Cones, spikes, or vibrapods for heavy sp

I use Walker Audio Valid Points under my 140 ld Genesis Vs. They come with discs that the spikes go into. These are fantastic. I also use them under my amp & preamp. Not cheap, but Pierre Sprey (Mapleshade) uses a set under his Pianos legs! Avail from www.audiotweakers.com

Vibrapods were a failure under my speakers. When I first tried them I was very impressed with a sense of ease in the treble and bass. But over time I found the midrange was somehow uninvolving. When I took them out, the music came back - very odd. Apart from this problem, the Vibrapods seemed to reduce cabinet resonances, and I think that is the point. The best solution is very rigid coupling to the floor IMHO - but the problem is that the energy still has to go somewhere. Rigid coupling seems to give the greatest level of detail, but if the speaker cabinet is not great, the downside is more intrusive cabinet resonance. I have a hard floor and use steel spikes sitting in brass cups - but I use electrostatics and so there are minimal cabimet resonance issues.

Both of the other postings are solid advice. I use Simply Physics feet under my electrostatics, and the spikes they employ are of stainless steel. The advantage of Simply Physics feet is that they are adjustable to within a few thousands of an inch, so if you have tall speakers and/or a less than level floor, you can still get perfect alignment in your placement (and imaging). I also use the Walker Audio Valid Points and the lead filled brass disks they press into. These are under my amps, preamp, and power supply. Sound Anchor has a new cup for spikes that protect the floor, I have a set, but have not tested them yet. Just as a note, I have never had good results with anything except spikes under any speaker. However, there are a lot of choices out there. It would be nice if you had friends that had some alternate products you could try for a couple of days to see what they do. That way you could hear the difference yourself. Maybe there is an audio group in your city that you could benefit from. My audio group is constantly helping each other with sharing and trying things.

I would expect you to have negative results trying to 'decouple' your speakers with damping material (ie. vibrapods). Keep in mind you want to keep your speaker cabnets from moving at all - you only want the cones to move - not the cabnets. That's one reason cabnets are often heavily damped and mini monitors have sand filled stands. The only way is to spike them or add a lot of mass to them. Electronics is another story. I think spiking or decoupling is determined by the floor it's on. A slab concrete floor allows spiking of electronics and stands. I've found that spiking cabnets to weak subfloors can actually make thinks worse. (The floor is set into motion from the speakers, then this vibration is transmitted up into the electonics.) Therefore, on wood floors, spike the speakers and decouple everything else.

Based on what I read here, I did a little tweaking this afternoon. I have a pair of PSB Stratus Gold-i speakers. When I bought them last summer, they came with spikes and a set of little clear rubber buttons (sorbothane?) to use as feet. There were no directions on when/how to use what. At first I simply placed the speakers on the hardwood floor of the family room with neither spikes nor buttons. Sound was good (i.e., big upgrade from our old Klipsch KG-4's), but after a month, I realized the bass was a bit too boomy. So I glued on the rubber feet and noticed that the bass tightened up, thanks to less coupling with the floor. After reading the good word here about speaker vibration the light went on (Newton's 3rd law -- duh!) and I decided to try the spikes. To ensure domestic tranquility, I first went down to the woodshop and cut out a couple of rectangles of 1/2 inch birch plywood the size and shape of the speaker base plates. I scraped off the rubber buttons, screwed in the spikes, placed the plywood plates on the floor, and put the speakers on top of the plates. I pressed the top of the speaker cabinets down to drive the spikes into the plywood (about 3/16 inch -- I hate to imagine having done this to an oak floor!). Fired up the system -- ah delight! THe bass tightened up, the midrange is sweeter, and the system is more articulate. I asked my wife to audition the sound, and without prompting, agreed that the sound was more resolved, with greater presence, more engaging, and more of a feel of live performance. Bottom line: the spikes are staying. Next step, make a dressier pair of protective pads and stain to match the color of the oak floor.