Stands, to couple, or not to couple, contradicting products and positive reviews
There are many practices/products intended to "couple" a stand-mount speaker cabinet to the floor of a room (spikes, adding mass to the stands via sand/shot, specific bolt-on stands for certain models, etc.). Conversely, there foam speaker pads by Auralex and others, which are intended to de-couple or isolate the speaker from the stand, with rave reviews of audible sound improvement.
So which is right, should I try to "connect" my speakers to the mass of my house, or do I want to "float" the speakers so they are free to resonate on their own?
Consider watching the Max Townshend (Townshend Audio) video on You Tube in which he explains and demonstrates the properties and performance of his Seismic products.
You want to avoid large surface to surface contact, but you want to minimize the movement of the speaker due to reaction to the driver forces.
So, you want the largest point to point distances, highest mass. If you have carpets, spikes will ensure your speakers aren't riding on the carpet and padding. On bare floors however large feet will work as well.
You want to couple the vibration to the floor to dampen that energy and keep the box still. Use heavy points and even some moveable weight discs to aid you in that process. I don't know if this guy is still making custom brass fixtures like very heavy feet, ut try to find Eden Sound, IIRC, I got some incredible footers from him.
Newton's third law would cause lots of doppler distortion. The woofer would act on the air and he cabinet, causing it to move back and forth, and altering the intended output.
You can hear this with some monitors that are light and loosely coupled. Add mass to the top and they sound much better. This is why.
IMO, in a domestic living environment, there is absolutely no way to predict the sonic effects of coupling, decoupling, spikes, gliders... I have had many different speakers in my home and needed to work with each one to find the most pleasing sonic result. Some standmounts, like my Operas, liked to be Blu-tak'd to the stands, while my Harbeths preferred a hard non-anchored mounting. In the end, you just have to listen and decide what works in your room. People never seem to like that answer for some reason
What is right is what sounds right to you. Experiment with a variety of common cheap materials under your speakers like foam pads, wood blocks...etc. to get an idea of what sounds better, before you commit to some high dollar item. My experience with decoupling or floating has always diminished P.R.A.T. in my system. For what its worth....I like spikes.
Blue Tak and similar materials are hardly good examples of decoupling. I’m talking about the Townshend method of decoupling/isolation, I.e., mass-on-springs.
Yeah, but Geoff, who's to say the OP will like the sound? The OP is asking which is "right" - to couple or isolate. It's certainly worth trying both, but he might like the sound of just putting the speakers on the floor. When I had my Operas, I tried Symposium platforms under the speakers and they definitely cleaned up the sound, which would have been great if the sound was boomy. But it was just too thin for my taste.
Thank you for all the replies. Like many things, there appears to be no "right" answer. Time to start experimenting; I have a few different durometers of foam, blue-tak, wood blocks, fasteners, etc.. I’ll try it all, from rigid coupling to fully "floating" (short of mag-lev), and see if I can even hear a difference. Should be interesting.
Roller bearings isolate laterally, couple vertically. Symposium Acoustics Roller Blocks and the similar bearings made by Ingress Engineering in Canada are a great value, if the Townshend Seismic Pods are out of reach.
I’m getting a strong sense of deja vu here but recall, gentle readers, roller bearings in cups isolate in the horizontal plane AND the three rotational directions, you know, twist, rock and roll. 🕺 That’s why when roller bearings are used in conjunction with some nice springs hint hint you can isolate in ALL 6 DIRECTIONS.
geoff kait machina dynamica serving audiophiles’ isolation requirements since 1996
Roller bearings employed in conjunction with springs provide, as Geoff again correctly postulates, isolation approaching that of the much more expensive Minus K, Newport, Herzan, Vibraplane, etc. platforms.
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