Spiked my speakers... and didn’t like

cortico

Weird, thought this would be a cool thing. I have replaced the metal gliders with some nice brass spikes on my speakers

Surprisingly, came to find out that my kid’s godmother piano recordings sounded bit off.

She’s a professional pianist, I have listed her playing for ages and I am familiar enough with her piano sound.

Maybe, a bit less realism and warmth compared with actual instrument sound?!

mhardy6647

well, there you go, then.
1) you can't believe everything you read*
2) you can't beat empiricism.



______________
* except point 1) above, of course! You can believe that -- otherwise it'd be a metaphysical conundrum.

SIHAB

I spiked my speakers and vocals sounded slurred.

Toolfan66

WEIRD!!!

afterburnt

WERD!!!

VR3

There's a Katie perry song here

verb

Interesting. Makes me wonder. Manufacturers design their products (I know we do) knowing that the structural harmonics will never be completely eliminated. In fact it's impossible. So we take those harmonics into account, and design around it. We tune the structure so that the natural frequency, or other undesirable harmonics are never realized by a customer under normal operating conditions.

I imagine the same holds true for Speaker manufacturers. Tuning the structures to the point of a nice balance (or compromise) to achieve the desired acoustic performance.

Then, if any of those variables are altered (spikes), you get a change in performance, better or worse. Interesting. Something to ponder on a Sunday morning.

B67

Hi,

I did something else because with spikes the sound was not sounding like it used to be. I put some svs soundpath under RTI A7. The sound was more open and the placement of the instruments were incredible.

Also with my Audyssey changed some things.
You see first reading 11-05-2018
After reading: 16-3-2019 - bi-amp was the same reading as the normal speaker connection. Look at my screen shot:

cortico

also, listened some unedited electric guitar recordings made on the same room, and amp cabinet low frequency resonances plus other harmonics sounded cleaner but unnatural...

Could be a taste thing, I’m under the impression that the un-spiked speakers sounds better to me, on my specific set up...

afterburnt

@cortico what speakers do you have?

cortico

afterburnt wrote: »

@cortico what speakers do you have?

I have the a recently recapped Polk Audio LS70 recapped pair.

F1nut

That is odd, every time I've spiked speakers or stands the mids cleared up and the bass got tighter.

Toolfan66

F1nut wrote: »

That is odd, every time I've spiked speakers or stands the mids cleared up and the bass got tighter.

Agreed!!!

cortico

Exactly, that’s is what I found.

Although, that is cool, I find it cleaned the mojo out of some recordings, where the “flaws” help to render the sound more realistically.

As an example, fender tweed amp cabinet flatulence/speaker cone breakup when overdriven by a bass heavy guitar, or piano solo played by an heavy left handed pianist.... these sound more convincing with the metal gliders, “I find”

tophatjohnny

I spiked my wife's drink last night and she sounded amazing. 🎩

kharp1

tophatjohnny wrote: »

I spiked my wife's drink last night and she sounded amazing. 🎩

That's some funny Schiit!

steveinaz

On a slab home with a hard surfaced floor (ie, tile) I prefer rubber feet on speakers.

joecoulson

The only time I have found spikes did not help was with the SVS SB16. I tried multiple spike setups, flat on carpet and with the rubber feet it came with. I then got the iso pads that were cheap from Amaz.. wasn’t until I put the SVS soundpath on there that it became less boomy and overpowering. But I am on a sunken floor crawl space (sub floor) which does not help.
The help tremendously with the towers.

Jstas

Are your speakers on carpet or hard floors?

Spikes are meant to isolate the speaker by reducing the contact patch so that the heaviest bass waves don't transfer to the floor and vibrate everything around them. This, thereby, reduces the resonances in your listening space. This keeps those resonances from overshadowing the mids and highs which can be easily over-powered by large woofers. It also keeps those resonances from causing reflections that will cancel out mids and highs. This is why spikes can make a speaker sound more "open". All they are really doing is unmuddying the waters, so to speak.

Spikes work best on carpets where the carpet can work adversely against your typical rubber isolation feet and actually transfer more energy than they prevent.

But if you use spikes on a hard floor with no damping like a carpet and subsequent padding would provide, you can lack enough friction to keep the speaker from making micro-vibrations on the floor surface. This can cause energy reflections back into the speaker structure because the contact point is overwhelmed by the energy trying to get through it and it loads and unloads like a spring. This is why many people who use spikes on hard floors also use speaker spike isolation cups. They will absorb and quell those micro-vibrations by giving the spikes the damping they need to dissipate that energy.

cortico

Hey, Dskip thanks for taking time bringing light to this.

The rig sounds pretty good (at least, I think so, haha), I am not feeling that there's anything wrong with it.

Some recordings, gliders presented a better rendering, especially if I am familiar with it. On other listening materials, spikes seemed better.

I am sure my house construction comes into play, 130 years brownstone building wood joist slabs, narrow compartments, high ceilings...

Either way good tones! I guess this comes down to a tone preference.

RandyCroissant

I hope this helps some folks here, I had two black quartz slabs made up for my 1Cs with adjustable spikes ( you can't see them under the slabs) however I noticed an improvement in the mid and bass after the mod I would describe it as a little more defined. I went with this approach so they would be easier to move around when needed.

RandyCroissant

RandyCroissant

To add the speakers sit nice and solid, with the adjustable spikes they are dead level as well:)

Jstas

DSkip wrote: »

John your comment is surprisingly incorrect. Spikes do the exact opposite of isolating. They are coupling devices through and through.

Physics says you're wrong, champ.

Jstas

Also, since nobody ever thinks I have a clue about what I'm talking about, here's a link to the first Google search result when you ask Google "how do speaker spikes work":

https://ledgernote.com/blog/q-and-a/speaker-spikes/

Foam pads go between your speakers and your desk, stands, or floor to decouple the two and then collect and dissipate any vibrations. ... The goal of spikes under your speakers is to decouple them from the next surface. The goal of spikes under your stands is to couple them to the floor by anchoring into it.

de·cou·ple
/dēˈkəpəl/
verb
- separate, disengage, or dissociate (something) from something else.
"the mountings effectively decouple movements of the engine from those of the wheels"

- make the interaction between (electrical components) so weak that there is little transfer of energy between them, especially to remove unwanted AC distortion or oscillations in circuits with a common power supply.

Seems like isolation to me. But, what do I know? Me and my stupid engineering degree! Pfft! Like any of that matters!

cortico

@Jstas it may sound confusing, because it depends on the application. Spikes on a speaker will couple the speaker with the floor, there’s a controversial debate of the effects of coupling and decoupling speakers.

kharp1

Jstas wrote: »

Also, since nobody ever thinks I have a clue about what I'm talking about, here's a link to the first Google search result when you ask Google "how do speaker spikes work":

https://ledgernote.com/blog/q-and-a/speaker-spikes/

I can find so many things wrong, or arguable, in that article there's not enough room here to list them all. Mainly, its apparent the guy isn't an audio guy and obviously hasn't thoroughly followed and experimented for his answers. He references what he's read on internet forums as a basis for some things stating that some have spent $10k on cones only to find a phone book or rotten log from the back yard just as good. Based off that statement I'd say that's why people here think you never have a clue. Your words, not mine.

F1nut

Spikes couple, period....end of discussion.

pitdogg2

Jstas wrote: »

... The goal of spikes under your speakers is to decouple them from the next surface. The goal of spikes under your stands is to couple them to the floor by anchoring into it.

John may I ask how the spikes can decouple a speaker BUT couple a speaker stand?
For the record I know you for sure are 10 magnitudes smarter than I but this in itself contradicts itself in my eyes.

verb

Interesting article. One take away for me is the theorem that speaker manufacturers tune their speakers knowing the cabinet will vibrate. I tend to agree. If they take that into account, so, in theory, spiking the speakers to the floor (coupling) will alter the performance.

However, in my experience, yes I'm an engineer, unless you have an active (expensive) tuning device, you have to target a narrow frequency range to tune. Typically that frequency is in a region most often used by a customer. Not usually the extreme low or high frequencies.

In my biz, we'll target a steady state condition. Highway conditions, constant velocity.

So continuing with the theory, depending on how good the design is, or tuned, if at all, spikes may or may not improve the sound. But the sound will change.

Experience from members here say spiking to the floor (coupling) generally improves the sound, most notably in the lower frequencies.

Just my thoughts. Let the respectable conversation continue!

joecoulson

Just a question from me to ask the honorable gurus here:
Why when I asked Ed from SVS about spiking (and then followed up with Dan Marks at Axpona) they both said coupling the sub to the floor produced resonances and unnatural sound?

They sell (and gave me ) the Soundpath isolation feet. I have not posted yet as I feel it would just take away from this thread but they have made a solid positive change in the sound produced from my sub. Now full disclosure I have the worst floor for audiophile reproduction (crawl space on sunken floor) but it was huge. I am now testing the Elacs with the discs under them to see if (I doubt it but why not try?) decoupling them has any effect - positive or negative.