Can I suspend / hang speakers?

Someone has to say it...

It was Newton's THIRD law of MOTION
vs 1st of thermo.

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

If I didn't think Newton was the greatest scientist ever I would have kept my mouth shut. Regardless of the historical slip you make an excellent point regarding the tendency of suspended speakers to shake themselves rather than produce sound.

The speaker cabinet will indeed move in response to the cone and this movement will be quite small by daily human standards. However, this small movement IS in my view enough to smear the sound. I cite the same reasons as others on this thread for rigidly mounting speakers to stands.

Given that woofer cones are generally made to be as light as possible and that the reverse is true for speaker boxes, the reaction movements of the box are indeed very slight, but not in my view insignificant.

This thread seems to have just about died - but in hindsight it looks like a Michael Moore film: Lots of itty-bitty factual pieces taken and spun to support the outcomes each of us are after.

For my closing remarks on the physics of this situation - the system will certainly be enjoyable to even the most prudish audio nut provided at least most of the other considerations are taken into account. Just as the poor electrical/vibrational/speaker positioning environment doesn't preclude us from enjoying music in the car, the slight change in rigidity due to suspending speakers do not prevent people from enjoying the stereo system.

I do have to disagree with the statement by Eldartford regarding...
"The positive aspects of suspending speakers are complete mechanical isolation from the floor (so that it doesn't vibrate)"
The speakers are not isolated from the floor - and this is not in reference to an abstract and academic concern regarding the inability to achieve "complete" isolation as cited above. The suspended speakers are simply another coupled element in the system although the speaker supports (chains?) have the unique ability to have no meaningful compressive load resistance, this does not mean the element (speaker) is isolated from the rest of the system.