how important are plinth/bases for speakers

leftwinger57

Hello ,
Once again my curiousity has gotten the better of me and I can use some advice and general knowlegde about having the best bases for your speakers. Of course there are so many variables that have to do w/ the floor and what it's made of and then on the higher end you have carpet spikes and other leveling devices.I ask this because I took it upon myself to make the sturdyest and neutral base possible.
I went to my maintanence shed in my development and there they were,16x16 heavy paving stones that I think make a perfect base.I also went to Home Depot to get a runner for underneath so I didn't scratch the floor.I'm using these bases for my newly finished Bose 601s and there is not any vibration,movement or distraction of any kind.I was wondering if this is the way to go seeing that they were free and blended perfectly w/ the room decor of earth tones.I did take a level to the speakers and that was dead on and after reading the PDF manual it seems I got the placement just right from all the wall distances.So knowing these were free I think I did the right thing by having the most level and ,heavy,steady bases possible.
Please chime in on this and the whole spectum of bases,spikes,plinths and screw down levelers.Thanks once again I know opinions should be coming.....

tonyb

Nothing wrong with using home remedies for some of this stuff. I used to use left over granite pieces that I cut square, where 2 inches thick, then spiked the speakers. Don't know if your speaks have spikes on the bottom, but I would give that a whirl if you haven't done so. I know we have a thread somewhere on spikes.

leftwinger57

Tony, the Bose 601s have 4 rubber feet on all corners and seem to do a decent job if you are not into customizing the bases anymore. I think the dimensions are 2'' in lenght and 1'' in width.With out any other base these feet seem to do a good job and should not be removed...

bansheesho

Question on the floor spikes.... My kef q900 came with a plinth and carpet spikes, but no rubber feet... They sit on tile so I installed the plinth but not the spikes. What is the proper way to do it? Should I pick up some rubber feet in place of the spikes? Should I lay down a small section of carpet and install the spikes? Should I just use the spikes naked on the tile? Aside from leveling and keeping them steady on carpet, is there any other purpose that they serve?

tonyb

The plinth for a tile floor is correct. You can go about this many ways, more than one way to skin that cat when it comes to floors,spikes, feet, vibrations. You don't want spikes on carpet if a nice floor is underneath, spikes go threw the carpet to anchor on the subfloor. Some use spikes on a hard surface such as a piece of granite, tile ontop of hardwood floor, or a cement block like LW is using. Problem with that is if the underlayment material is smooth, a spiked speaker can slide on it and it won't anchor the speaker as well. Could be a headache with kids and big dogs who may bump them from time to time. Usually, if you have nice wood floors, tile, you would want a nice thick wood base under the speaker that is spiked. I've used old maple cutting boards before as a cheap alternative and they worked well. You could even make your own if you have some simple wood working skills. Buying wood plinths already made for floorstanders can be pretty darn expensive if you priced any out lately, but that would be my first choice under a floorstander, wood. You could finish it to match any decor too. Besides, as men....we like our wood....it gives us....um, wood.:cheesygrin:

BlueFox

I will stick with Maplshade on this subject of speaker plinths.

"Concrete and plywood floors cripple the sound of speakers. They muddy the bass, smear the midrange, and suck the life out of the treble."
http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/index.php

"Mounting your speakers on good stands will dramatically improve their sound. Our air-dried maple stands offer much warmer, clearer, punchier and more detailed sound than granite, slate, glass (the worst), myrtle or exotic hardwoods, or any of the hi-tech damped composites. Adding brass footers to drain vibration out of your speakers into the maple stand doubles the good effect."

http://shop.mapleshadestore.com/Speaker-Stands/departments/60/

I bought their 4" maple platform with brass carpet piercing spikes and it really increased the detail from the speaker. It was so much clearer and precise. One thing is that maybe because it raised the tweeter 4" up, or because it became so much clearer, the sound seemed a bit bright. I added a 2'x2' acoustic panel behind eack speaker and that did the trick.

Drenis

I don't see how raising a tower speaker that's spiked good into the floor will increase SQ. I fail to see how those above decouple any better. However, adding that to something like the A9 when it's already too tall as it is makes no sense to me.

Interesting enough in the first link posted has this maple shade company using Polk LSiM speakers as props.

BlueFox

Drenis wrote: »

I don't see how raising a tower speaker that's spiked good into the floor will increase SQ.

It isn't the raising that does the job. More important is the attitude implied in the statement. As others have said;

I don't see how speaker wire can increase SQ.

I don't see how interconnect cables can increase SQ.

I don't see how power cords can increase SQ.

I don't see how vibration elimination can increase SQ.

I don't see how power conditioners can increase SQ.

Time to quit speculating and start trying.

Drenis

That's not what I meant. Perhaps I could have worded it better. I guess I don't quite understand the concept of this.