Anyone try decoupling speakers from the room?

I recently purchased some polycrystal amp stands here on the 'gon, with the intention of moving from a multi-shelf rack between my speakers (Gallo Ref 3's) to having the components on the amp stands (still in between the speakers, but taking up much less vertical real estate; my hope was that the soundstaging might improve). At any rate, it didn't work as well as I had hoped--the soundstaging didn't improve (I think because my rack was already pretty short, and it was behind the speakers, not exactly between them), cable management became a pain, and the WAF wasn't there--so I put each of my Gallos on a stand.

I was amazed at the difference, the bass became so much clearer and fuller, which led the mids and highs to sound better, as well. I know that a lot of people use after-market stands for these speakers, as they think that they're a bit too short, and that the bases aren't big enough to effectively dissipate energy. I'm not sure that I got much of an improvement because they were raised higher, but I do think that decoupling them from the floor was absolutely the right move for me to make. BTW, my listening room is carpet over suspended wooden floors, and it's a fairly old house, so there's a lot of give in those floor beams.

I'd love to try out some after-market stands designed specifically for the Gallos, but they're all pretty pricey. Besides that, my fiance really seems to like the look of the Gallos set on top of the polycrystal stands, so I'm in no hurry to change it.

I wonder what Bobby P. would think of your setup. My guess is that he would be horrified.

I use Symposium Ultra platforms under my 3 way speakers (even though I have carpet over a concrete floor on grade). I prefer it to spikes. The bass is tighter and clearer and the midrange is more focused. Also worked better with my old Vandy 2CIs (with in this case Svelte platforms).

9rw,
The speakers are a product of a genius, I believe that by me trying a different approach is an attempt to make them more synergistic to my room and not any attempt at changing them. I use Bobby's bam and the speaker itself is not modified. It's too bad some are close-minded.

Concrete floor=spikes.
Suspended wood floor=decoupling.

A generalization, but probably true in most cases.

I have suspended wood floors under carpet and spiking sounds very bad vs. decoupling.

Pedrillo,
My previous listening room was over a garage, so the floor was suspended. Spiking the speakers to the floor increased the energy coupling and made it easier to drive the floor into its reasonant frequency (bad).
The solution was to put a piece of slate between the spikes and the carpet thus providing some decoupling. It improved the low end frequency response and reduced the noise levels in the garage (good).
This is a simple and easy thing to try, even if you substitute a piece of wood for the slate to hear for yourself what happens.

Won't you lose all bass by decoupling either the speakers or listener?
I saw an A'goner a few years ago decoupled his amps by hanging them with wires to avoid and issues. It worked great until one monoblock dropped 2 feet to the floor...

Pedrillo: OK. So why doesn't Bobby suggest such a setup in the owners manual? Sonically, what are the differences vs. setting the speakers up as Bobby recommends?

This is what the Z-Feet accomplish:
http://www.merlinmusic.com/howto_zft.htm

I'm using Stillpoints and to me, I think they sound a ton better than the Piega spikes. Tighter bass, more solid image, clearer midrange.

9rw,
To me the bass becomes cleaner, tighter more distinct. The speaker seems to vanish. They sound incredible this way. I haven't heard my vsm's on the floor in awhile and there have been alot of changes at my source so I will revisit the comparisons some day. This suspension started as an effort to lessen any disturbance to my downstairs neighbor and as a side benefit I got a sound I am really happy with. I probably will make a ton of changes in the future always trying to improve on things, one thing I will most defenitely do is try the vsm's on the floor and will gladly report the winner, who knows maybe I was wrong all this time. The journey is what really counts.

jbl 4430/4435 studio monitor have been designed for the purpose of being suspended from the ceiling or soffit mounted. the bottoms of the monitors have 4 eye hooks installed through the factory and steel bars installed in the speakers bottom and bolted to the baffle. for this application, you simply flip the speaker upside down and connect the cables and hoist! audiophile speakers are not designed like this cuz of the nonsense the magazines promote. they worry to much about how the speaker will look instead of how it sounds. so you can pay $10,000 but get $50.00 worth of drivers. with these speakers that wont be the case. mike

Bose 901s were often dangled from the ceilings.

I have had the same setup with all my speakers. Carpet over wood floor, cinder blocks on the carpet, tiptoes under the speakers (pointy side to the cinder blocks). Works great, and the tweeters are the perfect height. Remember, you want the tweeters at about ear level from your listening position.

If my speakers were taller, I'd use paving stones instead of the cinder blocks.

Good speaker stands also have a way of decoupling the speaker from the stand.

"My main purpose is to keep the floor from resonating, IMHO it works well."
http://forums.avguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=3588
Please see the link above for an explanation of Sound Transmission.
Suspending your speakers will do nothing to diminish the transference of Air-Borne Sound.
Air-Borne Sound needs to be of a high decibel value, and the correct frequencies to make your floors 'resonate'.
The Air-Borne Sound however will quite easily 'pass-through' the floor structure depending on its insulating and transference properties.

Structure-Borne Sound will be induced into the floor by both Air-Borne Sound and physical impact or vibration.
If your speaker cabinets DO vibrate sufficiently (most don't) and are directly coupled to the floor structure, they may induce Structure-Borne Sound Transmission.
If your speakers are DE-COUPLED from the floor (and this can be done via spikes OR insulating material, there will be no significant transference of the cabinet resonance into the floor structure.
If you do not in some manner prevent the speakers form moving (ie bouncing), you will be degrading the sound.
It is also important mostly, as others have written, to align the Mid-range and Tweeters with the ears in the listening position.

If the speaker cabinets waffle (light weight and not heavily braced speakers) then suspension will make a difference to the sound for sure...sound reinforcement speakers like JBL's fit this category as do thin wall cabinets such as Harbeth's.

Is it better...the eye of the beholder is what counts...

well, yea, my ex got the house and I got the speakers.
worked out great!!!
jb