Speaker Spikes - Working Principle

@audiopoint Yeah, right. And all is on top of the fact that 'hard' spikes do nothing except 'hold' the speaker. And no: even solid gold spikes don't do more (except are high on pixel dust content).

Is the above meant to be SERIOURS? Or a nicely done bot generation. Otherwise, the crazyness in audiophildom has reached a new level of nonsense. 

Just re-read this one: "Rubber has a lower internal impedance than say wood which is lower than concrete. The highest internal impedance I think is Diamond.". That is the reason why they are now building all Stradivaris from receycled tires :-)

@vitussl101 do OSCILLATING tweeter membran REALLY MOVE a 50 lb speaker? Remember, those milligram 'pistons' go back and forth (SAME force or better, same impulse in EACH DIRCTION) about 5000 time PER SECOND. that 50 lb MASS is way to slow to move. To move the entire speaker i suspect the required accel and decel would SHRED any speaker to pieces. 

IF that test was done (hand on speaker) and actually had (not perceived) results as described, the only explanation would be that the hand DAMPENED the vibrations of the respect speaker PANEL; and yes, they DO move/flex. The WALLS of the cabinet, not the speaker. 

Prevent from moving around: accepted (double sided tape would do as well). 

Nice big heavy granite/cast iron plate on the bottom, some soft rubber 'pucks' will certainly help to kill SOME vibrations (sound) transmitted from the speaker to the floor (and still keep the speaker in place). 

Wondering what frequencies the crazy turntable designers calculate their vibration dampers for (and what method they use, sure mass is one of them). 

@ditusa Thanks, that explains why spikes (or other rigid 'couplers') DON"T work. A suspected. The acrticle does NOT offer solutions to decouple. 

Another misconception: "depends on the spring rate and the mass": that is called a SWINGER for good reason. at resonance frequency, amplitude will be infinite. Try driving your car with spring only. 

That is were the DAMPER comes in. Now you have a system of spring, damper and mass, and can be tuned to KILL vibrations. 

This has NOTHING to do with the vibrations the emitted sound is producing ('will vibrate even if suspend the speaker in the air'). It has to do with the vibration the mass off the speaker is COUPLING to the floor (not those of the soundwave). 

@yoyoyaya Spikes as level and holding device: no issue. But piece of sticky felt, folded paper (to level), stick on rubber would do the trick without punching holes in the carpet or floor, and complicated designs. 

Spikes have become another 'pixel dust' for audiphiles (considering that people spend $100 or more for some). Unless of course. they become ART: 

@yoyoyaya The point of using spikes as anchors, anti slip, or 'keep level' is not disputed (even so much simpler/cheaper methods are plenty), rather their ineffectiveness as a "decoupler", "damper", or otherwise reduce vibrations. 

i would even argue that putting a subwoofer for example totally flat on a carpet MAY even reduce the amount of sound emitted from the vibrating (bottom) panel (while it still couples the sub to the floor accoustically).

@zo6ak Sorry, didn't see that you were trying to quote someone (i.e. missing "quote marks". It was aactuall @viridian  who said "Spikes are cheap, try them and they will either enhance your listening pleasure or they won't."  and thus promoting the idea of trial and error for 'cheap' things instead of logic/research/physics to narrow down the field. 

I guess I can close out this discussion, concluding that

a) a lot are using spikes just to 'hold' their speakers

b) spikes cannot decouple (reduce vibrations) the speaker from surface they are standing on.

@mahgister Aside from mass (and materials wilth likely different resonance frequencies), what did you use to DAMPEN (sand filled for example (friction between sand corns converts energy), rubber (ditto), foam (? not sure)). 

@ditusa Vandersteen on spikes:just came across this exmaple, and below in that same thread someone who put granite plates under the spikes. Those pucks seem to use rubber to quell speaker vibrations transmitted to the floor.

The granite plates (high mass) in conjuction with the carpet/rubber (bottom of carpet) and foam (under carpet) under the puck act as another 'swinger' (mass, spring, damper) to further modify the fequency and amplitude transmitted into the floor. 

@yoyoyaya "but they also stop the bottom of the cabinet from coupling directly to the floor". Yes, that crossed my mind as well. The spikes only couple the motion of the speaker assembly to the floor (undampened if made from just metal) and put on bare floor, or ’spiked’ (penetrating carpet) to wood underneath. .

But putting the speaker flat floor on the carpet rubber/foam underneath may actually help to reduce the vibrations of the cabinet bottom in the frequency range damped by the carpet/rubber/foam. Or looked at it the other way around: ’raising’ the bottom of the cabinet up from the floor may allow it to vibrate more freely and "change" the speaker sound.