I must inquire why one places such a low performance value on spikes when there are so many different types and shapes of conical structures manufactured from so many diverse materials that are available for purchase in this marketplace. Does one relate to speaker spikes as a form of vibration control and mechanical coupling processes or just an accessory part that is added to the speaker from the very early years of hi-fi innovation?
Most speaker manufacturers provide very inexpensive steel spikes with their products to raise the speaker off the floor in order to avoid an acoustic coupling of the speaker enclosure with the flooring mass. Compact monitors arrive with either nothing at all or everything from hardened rubber dots, soft squishy discs or whatever materials fit into the final retail price for the speaker system. Wishing to avoid arguments over costing issues we have yet to find any low cost device such as steel spikes and such that affords a robust increase in musical performance. This is High-End Audio yes?
Like many recording studios our smaller monitors rested atop the primary recording desk with nothing separating them from resting directly on the console chassis. We never paid much attention or thought of improving our reference points through the coupling or decoupling methods of these smaller monitors.
Learning a great deal from our experience as to how equipment racking materials and how mechanical coupling designs affects the final sound in the recording process; we focused our sound improving efforts on coupling the lesser sized reference monitors along with the primary playback speaker system.
In order to eliminate the myths of spike functionalities, testing in the studio was instrumented using real time analyzers (RTA) and sound pressure level (SPL) metering. However we believe that our ears are the most important testing method available today.
In defense of spikes we have found that the choice in material coupled by the geometrical shape of the cone is extremely important. Our choice provided a tremendous lift in the overall sound quality of the studio. Being able to hear more from the reference monitors made huge improvements in our final product that is purchased by our clients.
As in our case we chose brass as the material of choice and these smallest sized products were not cheap but the end result very audibly enhanced the musical presence.
In our humble opinion, spikes should not be placed into such a vast generic category nor judged upon in the same fashion. There is a proven success history of companies selling thousands of spikes proving there is a viable positive result from use along with audiophile acceptance from listening.
Is it possible that one may have never tried the name brands of spikes that do perform exceptionally well? Search out the products with the long time reputations of success and give them a try.
Disclaimer: My father works with a commercial company that employs various forms of vibration management so I am biased, have had greater access to knowledge from experience and have applied various techniques, multiple grounding principles and years of working in recording studio settings.
Most speaker manufacturers provide very inexpensive steel spikes with their products to raise the speaker off the floor in order to avoid an acoustic coupling of the speaker enclosure with the flooring mass. Compact monitors arrive with either nothing at all or everything from hardened rubber dots, soft squishy discs or whatever materials fit into the final retail price for the speaker system. Wishing to avoid arguments over costing issues we have yet to find any low cost device such as steel spikes and such that affords a robust increase in musical performance. This is High-End Audio yes?
Like many recording studios our smaller monitors rested atop the primary recording desk with nothing separating them from resting directly on the console chassis. We never paid much attention or thought of improving our reference points through the coupling or decoupling methods of these smaller monitors.
Learning a great deal from our experience as to how equipment racking materials and how mechanical coupling designs affects the final sound in the recording process; we focused our sound improving efforts on coupling the lesser sized reference monitors along with the primary playback speaker system.
In order to eliminate the myths of spike functionalities, testing in the studio was instrumented using real time analyzers (RTA) and sound pressure level (SPL) metering. However we believe that our ears are the most important testing method available today.
In defense of spikes we have found that the choice in material coupled by the geometrical shape of the cone is extremely important. Our choice provided a tremendous lift in the overall sound quality of the studio. Being able to hear more from the reference monitors made huge improvements in our final product that is purchased by our clients.
As in our case we chose brass as the material of choice and these smallest sized products were not cheap but the end result very audibly enhanced the musical presence.
In our humble opinion, spikes should not be placed into such a vast generic category nor judged upon in the same fashion. There is a proven success history of companies selling thousands of spikes proving there is a viable positive result from use along with audiophile acceptance from listening.
Is it possible that one may have never tried the name brands of spikes that do perform exceptionally well? Search out the products with the long time reputations of success and give them a try.
Disclaimer: My father works with a commercial company that employs various forms of vibration management so I am biased, have had greater access to knowledge from experience and have applied various techniques, multiple grounding principles and years of working in recording studio settings.