Speaker footers – Ugh



I’m exhausted in my search for the truth. I have a pair of Rega’s R7 floor standing speakers (about 40” tall) and feel that I can improve their sound by changing out the 4 stock spikes each speaker came with.

I’ve read where spikes can be a “bad thing” by exacerbating vibration within the speaker. Mapleshade has a philosophy that vibration needs to be drained from speakers. They sell heavy brass footers (3” tall, 3” diameter) that are supposed to accomplish that. However, they cost a few bucks and cosmetically are not exactly what I’m looking for.

I’ve spent hours trying to identify footers that will make a difference and am at the point of exhaustion. I could research more, but feel I’ll get no closer to the truth of what would be a good solution. I encourage anyone who has had a good experience with replacement footers for a floor stander (like the R7’s) to share.

Thank you.
rbschauman

Showing 1 response by peterayer

I recently went from four cones to three under my speaker bases. The bases have three threaded inserts in the back for this reason. I use rounded cones instead of spikes, both of which came with the speakers, because I have soft pine floors and the sharp spike would go right through the wood.

The three cones couple the base to the floor much more effectively by increasing the load on each point, but also because three support points are always self-leveling whereas four points could rock slightly. It is less stable with three than with four because the overall footprint or contact area is smaller, but that does not worry me because the speakers are very heavy. The result is that the bass became more focused and articulate. Extension also increased slightly. I found it to be a very worthwhile improvement which did not cost me anything.