Vibrapods under speakers


Has anybody done this? I have Proac's with spikes on a medium pile carpet and on the second floor of my house. Of course the floor beneath the carpet is wood which the spikes are into. My question is that I want to put 3/4 inch slate down, take the spikes out and then put the vibrapods on the slate then the speakers on top,is this a better setup or am I decoupling my speakers from the room? I don't know if this is a good thing or not and was wandering what you all thought before I buy the vibrapods. Thanks, John
radiomanjh62fa

Showing 3 responses by megasam

I have done much experimentation in this area. Go to local
dept store and get 2 18x24 glass cutting boards, cost $5-10
each, use marker and layout speaker base dimensions, locate
glass boards on carpet where speakers will rest. Now arrange your vibrapods in the speaker outline you just drew,
and carefully lower speaker down on them, spikes removed. The speaker/glass base can be slid on carpet to fine tune placement. You can use slate or whatever for firm smooth surface on carpet, but glass cutting boards are cheap and invisible, carpet shows through.

As for sound, much different than brass spikes which I also use under speakers. Sound will be smoother and softer, perhaps some small amount of detail lost, but bass is strong, 3D imaging quite good, very natural sounding.....if you are a detail freak that likes cones and silver cables, this will not be your cup of tea. Your instincts will tell you this can't possibly work, as slight push of your finger
will cause speaker to sway, but I think results are definitely worth the small cost to try. I currently use brass spikes but may go back to vibrapods under speakers in the future.
There was an article couple years ago about this at soundstage.com where Greg Weaver and another reviewer replaced the black diamond racing cones on their Von Schweikert speakers with vibrapods and were amazed at the difference in sound. May still be in archives there.
Carl my stand mounted small 2 way speakers, which have single 6" bass also responded very positively as you indicate. The most noticeable for me was increased bass
response, which is lacking in small 2 way speakers, was
much improved. I placed the vibrapods between speaker and
stand, not between stand and floor. Vibrapods should directly contact item to be decoupled. Worth a try definitely.