Speaker stand spikes - necessary?

Spikes most certainly did not keep my 48" tall and now 60" tall loudspeakers from moving. Now that my Gaia II have had some to settle in with the new speakers, when I rock them back and forth from the top the movement is just about the same as when they were on spikes. Minimal, but still more than none. I'm a definite Gaia convert.

 

Certainly my speakers also rock back and forth when I push them since they are on soft Sonic Design feet. But they sway with a frequency below 20 Hz, so any resonance due to woofer movement is never excited. I guess the same principle applies to the Gaia.

 

That could be. All I know is when I added the Gaia the soundstage opened up and improved dramatically and thwe ability of my system to resolve detail improved across the range of frequencies. I heard the difference right away, and it has improved since. I have a highly-resolving system that is not so merciful to setup issues, and these kinds of improvements can be significant and important.

And speaking of system isolation, I just ordered two stacks of Naim Fraim shelving to replace my Salamander cabinet. This will provide better isolation to the electronics.

 

That is not the way I read the graphs. What I see, is that these graphs depict vibration between two hard surfaces (in this case a stand and a speaker) coupled or isolated by three forms of suspension. As I wrote, spikes are not needed between two hard surfaces, such as under a stand onto a hard floor, or under a speaker onto a stand -- I use a very thin layer of Blu-Tack between them to couple this kind of interface and prevent any obvious wobble that WILL be a resonance withing the audible frequency band. But between a hard surface (either under the speaker or under the stand) and carpet, the story is totally different and not relevant to these graphs. Spikes WILL be the most stable support, if they pierce through the carpet, and couple onto the hard floor below.

I agree that isolation is even better than coupling. Coupling allows a broad band of high frequency resonances. Isolation, such as VERY soft rubber bumpers or hanging speakers from the ceiling with heavy duty fishing line provides the possibility of obtaining resonance only at very low frequency, below the signal frequecies. But this will require more experimetation and more work in general to MAKE SURE the resonance frequency really is below 20 Hz.

 

You can believe the graphs. I'll believe my ears. Spikes improve the overall sound.

 

Can't argue with you there. What is good sound is an individual preference.

 

If you mean "stable" as if it easier to knock a speaker on soft feet down if you push it, you are probably correct. However, with respect to being steady when playing music you still have resonance peaking in the audible spectrum if you pierce a carpet with spikes to the harder floor underneath. So the graph is still valid for playing music, i.e. they will move more when spiked (carpet or not) as compared to a foot where the resonance is below the lowest frequency of the speaker output.

 

II also prefer the sound when speakers are decoupled. With spikes there are some distortion/coloration that sounds bad with certain type of music and this makes me want to turn down the volume. With decoupling I this is gone, and I hear the music instead.

 

I'm planning on buying a pair of Spatial Audio M3 speakers fairly soon, and I would love it if the supplied spikes through my carpet would beat out $400 of Gaia IIIs in sound quality. But, after putting a set of Gaia IIIs on my VPI HW19jr turntable, I don't know. They made a dramatic, and I mean dramatic improvement with the VPI. Still, my turntable isn't sitting on carpet.

Edit: my meager personal experience. When I owned Martin Logan Sequel IIs, they sounded way better on my carpeted floor with spikes.

 

Just a question, what did your compare your spiked Martin Logans with? A pure decoupling/Gaia IIIs?

 

Sorry, I meant the Sequels sounded better with their supplied spikes compared with their supplied 'glider' feet. This was years before Gaias were a thing.

 

Theoretically, I understand and totally agree with you. But in my experience, I have never been confident that I could achieve a single resonance frequency below 20 Hz. So I have always dealt with speaker movement by addressing motion amplitude, rather than frequency. I will have to look into these feet, and learn how to plan the resulting resonance based on speaker weight (and maybe height also).

I know that hanging speakers from the ceiling with fishing line is a very effective way of providing a very low resonance frequency, but wow, what a lot of work THAT job would be.

 

I want to share the results of an experiment I just did.

My Spendor SP3/1R2 bookshelf speakers are on 4-column metal stands filled with kitty litter. When I recently moved my system from a room with a rug to one with hardwood floors, I removed the spikes from my stands to protect the floors. It sounded very good.

On a whim, last night I decided to put the spikes back on and place nickels underneath, just to see what if any difference it made. With the spikes in place, the improvement was quite apparent to me. For one thing, transients were much more impactful. Bass was also fuller/deeper, and imaging was more 3D and lifelike.

To quote Micky Dolenz and Neil Diamond, I'm a believer.

 

I have my speakers sitting on a carpeted concrete slab. Carpet pad underneath is mid thickness as that what was installed.

I never thought about using the included spikes. Figured those were more for 2nd story floors or tile/hardwood floors.

Opinions thoughts???

 

You could always spike the top of stands; where your speakers will sit, then maybe put some rubber isolators on the bottoms of the stands. Similar to Sanus stands.
The spikes will work with wood case speakers, not well with composite or metal.

 

Curious, by how many inches are the speakers sitting taller now due to spikes?

I do wonder if you don't use spikes, but simply use other materials like rubber feet that also move the speakers up as much as when using spikes, would you hear the same improvement?

Basically, I am curious if the improvement is based on height change only or based on actually using spikes.

 

Spikes are exactly what should be used for speakers on padded carpet.

 

That's the opposite of what most recommend.

 

It's due to the spikes.

 

Another inch or two of height wouldn’t make the transients more impactful.

 

I don't know. Some people here said 1/4" move of speakers made a difference.....

 

I’m skeptical about that too...

 

Not to oversimplify things but I think the spikes/no spikes, coupling/decoupling thing has much to do with floor materials and architectural conditions (floating floor or slab on grade). And the speakers in question, of course.

 

I can impact a good soundstage of orchestral music changing the toe-in of my speakers by just a cm. I have filled-in (i.e. corrected) or removed a gap in the center with that small of movement. That's with my speakers 8' apart and 9' from the listening position.

 

Your Spendor is back ported. If you meant bass transient is more impactful, it might be partially due to higher position of the port translate to more bass reverberation back to your ear. People have claimed that moving subwoofer quarter inch by quarter inch could make a difference. I can believe that. I moved my sub up by 1" about a week ago and bass response changed to worse and I had to move it back down.

It is pretty simple to check if all the improvement is due to spike or not. If your current position is higher by 1", take off the spikes and place 1" thick slab of concrete block below your stand. See your impactful transient is still there or not.