Speakers on carpet over concrete

I agree about not using spikes on a wood or composite floor, however if you have a pored concrete floor with carpet & pad overlay and properly spiked speakers, the floor is not going to absorb the bass. By using long enough spikes so the tips rest on the slab and the speaker cabinet bottoms are raised high enough to clear the carpet surface. You will have a solid, stable connection to the floor. Make sure you have sharp spikes and they are long enough.

@jc4659 - I have exactly the same setup in my basement (carpet on concrete), so I took a slightly different approach to others, which appears (to me) to work very well

Under each speaker

• I use two 18" square granite tiles on top of each other with a layer of thin foam drawer liner between them
  • this acts as an isolating sandwich
• at each corner of the lower tile I glue one of these
  • spiked plastic carpet protectors
• The speaker sits on top ot the two tiles using its spiked feet
• This larger "base" is just like installing outriggers to the speakers, which minimizes any movement
• after about two months the underlay is compressed under each spiked foot resulting in a very firm platform on which to place the speaker

My speaker weighs about 60 lbs, which contributes even more to their stability

So now my speakrs are

• nicley seperated/isolated from the concrete under the carpet
• very stable (actually rock solid)
• sounding amazingly detailed with a large and spacious image

One other approach to achieve additional speaker stability is to add heavy weight on top of the speaker - this prevents the woofer cone from moving the speaker cabinet

• A friend places a 15lb bar-bell on top of each speaker
• doesn't look elegant - but it works ! 🤪

Hope that helps - Steve

I was reading the other day that Richard Vandersteen, specifically uses spikes to enhance the sound from his speakers. He only wants drivers moving, not the enclosure. He wants the speaker to couple to the concrete because it moves less than any other surface in our homes.

I have very thick carpet over dense pad on a concrete slab floor. I currently have Zu’s on spikes through the carpet to the concrete. The speakers are rock solid to the floor with brass weights on the top front of the cabinets. I went to 15”x15”x4” walnut Timber Nation pedestals spiked to the floor with the Zu’s on that. This setup sounded terrible. Sean at Zu responded personally to me suggesting spacing and placement distance above the pedestal. I never came close to how it was before and went back to what I first mentioned. My previous system in the room was high power with JBL 4312’s on 26” Sound Anchor stands, again with spikes through the carpet and into the concrete. However the JBL’s had dots between the speakers and the stands. This combo weighed about 100 lbs per side and wouldn’t move even with someone bumping into them. What I’m not clear on that could be addressed by those above is running springs on carpet and not getting a speaker that’s like a rocking horse. Also the bottom line is we have to try it ourselves and hear the results. FWIT I’m in the opinion that a loose speaker rocks back and forth in response to the driver like Mr Vandersteen spikes his stuff. And those beautiful Timber Nation walnut pedestals made great amp stands. Regards , Mike B. 

I have wall-to-wall carpet in my listening room, with stand mount speakers; I found a big difference, especially in the bass, between using spikes and not using them. I think there is a thick layer of concrete between floors of my apartment building.