Coupling or isolating floorstan. to the floor?

Assuming that you want to avoid damaging the tile floor, you would not want to use spikes, unless they are resting on top of the type of footers intended to go underneath spikes/cones (such as the ones made by Mitchell or Quadrapsire, sold by AudioAdvisor), or coins (pennies work OK, although quarters give you a bit more surface area to work with).

You could make a platform from MDF that sits on top of Vibrapods, or a similar isolator, and then place the speaker on top of the platform. Another alternative, which Vandersteen does with speaker stands from SoundAnchors, is to use round-headed machine bolts that screw into the holes provided for the spikes. About 12 years ago, I had a set of Vandy 2Ci's that were used on a tile floor, and I used the machine bolt method -- which seemed to work pretty well.

There is one other factor which may apply: is the tile floor laid on top of a suspended wood floor, or is it on top of a concrete slab floor? If you have a suspended wood floor (as I do in my house), the way you couple/isolate your speakers may change to overall tonal character of your system. You may want to experiment a bit and see which method, either isolation or coupling, yields the kind of overall tonal quality you want.

Thanks Sd, so the best thing is to buy both and experiment? This kind of trial can be quite expensive but will probably ensure more satisfiying results. Thanks again, and i'll check into AudioAdvisor and Vibrapods.

cs- vibrapods are pretty cheap (about $6/each x 3 x 2 spkrs). Using machine bolts instead of the spikes that typically come w/stands couldn't cost more $5 total.

Because a speaker cone is coupled to the cabinet, the cabinet will always vibrate to some extent with the cone. This causes a dissipation of energy which can result in loss of efficiency as well as phasing inaccuracy. So the idea is to hold the cabinet as rigid as possible so (ideally) all the work is done by the cone and none by the cabinet. Now it seems that vibrapods may hold a cabinet more rigidly than if it were standing unrestrained on the floor, but they cannot hold it as rigidly as spikes can. Am I missing something here?