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

@kraftwerkturbo Really?  You thought I meant that a tweeters motion is moving the cabinet.  I reread your question and my response and I suppose that I should have said that the bass drivers in the speaker cabinet would cause a slight motion, enough to blur the image coming from the tweeter, and possibly midrange because of the pistonic motion of these drivers are so short.  So the spikes are there to keep the speaker from moving, hopefully, not at all.  Not a millimeter if possible.  I thought that this was obvious.  And the Linn demonstration of loosening a single spike on each speaker stand was to introduce this rocking motion, and then pressing down on top of the speakers was to stop that rocking motion.  That's it!  Nothing else.  All that blather about vibration control and dampening is something else for another topic.  The stuff I discussed were simple explanations, examples that anyone in the room could hear.  Not poor or wrong science applied or applications of physics.   

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 :-)

FWIW, in one if Paul McGowen’s YouTube videos there was a question related to this and he said, spikes (in whatever speaker) produce a more audiophile type bass that many people like, but he likes the more natural bass from eg isoacoustics (or some cheaper similar product). 

@hchilcoat  He described what he does and his tastes.  His speakers are being sold to "audiophiles" who want that kind of sound so of course.