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Spikes-Marble-Carpet-Wood Floors

My Snell CVs are about 100 lbs each. My hardwood floors are covered with a wool rug and pad. Currently I am using a set of aluminum Tiptoes I have had for about 20+ years.

The Tiptoes are not threaded they just sit under the speakers. I am not sure they are really coupled to the floor that well. They are going thru the rug and pad but is that enough?
I do have two marble slabs that could go under the speakers.

Should I place the marble under the rug? or on top of the rug? I am also wondering about gluing the Tiptoes to the bottoms of the speakers for a better connection.
Or should I just make some threaded DIY spikes and forget the Tiptoes?
128x128blueskiespbd
10 responses Add your response
inna
7,132 posts
 
Hmm.. Not so easy to predict the outcome. In any case, you don't want the speakers to float on the carpet even if they sit on marble slabs. You probably don't want to do it because it's not cheap, but I would get big threaded Audiopoints brass spikes to try first. Some might also recommend Mapleshade or Vermont Audio big fat brass footers. I never tried them, only Audiopoints, but suspect that they may be slow which would be unacceptable to me.
I myself have a hardwood floor but no carpet so my arrangement would not be of much use to you.
devilboy
1,172 posts
 
I would try to absorb speaker vibrations into a maple platform. Think about this: If your speakers sit on top of a hard surface (like marble), then all vibrations that your speaker produces goes down the cabinet, through the spikes, and hit the marble. Then, reflects off of the marble, up through the spikes again, and back into the cabinet.
inna
7,132 posts
 
That's right. Yeah, you could try the maple platform, but this platform should be spiked with the spikes going through the carpet into the hardwood floor; and the speakers should be spiked as well while on the platform.
This would not be a very cheap arrangement either.
And I probably would not use maple thicker than 2" or so because this may slow the sound down. You could also try cherry platform though most people prefer maple.
blueskiespbd's avatar
blueskiespbd OP
161 posts
 
hmmmm. not much support for the granite idea. My TT is on acrylic spikes sitting on marble. I wonder if I should sandwich wood on top of that now?
inna
7,132 posts
 
Well, more often than not turntable and speakers require different approaches though there might be similarities depending on each particular case and sound preference. It is always hard to guess right, usually some experimenting is in order. For example, I like both Polycrystal and Audiopoints brass spikes for the speakers, but there is small difference; overall I prefer the former with my particular speakers for most recordings I listen to.
So how will your Snells react? Who knows?
blueskiespbd's avatar
blueskiespbd OP
161 posts
 
I will now see if I can turn my wool rug to free up wood floorspace. then I can just spike the towers into the wood.
The floors are heart pine and 2 inches thick tounge and groove. Since the house was built in 1841 that wood must be from virgin timber 200 yrs old.
As for the
TT I am working on reinforcing and cross bracing the lead filled steel legs with threaded steel rods.
inna
7,132 posts
 
Yeah, but not all spikes are created equal; cheap small steel spikes is never the best idea.
blueskiespbd's avatar
blueskiespbd OP
161 posts
 
hmmm. the spikes I have are 2 inch aluminum cones made by Tiptoes. How much difference could there be if I change to heavy expensive brass spikes?

Since the speakers are 100 lbs each I would think that the psi at the tip is very high.
inna
7,132 posts
 
Don't know, never tried aluminum. You could also try some inexpensive, about $10 each, German made steel cones that are sold by Musicdirect. They are not spikes though and have no thread. You can send them back if you don''t like them. Get the bigger ones if you decide to give it a try.
tmsorosk
1,013 posts
 
Iv'e received the best results from coupling the speakers to a heavy platform and de coupling the platform from the floor . Heavy dense cones always seemed to work better than the narrow spikes that come with speakers . If a cone is not threaded into something it will resonate more than if it is .
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