Casters to replace spikes

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There are all kinds of dampened casters for rough travel. Some are spring loaded and they use all different types of wheel compounds.
There are a few cantilever types with shocks and spring tension adjustment..

NO Spikes.. Bad idea, always has been, always will be.. Always decouple that is like 1980s tech, spikes good Lord.. 

You're transferring a SECOND bass signal through the floor to arrive at YOUR seated position at a different time.. It's just that simple.. Air and floors deliver the signal at different times. THAT equals MUDDY bass.

You'll never notice the difference until you clean it up. 30 years I been preaching it.. Along with no BASS duty for valve amps and separating the BASS cabinets from the monitor cabinets.

Regards

30 years I been preaching it.. Along with no BASS duty for valve amps and separating the BASS cabinets from the monitor cabinet.

I forgot phase plugs too. 20 years on those.. I’m even revisiting whizzer cones, too.. :-)

Springs are great they just need a good dampening agent like memory foam and paint the springs with silicone paint. Flex Seal works really good. Put ear plugs inside the springs and install them (No Bound style) it’s a BIG one up from stock No Bound.

On a 1 - 10 a NB is a good solid 5, with dampening added, 6.5-7, IF adjustable silicone/spring pods were a 10 (SOTA).

You can dampen the heck out of stock spring casters, the same way... Paint the springs and add shocks..

Regards

Spikes

"Spikes both couple and decouple the cabinet/speaker output from the floor.

Bass wavelengths are quite long and, below about 200Hz, boundary dependent. Without a surface to travel along they dissipate somewhat rapidly. A woofer would ideally be as close to a boundary (floor) or multiple boundaries (side and back walls, and even ceiling) as possible, or at least a constant distance from them. By elevating a cabinet from the floor with spikes, you reduce the propagation efficiency of bass wavelengths. So, you decouple bass from the room, even if ever so slightly. The effect is quite audible.

Spikes couple cabinet output to the floor, turning it into a transmission medium. Soundwaves travel through many solids much more rapidly than through the air. Instead of "moving the floor", cabinet output is transmitted to the listener ahead of the music, through the floor (made usually a good carrier of sound like wood or stone). This is why I’m no fan of spikes, and the Sunfire people aren’t either.

Try some damping compound between the spikes and the cabinet (not between the spikes and the floor) and let me know if you hear a difference. I’ve seen composite spikes that were metal only on the tips, otherwise rubber. Should work better.

Since spikes do two things I don’t like--diminish bass propagation, and transmit or even amplify spurious cabinet talk--I never recommend their use.

As Sunfire recommends, rubber or other absorbent materials can be used as feet for speakers or subs.

Since a lot depends on the height of the stand and the materials from which your floor is made, why not experiment? Personally I like Dynamat." 1987 or so..

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From the old VMPS web site (Brian Cheney. Mr BASS).. and Sunfire.
35 years ago. Like I said there is a reason NOT use spikes, and I can’t think of a single reason to. Wooden floors can be worse..

Otherwise its just a HUGE drum. 3.5" to 5.5" concrete bounces like a drum.. The dryer it gets the tighter it stretches in a monolithic pour. The worst of the worst.. A slab with soft expansion joints. One slab is different than the next. Decouple always.. Really muddies the bass.. Just a big bass driver (the floor). Very little bass cohesion otherwise.

If Carver and Cheney,(RIP) agree, I’m in their CES winning corner.

Innertubes, spring, silicone pods, YES, spikes NO!! Rubber spikes, how’s that working out.. LOL Charlie Chaplin’s drunk routine..

Opinions.. I don’t think so... Just my self proven and re-proven facts over and over.. I have 2 boxes of spikes.. Even Merlin spikes.. rare from the 30s.. they kinda work.. They are tuned for record player isolation and rumble

Regards

https://casterconnection.com/caster/4-spring-loaded-tpr-rigid-caster?gclid=CjwKCAjwmeiIBhA6EiwA-uaeFeVFXJX935zEHcOsjgr6rbQCp5nLAUjnkhuZtFqU4I7XtfI3l9AipxoC3lYQAvD_BwE

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I don’t know the weight of your speakers. My monitors are 375 pounds each (before mods). Two in the back of this type of caster for me. The front use a single adjustable spring/silicone pod. You can set top to bottom alignment, forward or backward (caster) positive or negative. There is no need for top to bottom left or right (camber) positive or negative adjustment. Then set the toe.

It won’t move, it would be dampened very well and of course decoupled. Just a slight tip to move them and back on the front pod. You could put a slider under the pod.

I’m making new bases for my monitors this is exactly how I’m doing it. Pocket mount (enclose) the rear casters to 1 1/2" butcher block (70 lbs) and a single spring/silicone pod in the front. The 60 lb SS beveled cap is a work in progress. 500 + lb is not easy to move. I had to do something..

BTW there is NO bass used in that cabinet. It’s just the monitors made from HDF. They sound like telephone poles when you knock on them. All of my monitors do.. When they are finally placed, 100 lb of sand can added in the old bass section, as an option.. STILL decoupled.. and below my weight limit on the pod and caster springs. 600 lbs

Regards