Speaker Spikes - Working Principle


Vibration damping obvious makes sense (in speakers just as well as in cars). 

That involves 'killing' (converting into heat, through typically internal friction) kinetic energy. So any sort of elastic material (rubber has lots of internal friction) makes sense. 

And then there are spikes. Using a pointy hard object and pair it with a softer, elastic material (to deform, and kill kinetic energy) can work; think metal sharp spike into carpet or wood floor. 

But what is the idea behind pairing fairly unelastic metal (brass for example) with similarly unelastic (brass, stone, etc) material (example photo provided)? Only thing I can come up with: LOOKS good and makes owner feel good  thinking its an improvement (works only for Audiophiles though),

Even more curious: are they ENGINEERED "spikes" (vibration dampers or shock absorbers) for speakers that are TUNED for the frequency (and mass)  that needs to be dampened? Can piston style fluid dampers be designed for the high frequencies (100, 1000, 10000 Hz) using geometry, nozzles size and viscosity of the fluid?

 

kraftwerkturbo

Showing 1 response by wolfie62

So much BS in here ^^^^!!!!
 

Spikes under speakers serve to MASS COUPLE the speaker to the mass of the floor. It helps to change the resonant frequencies of the cabinets by adding the mass of the floor to the mass of the cabinets. Whether or not it makes an audible improvement is highly subjective. But in the case of underbraced cabinets, it can help. It’s as subjective as cable lifters, mono block amps on stands, speaker cables, and component spikes. One definite advantage of mass coupling is using metal wood screws to mount a turntable shelf to the wall studs. It greatly lowers the resonant frequency of the shelf supporting the turntable.