James Harris wrote:
On 21 Aug, 11:32, James Harris wrote:

My speakers have four spikes beneath them which makes it a pain to
move the speakers even slightly as the length of at least one spike
has to be adjusted to make all four rest on/in the floor. (The floor
is solid - maybe concrete - and not wood.)

Anyone heard of a kit to convert four spikes to three? It would have
to fit beneath the existing arrangement as I don't want to modify the
speakers (which are Dynaudio Audience 62 floorstanders).

The sound is supposed to come in a straight line from the speaker,
through the air, to your lugholes. It is not supposed to go via some
random scenic route involving whatever your loudspeaker is parked on.

Therefore your speakers should not be mechanically coupled to anything.
They should be mechanically isolated. Spikes are audiophool nonsense.

What you need is a nice thick sheet of neoprene rubber instead. Then the
sound will come from your speakers and not from whichever bits of your
building happen to radiate the coupled vibration. If you have carpet and
underlay then the neoprene probably isn't necessary.


--
Richard Lamont http://www.lamont.me.uk/

OpenPGP Key ID: 0xBD89BE41
Fingerprint: CE78 C285 1F97 0BDA 886D BA78 26D8 6C34 BD89 BE41

In article ,
Brian Gaff wrote:
I think the reason for four was health and safety actually, harder to
wobble them over.

Wouldn't they be banned totally, then, since they're more likely to make a
floor speaker topple than without? ;-)

--
*Don't worry; it only seems kinky the first time.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:57:11 +0100, "Keith G"
wrote:

By audiophile reasoning, would just ONE spike, perfectly balanced, be
the ideal? :-)



What do you mean by 'audiophile'...???

The sort of reasoning that puts spikes on speakers but doesn't really
know why. Some say it's to "couple". Others to "decouple". What do
you think they're for?

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:39:28 +0100, Richard Lamont
wrote:

What you need is a nice thick sheet of neoprene rubber instead. Then the
sound will come from your speakers and not from whichever bits of your
building happen to radiate the coupled vibration. If you have carpet and
underlay then the neoprene probably isn't necessary.

What's the "speaker"? The drive unit? That plus the box it's in?
That plus the room it's in?

"Richard Lamont" wrote


The sound is supposed to come in a straight line from the speaker,
through the air, to your lugholes. It is not supposed to go via some
random scenic route involving whatever your loudspeaker is parked on.

Therefore your speakers should not be mechanically coupled to anything.
They should be mechanically isolated. Spikes are audiophool nonsense.

What you need is a nice thick sheet of neoprene rubber instead. Then the
sound will come from your speakers and not from whichever bits of your
building happen to radiate the coupled vibration. If you have carpet and
underlay then the neoprene probably isn't necessary.


I think you are missing the point entirely - the purpose of the spikes on
speakers it to enable them to be pushed through a carpet or any other
squidgy floorcovering (like you are recommending) to enable the speaker to
be coupled directly to the floor underneath and remove/reduce the ability of
the speaker to move in reaction (recoil) to the cone movements which some
claim 'blurs/renders less accurate' the created sound.

The usual comment is 'tighten up the bass' (treble not affected) and I
wouldn't argue with it, but I think the speaker's mass has a lot to do with
it irrespective of the floorcovering and is why I posted my comment about WW
Greener's formula....

Richard Lamont wrote:

The sound is supposed to come in a straight line from the speaker,
through the air, to your lugholes. It is not supposed to go via some
random scenic route involving whatever your loudspeaker is parked on.

Agreed.

Therefore your speakers should not be mechanically coupled to anything.
They should be mechanically isolated. Spikes are audiophool nonsense.

As I understand things, mechanical isolation is exactly what spikes
do. Maybe they can transmit some high frequencies but I don't see
them able to transmit low frequencies since the point of the cone
would have to vibrate at those frequencies. If the point is on
something rigid, like a slab of something, it's not going to move
much.

What you need is a nice thick sheet of neoprene rubber instead. Then the
sound will come from your speakers and not from whichever bits of your
building happen to radiate the coupled vibration. If you have carpet and
underlay then the neoprene probably isn't necessary.

I can see low frequencies moving quite easily through neoprene and
carpet.

Paul P

"Laurence Payne" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:57:11 +0100, "Keith G"
wrote:

By audiophile reasoning, would just ONE spike, perfectly balanced, be
the ideal? :-)



What do you mean by 'audiophile'...???

The sort of reasoning that puts spikes on speakers but doesn't really
know why.


OK, not what I understand the word to mean....


Some say it's to "couple". Others to "decouple". What do
you think they're for?


Couple, of course - what would be the point of 'decoupling' unless you were
talking about a record deck and one lived directly over the Underground...??

Keith G wrote:

"Richard Lamont" wrote


The sound is supposed to come in a straight line from the speaker,
through the air, to your lugholes. It is not supposed to go via some
random scenic route involving whatever your loudspeaker is parked on.

Therefore your speakers should not be mechanically coupled to anything.
They should be mechanically isolated. Spikes are audiophool nonsense.

What you need is a nice thick sheet of neoprene rubber instead. Then the
sound will come from your speakers and not from whichever bits of your
building happen to radiate the coupled vibration. If you have carpet and
underlay then the neoprene probably isn't necessary.

I think you are missing the point entirely - the purpose of the spikes
on speakers it to enable them to be pushed through a carpet or any other
squidgy floorcovering (like you are recommending) to enable the speaker
to be coupled directly to the floor underneath and remove/reduce the
ability of the speaker to move in reaction (recoil) to the cone
movements which some claim 'blurs/renders less accurate' the created sound.

As the mass of the cone is so much less than the mass of the speaker
cabinet as a whole, this is surely idiotic. Besides, any such reaction
will also occur during manufacturer's testing and will therefore be
taken into account at the design stage.


--
Richard Lamont http://www.lamont.me.uk/

OpenPGP Key ID: 0xBD89BE41
Fingerprint: CE78 C285 1F97 0BDA 886D BA78 26D8 6C34 BD89 BE41

Laurence Payne wrote:
On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:39:28 +0100, Richard Lamont
wrote:

What you need is a nice thick sheet of neoprene rubber instead. Then the
sound will come from your speakers and not from whichever bits of your
building happen to radiate the coupled vibration. If you have carpet and
underlay then the neoprene probably isn't necessary.

What's the "speaker"? The drive unit? That plus the box it's in?
That plus the room it's in?

The box, obviously.

--
Richard Lamont http://www.lamont.me.uk/

OpenPGP Key ID: 0xBD89BE41
Fingerprint: CE78 C285 1F97 0BDA 886D BA78 26D8 6C34 BD89 BE41

Paul P wrote:

As I understand things, mechanical isolation is exactly what spikes
do. Maybe they can transmit some high frequencies but I don't see
them able to transmit low frequencies since the point of the cone
would have to vibrate at those frequencies. If the point is on
something rigid, like a slab of something, it's not going to move
much.

Rigid materials provide mechanical coupling. I don't understand how
being pointy would make any difference. Squidgy materials have 'give'
that attenuates the coupling.

It's a basic matter of mechanical engineering, not unique to audio.
Every anti-vibration device I've seen involved things like rubber and
maybe springs, but never spikes.

What you need is a nice thick sheet of neoprene rubber instead. Then the
sound will come from your speakers and not from whichever bits of your
building happen to radiate the coupled vibration. If you have carpet and
underlay then the neoprene probably isn't necessary.

I can see low frequencies moving quite easily through neoprene and
carpet.

But not as easily as through a rigid object, whatever its shape.


--
Richard Lamont http://www.lamont.me.uk/

OpenPGP Key ID: 0xBD89BE41
Fingerprint: CE78 C285 1F97 0BDA 886D BA78 26D8 6C34 BD89 BE41