Speaker spikes on concrete or wood floor best?

I did extensive listening tests with my B&W 803ds with respect to spikes, footers, and plinths. I started with the stock 803ds flat on the carpet without stock spikes. I them went to stock spikes through the carpet (although they never really got a solid connection to the floor). I then went to speakers (no spikes) flat on a 3 1/2" thick x 18" diameter solid maple plinth, flat on the carpet. Then I tried 2" Eden sound footers directly on carpet. Then I tried 2" Eden sound footers on the plinth, plinth flat on carpet. Then finaly 2" Eden Sound footers on plinth, with 3" Eden sound deep carpet footers from the plinth to the carpet.

The last configuration sounded the best by a large margin. I expected an improvement in bass definition, but was delighted to find a improvement throughout the audio spectrum. Vocals were especially nice, and the edginess and brittleness I used to have in some recordings was gone. Imaging also improved. Bass impact improved to the point where I have now plugged the vent ports on the 803ds to improve detailing of bass transients.

As an added bonus, the standing stability of these 803ds was also improved. They are much more stable and a lot less "tippy". On their stock spikes, the slightest nudge could send them arcing toward the ground. Now they are rock solid.

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.

i decided to experiment taking the factory spikes off my DeVore Nines. So far I actually like the sound better. I have a set of Stillpoints inbound to test out in place of the spikes...will report back my findings on that test but so far I'm converted to non-spike.

Studiosoundman:

A lot of what you say makes sense, and I found that the simple steel spikes that come stock on the B&W 803d to be essentialy useless. But I might not have discovered this had I not had the problem of the stock spikes penetrating my rather thick, dense plush carpet. With that carpet, I need penetration well beyond 1 1/4" to 1 1/2", due not only to the carpet but the thick underlayment pad beneath. To be effective, the spikes must penetrate to the wood flooring surface. Add to this the stability problem. We have earthquakes here in CA, and a little shaking can send these topheavy B&Ws crashing to the floor. Even bumping them during vacuuming can produce unintended consequences. Ever wonder how may G's that $1000+ diamond tweeter will take before its damaged?

So I was looking for a stability solution as well as a sonic one, and extensive conversations with folks at Maple shade and EdenSound convinced me of a number of things.

(1) Its not just the shape of the spikes or the material they are made of, but the MASS as well. Brass spikes intrinsicly coupled to huge masses of brass are best. If I could afford 2" thick brass plates under the speakers I would use them, but at the current cost of brass (and cosmetics), that solution is out of the question.

(2) Spikes have a sonic "diode" effect, transfering unwanted cabinet vibrations to the surface they are imbedded in. This can be a bad thing if they are in concrete, as unwanted reflections back up in to the cabinet are possible.

(3) The use of thick, natural wood platforms of maple have a damping effect, and give you added sonic "sinking" if sandwiched between groups of massive brass footers.

So in my final implementation I got the stability I needed with a sonic improvement I was not particularly seeking, but am happy with nonetheless.