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coins or CHIPS under IBL's..?

bob atherton

bob atherton

pfm Member
I am on a mission to get the very best from my Naim IBL’s and in the last couple of years have used 5p pieces under the spiked feet to stop the spikes digging into our oak flooring.

I recently cleaned up the speakers and put them back on the floor but this time I used 1p pieces under the spikes as I thought they would look better than the shinny 5p’s against the oak. At first I thought the sound had improved a lot and put it down to me cleaning all the plugs. Over the past few days I have been thinking maybe the sound is a touch brighter than it used to be and a bit splashy at the top.

Just to rule out the change of coinage under the spikes I switched back to 5p’s. The sound has certainly changed again and is now maybe too soft and mushy compared to the 1p’s.

No, this is not a wind up, nor is it 1st April.

I just wondered if anybody else has used coins under spikes and which is best. I guess if the £1 is reckoned to be the one I could stretch to eight of those.

Has anybody compared Naim CHIPS with small change? I’ve never taken the CHIPS too seriously as they seem to cost a stupid amount of money for what one gets, but after my recent experience I might just be persuaded.
 
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bob atherton said:
Thanks for that link Steve. I think the black set might look better rather than the gold for us. Do you use these, and if so how do they sound? thanks, Bob
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I make no claim for sonics, Bob. They are well made, my speakers are firmly planted with no movement and the floor is protected. Job done. Also, if I need positioning adjustment they will slide into position which I then lock with a little blu-tac in front and behind the rear ones. Never underneath them. I use back ones under some IBLs I have in a second system.

Steve
 
Once I put coins under my Briks stands - result awfull

Funny the provided Linn Skeets performed to satisfaction

Given the cost of a complete setup, pair of Chips is cheap.
 
If you can hear a difference between types of coins , you should try a dab of blu tak in each corner , it'll be a revelation.
 
thats even cheaper .. couple of quid and you've got loads left over to sell on E-bay as speaker mounts at £1 each.
 
zener said:
If you can hear a difference between types of coins , you should try a dab of blu tak in each corner , it'll be a revelation.
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Jon, which corners are we talking here?

I use two blu tac blobs on the top back inset corners of the IBL's. This is a tweek that I posted here a while ago. This helped to tidy up a bit of a zingy top end. Still got some blu tac left...:)
 
2p pieces with a little dimple drilled in, backed with the round, single sided, sticky felt feet from B&Q for going under your sofa. Killed most of the bass boom on my Focal 1027's no bother. £2.50 all in.
 
Bob,

Try the Fraim chips as long as you can get a refund. They differ (purposely) from other chips as the bottom of the chip doesn't touch the floor.

Like you, I've found differences in the interface using everything from custom welded clamps which "bolted" my Sara stands to the floor versus sitting the stand's spikes atop wood screws in the floor or conventional setup with the stand spikes directly to the floor.

The clamps worked best when the Saras were in a second story bedroom in our apartment on some really cheesy MDF type flooring that was very much a trampoline as you walked across it. The conventional method of the stand spikes directly to the wood floor sounded better than the clamps or spikes into screws once we moved into a house with oak floors over sturdy joists on the bottom level. No surprises when you think about it...

I've lucked out now in our current house where my downstairs SBLs are on a concrete slab (no help required under the speakers) and my upstairs rig has Intros on laminated wood where dimes under the spikes seem to do well.

good luck,

dave
 
Out of interest I've never really looked at Naim CHIPS, only their price :eek:

What are they made from and how do they differ, if at all, from the far East clones that sell for reasonable money on Ebay?

With my experience of the difference between a 1p and a 5p coin my mind is wide open on this subject.
 
Bob - in this case, not IBL's but n-Sats, which like the IBL consider the stand as an important part of the complete speaker.

I found the Fraim chips to be better than the coins. Silly price (i made the mistake of ordering one as i assumed that £14 got you 4....). They affect the midrange performance of the n-Sats. Your dealer should be able to loan you some to try.

James
 
Try the Fraim chips as long as you can get a refund. They differ (purposely) from other chips as the bottom of the chip doesn't touch the floor.
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Levitation?

Pete
 
sq225917 said:
2p pieces with a little dimple drilled in, backed with the round, single sided, sticky felt feet from B&Q for going under your sofa. Killed most of the bass boom on my Focal 1027's no bother. £2.50 all in.
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What type of floor? I'm trying to resolve a problem with bass resonance which is triggered by some recordings.
 
lindasbum said:
But why do you insist on taking the piss?:rolleyes:

QUOTE]

Jon, wasn’t taking the piss. He is a great bloke who gave invaluable and patient help when I was building my Avondale S100 amp. I think of him as a friend.

Back to my chips and change questions….

AFAIK the idea behind having spikes on the bottom of speakers, or their stands, is to keep the speaker totally rigid and to achieve this with the minimum of surface area sitting on the floor.

If this assumption is correct then I don’t quite get the idea that a few have put forward that there should be some sort of felt pad under coins or spike cups. This surely will give a very fuzzy and compliant interface between the speaker spike and the floor.

I am the first to admit that I’ve not heard what felt might do but it goes against what I thought was the idea behind spikes in the first place.
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Pete MB&D said:
Levitation?

Pete
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LOL..a tad less mystical;-) I understand there's either a raised lip on the bottom of the chip or dimple so the center of the chip's bottom will not touch the surface of the wood floor. I can only assume the resulting change in sound would be due to a change in the frequencies that drive the sounding board (floor) underneath vs a solid disk that interfaces with a larger contact area.
 
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