Stillpoints Ultra SS under your speakers?


Hi,

I'd like to hear anyone's experiences with replacing their speaker spikes with the Stillpoint Ultra SS isolation/vibration control devices. I did a search and found a few related threads, but I would like to hear more. I want to try them under my Merlin VSM-M's, and yes I know Bobby will strongly disapprove...
BTW, if it matters, my speakers are on a carpeted suspended wood floor.
Thanks!
heymikey
Tsushima1, very interesting. I have had some experiences, not with speakers, where the Ultra Fives were too much.

If you are using four Ultra SSs under each speaker, which IME has always been better than three, I would warn you that it is very easy to lock the SSs. Be very careful to have a least a quarter turn from locked. Basically if you want to screw one upward at the base, you will be tightening the hard hat or locking it.
Re-posting my experience with StillPoints and Townshend Audio Seismic Pods under my B&W 803 Diamond speakers.

For many years I used a solid plywood base platform with 3 spikes that went through the carpet into the chipwood room floor. This was consistently superior with dramatic improvement in sound-staging and more precise bass to using the standard 4 spikes that didn't effectively pierce the carpet.

I tried StillPoints Ultra Fives under the speakers without the platform. Besides being dangerously unstable on carpet, it was inferior to the spiked platform.

I then installed the StillPoints between the platform and speakers. Obvious improvement in microdynamics, improved clarity from midrange and up, but no change to bass quality.

I then also replaced the spikes under the platform with the Townshend Seismic Pods. This did reduce the bass boominess a bit and resulted in more articulate bass. I think it also may have improved clarity in midrange, but I can't conclusively confirm without further experiments.

The combination of Seismic Pods and Ultra Fives have made a significant improvement in overall clarity, and more importantly engagement - music is simply more compelling.

Seismic Pods are diametrically opposite to spiking where the intent is to ground the speaker to the floor to minimise movement of the speaker. With the Seismic Pods the speakers wobble back and forth if touched, but surprisingly the sound-staging is not worse, and if anything it is a bit more independent of the speakers.

To put the improvements in perspective, optimal positioning of the speakers in the room has much greater impact on overall sound quality than any isolation.
Interesting read here.

http://www.stereotimes.com/post/sistrum-apprentice-series-spsa103-platform/
Has anyone tried out the SSs with spikes in place of the hard hats that Stillpoints now show on their website?
Nile49,
I have had a major problem with my Ultra SSs as the tend to lock up. I suspect that the spike would not and will try them. Thanks for the heads up.