Speakers On Wheels?

I advocate wheels for heavy speakers, slip surfaces for medium sized (sized so speaker doesn't move, but moves with effort).

to help find best and then alternate locations and alternate toe-in

my optional positioning, comments

3 wheels/slip sheets, so it's more weight per wheel, and 3 always finds solidity, avoiding shims.

casters: dual wheel furniture grade have less wobble in their axels than high quality single wheel.

surface mounted versions of wheels is easy to find.

Avoid Tip Over When Moving: flat bottom, no skirt, 2 wheels front, 1 wheel rear, and two anti-tip corner blocks rear, just above, not touching the floor normally, hit the floor if speaker begins to tip.

a good time to consider tilting the speakers back, aim tweeter up to seated ear height, and alter angle of initial reflections off floor and ceiling

mine, lying on their face, the skirt is the anti-tip solution, front block tilts the speaker back.

btw, I'm 75, have used spikes, other methods, they are no better in my experience, and limit movement needlessly, restrictively.

I forgot to mention, sometimes I need to get the speakers out of the way. Yay wheels.

Holidays, extra leaves in the table, 14 chairs around the table, the speakers get rolled back into the corners to make room to get around the table.

They still work, not ’best’ sound or imaging, but with many people moving about, some music, low volume, but not focused listening, until they get outta here. Thought they’d never leave!

get advice from caster specialists

make sure you can return them, until you get the right size/type that works for you.

if sized right, they stay put, until you push hard enough to get them moving. no brake required if sized right.

believe me, you want 3, not 4, more weight per wheel and roll them anywhere no shimming or wobble. add anti-tip corner blocks if needed.

hard floor material: soft wheels

soft floor material: harder wheels may be needed.

mine came with my JSE model 2's

caster central

IF you use a plant stand/dolly, I still recommend modifying for 3 wheels, so look at the bottom frame: something solid underneath, across the back edge to mount a rear center wheel? then solid corners for two anti-tipping blocks?

if you speakers weigh 100 lbs.

4 wheels = 25lbs/wheel

3 wheels = 33 lbs/w. that's + 1/3 MORE weight/wheel, thus less likely to move/vibrate.

...........................

any floor, even a hard flat one, can have imperfections from dead flat.

to avoid shims, even very thin ones, to keep weight equally and heavier on the 3 wheels, to keep the positioning you chose: use 3!!!!!!

aside from the cabinet's rigidity, you want stability.

My speakers, 3 wheels (firm dual wheel axels) the tops are slanted, some of Donna's favorite things on top. It doesn't matter where I move them, they are stable, nothing vibrates/moves even a speck.

three alternate positions and toe-in

fish23geeks

glad they work for you, but ball bearings would definitely make tracks in my wood floor made out of 3/4" thick oak. More of them, to avoid making tracks, would move more readily than my 3 dual wheel hard plastic casters (photo/link above).

It is a challenge to get the minimum ’number of wheels and amount of wheel surface’, i.e. diameter of the wheel. to maintain stability yet permit movement when a good amount of force is applied. Avoiding marks in/on the floor is part of the game. The contact surface of a ball bearing is very small.

After changing so much in my system, I decided, "I should up my casters game". Research (not enough), high quality sources, high prices, make sure you can return them, I returned about 5 sets, went back to my furniture grade hard plastic dual wheel. Ball bearings do not rock, a big advantage, IF they will not make marks in the floor.

The primary thing I learned about all the wheel attempts is lack of movement in the axels is critical.