Spikes important?

[reubelim]

Hey all, rummaging around and found some spikes that are supposed to go with my old B&W DM 604 floorstanders. Currently, they are just plunked on my tile flooring, with bits of carpet glued to the corners steadying them flat.

Will sound improve if I put them on spikes? Just worried they will scratch up the tile and all, so if sound won't improve would just leave them off.

Cheers!

[Beta Man]

they're basically "Carpet spikes" If you're placing them on tile, I'd stick with the carpet pieces you have them on.

[fdm]

Thinking spikes are better for carpeted floors. Would suggest perhaps rather than the carpet you have glued to try some rubber or maybe plastic feet (or (somewhat soft?) wood?). The idea is to improve speaker contact with the floor, i.e., bypass the carpet.

Probably not a good idea to have two very hard materials (i.e., metal spikes and tile), imagine some bad sonic side-effects could result.

[reubelim]

Darn. Should have waited. Just finished screwing them on and putting them atop the carpet pieces so the tiles don't scratch. Thought sound was a bit better (as in more detailed?) but given my wooden ear that was probably just my imagination. Used up my DIY quota for the day and will get back to them some other time.

Thanks guys!

[fdm]

Yeah, I think the idea is to more strongly attach the speakers to the floor. That way the speakers will not be as inclined to move/vibrate and impact the sound coming directly from the speakers, and also the speaker/floor interface is more solid, as there is some interaction resulting in the speaker causing the floor to vibrate, and the spikes keep the speaker and the floor vibrating in sync. (Versus a speaker just sitting on the floor and being prone to vibrate on top of the floor, such that the speaker vibrations and the floor vibrations if they get too out of wack might cause some additional feedback that could impact the sound quality.)

They seem to help a bit, but there's probably some trade-offs between how heavy the speaker is, what kind of flooring, etc that would also come into play that may influence their effectiveness.

Bottom line, they probably will help most times (especially when there's a carpet), but it's not going to make your speakers sound twice as good or anything like that. Just squeezing out that little extra bit.

[My notion of what happens, but what do I know.]

And yes, that little extra "detail" is pretty much what the net benefit would be. Possibly stabilize your overall soundfield.

[Zaphod]

Originally Posted by reubelim

Thought sound was a bit better (as in more detailed?) but given my wooden ear that was probably just my imagination.
Thanks guys!

Probably because it brought your speaker higher and the tweeter is more at ear level than before (since high frequenies are more directional), hence the more detailed sound. Carpet spikes themselves will not improve how the speaker sounds, unless there is a port on the underside of the speaker or a down-firing woofer.

[reubelim]

All righty then. They were heavy speakers to man-handle. They are old though. I tell you, some of the kit in your sigs make me salivate...

[cravnsn]

Tighter, clearer bass & mids – spike’em if you got’em