Spikes on tiled floor

scipath

Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2017
Messages
40
Points
8
Location
India
My speakers stands have spikes at the bottom. I read that spikes are to grab on to carpets. Can I keep them directly on tiled floor? Some people suggest placing a penny (coin) under the spikes. What would that do? I also read that spikes decouple speakers from the floor. Doesn't it actually couple it to the floor? Frictional Force can actually increase for spikes, which is why runners wear spikes shoes. Am I wrong?
 
You could try
Euro cent coins. They are said to improve sound
Soundfoundations spike feet
Herbie's Decoupling Gliders
 
My speakers stands have spikes at the bottom. I read that spikes are to grab on to carpets. Can I keep them directly on tiled floor? Some people suggest placing a penny (coin) under the spikes. What would that do? I also read that spikes decouple speakers from the floor. Doesn't it actually couple it to the floor? Frictional Force can actually increase for spikes, which is why runners wear spikes shoes. Am I wrong?
I think the best is you can try out for yourself. Generally it is good to decouple from the floor if they are floor standers, May or may not work according to how it sounds in your room.
 
My speakers stands have spikes at the bottom. I read that spikes are to grab on to carpets. Can I keep them directly on tiled floor? Some people suggest placing a penny (coin) under the spikes. What would that do? I also read that spikes decouple speakers from the floor. Doesn't it actually couple it to the floor? Frictional Force can actually increase for spikes, which is why runners wear spikes shoes. Am I wrong?
Yes spikes are good to keep the speakers in place on a carpeted, wooden or similar floor. On tiles, you will end up ruining your tiles.

You have a couple of options. Place the speakers on thick jute rugs or carpets. That should decouple the speakers from the floor a bit. Or you could get sandboxes and place the speakers on that using a stone slab or a simple sheet of plywood. This will definitely decouple and isolate the speaker, also giving to you an option to height match the speakers to correctly have the tweeter at ear level.

Here is a pic of my speakers on a plastic sand box with red granite on top.
34135

MaSh
 
You could try
Euro cent coins. They are said to improve sound
Soundfoundations spike feet
Herbie's Decoupling Gliders
The spike feet I see online seem expensive to me for a piece of metal. Would something like a carrom coin with rubber padding glued underneath for grip work fine? Some of the wooden spike feet look a lot like carrom coins. Is there any distinctive advantage for the spike feet as opposed to any random rigid object under it.
 
Last edited:
The spike feet I see online seem expensive to me for a piece of metal. Would something like a carrom coin with rubber padding glued underneath for grip work fine? Some of the wooden spike feet look a lot like carrom coins. Is there any distinctive advantage for the spike feet as opposed to any random rigid object under it.
I'm using carrom coins with a hole on one side and a leather shoe insole cut to shape and stuck on the bottom side. Works fine and as good as spike feet. But make sure you use only the white coins
 
I would expect the Soundfoundations feet to be relatively inexpensive. Owner is FM magma. Check with him.
The spike feet I see online seem expensive to me for a piece of metal. Would something like a carrom coin with rubber padding glued underneath for grip work fine? Some of the wooden spike feet look a lot like carrom coins. Is there any distinctive advantage for the spike feet as opposed to any random rigid object under it.

I'm using carrom coins with a hole on one side and a leather shoe insole cut to shape and stuck on the bottom side. Works fine and as good as spike feet. But make sure you use only the white coins
Great DIY :)
But why only the white coins?
 
Yes spikes are good to keep the speakers in place on a carpeted, wooden or similar floor. On tiles, you will end up ruining your tiles.

You have a couple of options. Place the speakers on thick jute rugs or carpets. That should decouple the speakers from the floor a bit. Or you could get sandboxes and place the speakers on that using a stone slab or a simple sheet of plywood. This will definitely decouple and isolate the speaker, also giving to you an option to height match the speakers to correctly have the tweeter at ear level.

Here is a pic of my speakers on a plastic sand box with red granite on top.
View attachment 34135

MaSh
But in most of the cases tweeter already height matched, in those cases it would defeat it, any other solution?
 
But in most of the cases tweeter already height matched, in those cases it would defeat it, any other solution?
Well if the speakers are already at the right height then one could use isolation pads or similar. Numerous types available on Amazon.

How effective they would be, I am not sure. Most have mixed reviews.

MaSh
 
My speakers stands have spikes at the bottom. I read that spikes are to grab on to carpets. Can I keep them directly on tiled floor? Some people suggest placing a penny (coin) under the spikes. What would that do? I also read that spikes decouple speakers from the floor. Doesn't it actually couple it to the floor? Frictional Force can actually increase for spikes, which is why runners wear spikes shoes. Am I wrong?

It will sound a little different if you place spike feet or coins under spikes. That will decouple from floor. Spikes couple the speakers to the floor so that all vibrations pass on to the floor. From what I understand and my experience, generally floorstanders are designed to couple them to floor. they may sound more open using isolation footers but it robs the sound of tonality. I prefer placing spikes on floor. Try everything, it depends on room also and your sound tastes. If you try isolation platforms, make sure their own weight is more than that of speakers.
 
Also rather than isolating speakers, try isolating your sources and amps, I got isolation footers for my floorstanding speakers but I found they are more effective when I used them on my amp and dac. Sound becomes alot cleaner, especially on digital sources.
 
IMHO,I tried all these modifications and ultimately I found that my system sounds best with speaker directly put on the floor.I found all other isolators eating up some sound and making it sound so called CLEANER.A good speaker is supposed to be solid and inert.Since audio is purely of a personal taste,maybe these modifications help tailor the sound to suit individual tastes.But it certainly reduces and does not enhance anything.No harm trying.
 
The spike feet I see online seem expensive to me for a piece of metal.
I have a tiled floor. I have no spikes. I see no point in having them.

Spikes allegedly improve bass. My bass cones from a dabba with squat square wide alloy feet which with sorbothane at the bottom. Spikes would concentrate vibrations rather than eliminate room interaction.
Plenty of threads here on hfv and on the 'net. I would not bother with chasing pointy things with expectations of SQ gain.
Ciao
GR
 
Every move either spikes, or granite slabs or isolators will change the sound of a speaker very subtly in one direction or the other. There is no one correct way to do it. It is a matter of experimenting and deciding what sounds best to one's ears. I find isolators under my floor standers have tidied up the bass quiet a bit, it is tight now. Before that i them on the supplied spikes, going into a one inch thick rug. The bass was deeper in this mode, but not as well controlled as with the isolators.

What would I prefer....Iam using the isolators, as even after trading away a bit of bass extension, the tightening of the bass, has opened up the mid range and treble a smidgen more. So I feel there is more clarity now. Had I tried this 4 years back, I would have thrown the isolators out the window, as I would have not compromised on bass depth and extension, never mind a little boom.

So your speakers, your room and your taste. Experiment and decide what you like the most :)
 
Least expensive option is to use money coins under the spikes. I'd done this for a couple of months with my spiked floor standers on wooden floors. I now use bamboo chopping boards (from Ikea) under the speakers. You can also buy spike feet online from places like aliexpress for not too much money. The 'soundfoundations' spike feet are also a good option - though I have no idea how much it's worth. Having seen some of 'soundfoundations' speaker stands, these will be built solid and good value

Isolation devices such as Isoacoustics will cost you a lot more - and is worth it only if your entire chain is revealing enough to highlight these subtle differences.
 
Back
Top