My Tekton Double Impacts came with caster wheels, which made them very easy to move and reposition. They are sitting on probably fake wood floors in my apartment. They sound great now, but I can't help but wonder if I'm leaving SQ on the table by not having them on spikes. Some people say I must use spikes, others (including Erik Alexander) say wheels are just fine. They are super heavy so the wheels are not easy to take off. I want to make sure it's worth doing. What are your experiences and thoughts?
I don't get the caster thing. And to me, they're ugly. Yeah setup is a pita with heavy speakers. I get it. So is turntable setup. Why would you need or want casters after they're dialed in?
douglas_schroeder1,918 posts 06-04-2019 7:03pm "Oh, you are SO losing out by using casters! The difference is OBVIOUS. No true audiophile would use casters! Once you hear spikes you will NEVER want to go back!
Hey, wait! I put casters on the Vapor Audio Joule White speakers! Nevermind. ;)
No one here has figured out the most important variable between spikes and casters. "
Herbies sliders have given me by far the best results on several different floor structures. For my Arias they were an immediate improvement without a doubt.
georgehifi5 , The Vibrapod are well design (compare to the sorbotan footer) and not expensive and very effective on my suspended floor, but if the
sorbotan footer
do the job, why not.
My Wilsons weigh in at over 400 lbs. a side. I replaced the factory supplied casters, which had started to break down, with heavy duty commercial parts and opted to leave them on rather than spike them (lifting the speakers to install spikes is fraught with hazard and the likelihood that you will slightly change the alignment and be unable to correct that easily). Wood floors.
OTOH, my big Vandersteens do sound better with spikes, so YMMV.
My speakers weigh about 70 pounds apiece, and are on heavy duty Berber carpet. Since I frequently move them from a whole room, straight out listening position, to a toed in home theater listening position, I put smallish heavy duty carpet sliders on the four corners. This makes for an easy move, and the HT position is marked in tape for easy re-positioning. To my tinnitus addled 62 year old ears, no difference in SQ was detected.
Well to complicate matters, besides spikes and caster wheels, there are Isoacoustics Gaia feet. I used Isoacoustics Gaia feet on my Magico A3 pair. Magico provides spikes. They are make A-Pods which are spikes with isolation tech built in. I didn’t want to use spikes for these, because my system is in a dual purpose room and the A3s weigh about 100 lbs each. I was afraid that I might walk by and inadvertently brush against a speaker and knock a spike off its pad. Possible disaster might ensue. So I wanted a more stable footing. I chose the Isoacoustics Gaia 1 feet and I have been please with the stability and the SQ.
Swiveled plastic wheels are working great for me on hardwood. So easy to position depending on where I’m at in the room. I lock the wheels with than pointed out at the corners, give the speaker a little shake to hear the wheels lock and it feels pretty solid if trying to move the speaker. Great way to experiment with the sound/position! And fairly cheap. 20 some bucks for a set of 4
Have soundocity make outriggers for you that will fit your caster wheels to position then get the screw in from the top threaded spikes once finally positioned.
Oh, you are SO losing out by using casters! The difference is OBVIOUS. No true audiophile would use casters! Once you hear spikes you will NEVER want to go back!
Hey, wait! I put casters on the Vapor Audio Joule White speakers! Nevermind. ;)
No one here has figured out the most important variable between spikes and casters.
I have Vandersteen speakers that weigh 200 lbs each. They came with spikes, but I tried them without...just inquisitive. They are very much better with the spikes. Everyone makes their own decisions.. with wood floors, the results might be defferent.
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