker to wall studs, the objective is the same as using a heavy equipment stand. You want to use the mass of the wall and attached structure to absorb any vibrations from the component and disspipate gradually. It also works theother way. It absorbs and dissipates any vibrations in the environment from travelling into the component.

A properly designed point or spike will provide a geometric path way for resonant energy to exit thru the point and into the larger mass it is direct coupled with. There are discs on the market which when placed under the coupling point increase the surface area of the point and provide surface protection of wooden materials. Your wooden floor is much more massive than your speaker so you should direct couple your Polks. The force generated by the massive radiator will only modulate the cabinet over and over again unless the speaker is properly grounded or coupled to the floor..Tom

Thanks you all for your input. I get the impression that it has never been fully settled whether it is better to isolate or couple speakers. Am I correct that here are two schools of thought? Is the same true for components (some folks isolate and some couple :)

Tom, If you want to couple speakers as massive as these to the floor why would you need to do anything except let the wood bottom rest unobstructed to the wood floor? That would certainly allow all of the vibrations to pass directly to the floor. In fact I think a case can be made for the proposition that if you insert an intervening devise you might successfully limit the vibrations that may be transmitted from the speaker cabinet to the floor to those vibrations that the intervening devise can pass. Assuming that the devise is not limiting, how exactly will it improve the direct contact of the bottom of the speaker?

One last question, once you have all of the vibrations being transmitted to the wood floor, if you have similar devises under your TT and equipment racks how to you keep the vibrations from going up into the TT and other sensitive components in you rack? Or do the vibrations only flow in one direction?