@tcotruvo Yes! I mentioned this as a case study because there can be a mistaken assumption that just because something is very heavy, it won't move around. However, at the risk of provoking the ire of the OP, the spikes not only stop reactive movement of the loudspeaker cabinets arising from the motion of the drive units, but they also stop the bottom of the cabinet from coupling directly to the floor and turning the floor into a giant resonator/soundboard. In the specific case, the floor is actually quite well damped as it composed of two different layers of wood, a linseed oil based composite and carpet. But...
Speaker Spikes - Working Principle
Vibration damping obvious makes sense (in speakers just as well as in cars).
That involves 'killing' (converting into heat, through typically internal friction) kinetic energy. So any sort of elastic material (rubber has lots of internal friction) makes sense.
And then there are spikes. Using a pointy hard object and pair it with a softer, elastic material (to deform, and kill kinetic energy) can work; think metal sharp spike into carpet or wood floor.
But what is the idea behind pairing fairly unelastic metal (brass for example) with similarly unelastic (brass, stone, etc) material (example photo provided)? Only thing I can come up with: LOOKS good and makes owner feel good thinking its an improvement (works only for Audiophiles though),
Even more curious: are they ENGINEERED "spikes" (vibration dampers or shock absorbers) for speakers that are TUNED for the frequency (and mass) that needs to be dampened? Can piston style fluid dampers be designed for the high frequencies (100, 1000, 10000 Hz) using geometry, nozzles size and viscosity of the fluid?
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@ditusa Vandersteen on spikes:just came across this exmaple, and below in that same thread someone who put granite plates under the spikes. Those pucks seem to use rubber to quell speaker vibrations transmitted to the floor. The granite plates (high mass) in conjuction with the carpet/rubber (bottom of carpet) and foam (under carpet) under the puck act as another 'swinger' (mass, spring, damper) to further modify the fequency and amplitude transmitted into the floor.
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@yoyoyaya "but they also stop the bottom of the cabinet from coupling directly to the floor". Yes, that crossed my mind as well. The spikes only couple the motion of the speaker assembly to the floor (undampened if made from just metal) and put on bare floor, or ’spiked’ (penetrating carpet) to wood underneath. . But putting the speaker flat floor on the carpet rubber/foam underneath may actually help to reduce the vibrations of the cabinet bottom in the frequency range damped by the carpet/rubber/foam. Or looked at it the other way around: ’raising’ the bottom of the cabinet up from the floor may allow it to vibrate more freely and "change" the speaker sound.
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Exactly right... This is why i was using with springs under and above my damped speakers by a load a sandwich of materials : plate of shungite or quartz feet , oak plate, sorbothane plate,bamboo plate, cork plate granite plate all together... The alternating coupling and decoupling work the best to isolate the speakers , and the springs work best to decrease the speakers resonance ...
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