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Casters vs Spikes

foxwelljsly

Me too, I ate one sour too.
I put some locking casters on my Kef 104/2's a while back and have not noticed any difference in sound whatsoever.

Now looking at my Meridian M30's and thinking the same.

Floors are concrete and Carpet.

Any other folks ditched speaker spikes for the convenience of wheels?
 
I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t like spikes at all! I still have them on the bottom of my LS3/5A stands, but as a levelling device rather than through choice. The more I think about it/recall past experiences the more I feel spikes alter the sonic signature of kit for the worse resulting in an unnatural overly dry and mid-forward presentation. A wrong turn IMHO. I’d certainly not be afraid to experiment. Also remember studios almost universally go for decoupling, e.g. foam blocks, rubber feet etc. You’ll hardly ever see a speaker rigidly coupled to anything via spikes in that environment.

PS My Tannoys sit flat on the carpet, they sound great and don’t energise the wood floor, plus I can move them on my own, which I’d not be able to do on spikes or stands. The TV rig has Spendor S3/5R speakers low down either side of the TV on the little tip-back Ikea stands usually seen with the Shahinian Super Elf. Amazing how good they sound, again not coupled to the floor, no boom, really nice clean voice etc and surprising bass weight for such a small speaker. Obviously none of the precise imaging of the LS3/5As upstairs, but these Ikea stands work surprisingly well with a nice sealed-box mini-monitor!
 
All my gear - ESLs, Isobariks, LP12, McIntosh - is on castors. It's too much hassle with spikes and I don't notice anything audibly different.

I've had the original B&W 801's - as used in many studios - and they are on castors from the factory.
My Marshall stacks - as used by many musicians - are also on castors straight from the factory.
 
My Marshall stacks - as used by many musicians - are also on castors straight from the factory.

If you’ve ever moved it any distance I’m sure you’ll understand why! I had a 4x12” back when I was in a band. I can’t remember what it started life as, either a HiWatt or Sims Watts I think, but it was battered and empty by the time it ended up with me. I filled it with four random drivers, painted it matt black, stapled some chicken wire over the front and it looked pretty cool! After the first gig with it I went caster shopping…
 
If you’ve ever moved it any distance I’m sure you’ll understand why! I had a 4x12” back when I was in a band. I can’t remember what it started life as, either a HiWatt or Sims Watts I think, but it was battered and empty by the time it ended up with me. I filled it with four random drivers, painted it matt black, stapled some chicken wire over the front and it looked pretty cool! After the first gig with it I went caster shopping…
Agreed - and it's a slightly different use case for gigging amps than for studio gear.
It also brings to mind the quality and cost of instrument cables and their cost, as used by musicians, versus those in HiFis.
 
I have had few types of speakers that used castors from the factory, Ohm Walsh, Shahinian. At one point I did try spikes and other types of devices on them in place of the castors, probably just for kicks(Boredom?) and to see what differences there may be in it all or not. In the end, I found for my ears, not enough of a difference to care sound wise, but the castors sure were nice for speaker placement. As always, I imagine there could be just as many folks for spikes or any other type of device used for isolation, grounding etc. than not. Let your own ears and perceptions be your guide!
 
I stopped using spikes and sorbothane over a decade ago as they just attach/glue the speakers (or whatever) to whatever surface they are standing on.
 
In my old home, I for a long time always used spikes directly into the suspended wooden floor and did end up with a few marks from them in the floor. When I got my SCM40s I borrowed some Linn Skeets to make moving them around to get the best positioning, when I removed the Skeets I was surprised that I preferred the sound with the Skeets, so kept them. Now I have moved to a new home I still have Linn skeets under them on my wooden floor that is fixed directly to a solid concrete floor. Once I know I won't be moving the speakers around anymore, I will try them with the spikes directly into the wood floor as the manufacturer intended. I will then decide which sounds better. It will be interesting to find out which sounds better.
 
I've had casters on my Tannoys for about a year now, sitting on solid floor, no carpet. Makes moving them simple and makes no difference to the sound IMO.
Before the solid floor they were on carpet using the Tannoy supplied feet, I did try the supplied spikes, but it was no different with the feet and was so much easier to slide them into position.
 
My understanding is spikes couple and sorbothane de-couples. When I had a suspended floor with a 3 foot void beneath I had to decouple any speakers big enough to get the floor to join in. Now I’ve got a half inch oak on concrete floor I’m back on spikes but really aught to try felt pads.
 
My understanding is spikes couple and sorbothane de-couples.

Yes, a spike effectively nails a product into the floor regardless of what the marketing may suggest. A great way to energise floorboards with resonating metal speaker stands! It is fascinating how pronounced the effect is in some cases, e.g. a lot of the sonic traits of a Linn Kan changes hugely if you change the stand, use a wall support, stick them on a window ledge, bookshelf or whatever. In this case everything was designed as a whole so they do work well, a lot of that upfront open crisp sound comes from the stand! A lot of other products suffered a lot by being forced into marketing groupthink away from their original design school. It amazes me how spikes have ended up as an accepted ‘norm’ despite almost zero pro-audio take-up, one even more widespread than the fad for bi-wire terminals (now thankfully receding).

PS Felt pads are my favoured speaker/stand interface, though I haven’t tried sorbhane as I’ve heard too many stories of it marking the cabs. My LS3/5As and JR149s sit on felt pads. I still want to try some fairly lightweight wooden stands at some point, ideally tripods, as I have a hunch I’ll just prefer it to metal.
 
I think it depends on the substrate. In general, a suspended wooden floor complicates the soundscape, as it is a resonant surface itself. I drove myself to distraction in my last house with such a floor. In that context, I agree spikes from resonant things like loudspeakers would couple them to a bigger resonant surface.

Poured concrete (carpeted, of course) is much more sonically inert. Spikes that pierce the carpet into concrete provide for a much more stable support without imparting any particular signature. That's my experience in my dedicated music room. I've had my large Ergo (IIIR and X) loudspeakers installed with and without spikes. They sounded the same with or without. My Yamaha NS-1000Ms' stand is spiked onto paving slabs, which are in turn contained in 2-inch MDF platforms with dressed timber sides filled with dry sand. These platforms just sit on carpet. I could spike them, but I know it won't make any difference.

As usual, YMMV, but I won't necessarily say spikes are a bad thing.
 
Well, that just about wraps it up for spikes chez Foxwell, then.

Now to find some black 25mm M6 locking castors.
 
I had my speakers on superspikes
For years, no problems.

I then got bored of struggling to move them so put them on castors. Didn’t notice any sonic difference - in fact better sound as I could move the speakers to a better listening position, easier.

Then bought some Gaias and just plonked the speakers on them near to the corners - never sounded better. The gaias seem to have cleaned up the boominess that the speakers had in this same position with spikes, so I’m amazed.

Yet to spend time with precise positioning and setup, but I agree that castors can sound great, just as good as spikes, So if convenience is key, castors win. But the caveat being that gaias or Townshends would almost certainly be an upgrade.
 
Castors are fine on a smooth surface. Not sure how stable they would be on carpet with thick underlay.
 
Castors are fine on a smooth surface. Not sure how stable they would be on carpet with thick underlay.

I never had a set of 4 casters on anything placed on a hardwood floor that didn't rock to some extent.. Like anything else they will need adjusting to sit flat on all for casters again after being moved.
 
Hard floors are rarely mirror flat. The solution is threaded adjustment or lose one caster and make it tripod.
 


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