Chopping boards, spikes or lumps of granite?

[Rufus]

Hello all,

Having lots of fun with the Bel Canto/Moon/Alon system - thanks for you warm support and comments !

I have looked on tinternet, googled to excess, and yet I remain confused.

Should I spike my speakers?

Slip mdf panels at £300 each sprinkled with Pixie dust underneath them?

Buy wobbly rubber cones?

Buy highly engineered alloy things with cups and rollers?

Buy cheap wood blocks from Asda and put underneath them?

Paving slabs? Granite slabs?

A combination of the above?

All I do know is that I have 2 8" bass drivers in each of the Alon Lotus Elite Signatures and I suspect that they need to sit on something..and they have no spikes.

Floor is carpet over concrete.

This area of hi-fi baffles me to be truthful.

Never in the field of music reproduction have I read so many apparently contradictory reports.

Advice please wammers !

Assume I am a bit stupid and completely confused.

I thank you.

 

[JCL]

No spikes on your speaker ? Take them back

I'd suggest either sitting the speakers on top of some heavy mineral slabs with bluetac or mounting some spikes on some butchers blocks and bluetac'ing the speakers to those.

I think the latter wold probably be better as you have concrete under your carpet.

Good luck.

 

[opusover21]

lol..this is when the fun starts...

I always think Finite elemente ceraballs and pucs are good value..think the new Ceraball universals han be used with a thread to replace spikes..£129 for a set of 4 or the cheaper Cerballs which i use under my Opus for £60/4..from memory..You have carpet over concrete which is a good start...

 

[Nawty]

If you want some Snake Oiled MDF I can sort you out and I'll even do it for the bargain price of £150 - that's half price!!!

In all seriousness, if the speakers don't have spikes then some granite slabs and bluetack is probably the best option

 

[darrenm]

I put slabs under my speaker stands and it killed something in the sound

 

[Nawty]

I wouldn't use slabs if you have spikes, that kind of defeats the object - coupling to some comparatively lightweight slabs simply won't offer the same base as a comparatively (totally?) immovable concrete floor.

 

[Rufus]

Thanks for advice so far...

So would it be fair to say that if the floor is concrete ( albeit under carpet ) then slabs may be a bit pointless - and so should I fit spikes which go through carpet /underlay and connect with the concrete itself?

So, connected flat to the floor or lifted off the floor? Soft rubbery spikes or hard spikey spikes?

I would add that I am looking to make the bass tighter and cleaner. There is lots of it - I think it needs to "breathe" a bit.

Looking at the web there are some truly remarkable bits of stuff in this sector - its quite a cottage industry ! Damn confusing though. And some of the stuff is so pricey it must have be hand made by sacred Elves...

I guess that having a hard floor, resonance or movement is not the problem. So maybe lifting the speakers up helps. Last night the speakers were plonked on some spare patio slabs I pinched from the garden. It kinda improved. Maybe.

I guess I am wondering if I buy new spikes or splash out on some of these cone things, or cerabases, or some bizarre thing made out of cryogenically frozen kryptonite laced with molten alloy from the heart of Mordor or something...

There must be a 2nd hand market for this stuff, I wonder where it is...?

 

[Tel]

I had speakers spiked through carpet to concrete floor and it worked very well.

Mind you it was a rented flat, crap carpets and no OH to worry about.

Just check the thread 6 or 8mm, buy some spikes cheap as chips on eBay and try. Got to be the cheapest solution and if it doesn't work it hasn't cost you much.

 

[MartinC]

Rufus wrote:

so should I fit spikes which go through carpet /underlay and connect with the concrete itself?

Do your speakers have threaded holes to take spikes? If so this is definitely what I would do. The paving slab/granite etc stuff is for people (like myself) who aren't lucky enough to have a solid concrete floor. If it's a question of actually making holes in the cabinet to fit spikes it gets a bit more complicated.

 

[Nawty]

If you are going to get spikes, get the ones that you have to drill into the bottom of the speaker (you can probably buy some expensive plinths that do this too).

Otherwise some blobs of bluetack (to decouple rather than couple) and some slabs will be fine, don't expect too much though, IMO the real benefit of having speaker stands is getting the speakers to the right height.

 

[Rufus]

MartinC wrote:

Rufus wrote:

so should I fit spikes which go through carpet /underlay and connect with the concrete itself?

Do your speakers have threaded holes to take spikes? If so this is definitely what I would do. The paving slab/granite etc stuff is for people (like myself) who aren't lucky enough to have a solid concrete floor. If it's a question of actually making holes in the cabinet to fit spikes it gets a bit more complicated.

OK. Understood. Seems sound and cheap advice. Will do this and report back.

First thing is to measure the spikes thread width, there are definitely threaded holesin the speakers.

I wonder if the spikes could tilt the speakers up as well?Time to experiment methinks...

 

[rabski]

Similar post a few days back. As I understand it, the main ideais to get the cabinet as rigid as possible. The'every action has an equal and opposite reaction' stuff means the cabinet will try to move one way when the cone moves the other. I don't know what the physics behind the coupling / de-coupling arguments are and I'd be interested to hear, as the two ideas seem mutually exclusive.

If you're lucky enough to have concrete floor, spikes have to be the best bet. I have the 'delight' of a very old, uneven wooden floor. Spikes were average, but I put granite blocks down and kept the spikes and it was one of the best things I've ever done.

Suck it and see, but if the cabinets are already threaded, then spikes are a definite no-brainer to try.