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Speaker feet - norms ?

Chris

Chris

pfm Member
Are there any basic rules for the use of different types of feet (compliant, spikes, isolation, coupling, mass, wobbly etc. etc. ) for speakers ? In my particular case I´m just finishing building my WD25T floorstanders (1m high and heavy) and my floor is solid.
 
Out of interest, does anyone have any experience of the use of castors with larger floor-standers - pros/cons/etc.?
 
Not casters but small feet on Shahinian Arcs, Obs have casters. Have heard a few pairs of those and they sound amazing like the Arcs.

Have tried my Arcs on solid bases placed on the carpet then the Arcs on top and the results were not good, so they just sit on the carpet.

Never been fully convinced of spikes, but that is just my personal opinion.
 
JTC said:
Out of interest, does anyone have any experience of the use of castors with larger floor-standers - pros/cons/etc.?
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Well I had a big pair of Kefs on castors back in the 80s - putting them on spikes improved things a lot. You'd need a very pressing need to move the speakers around a lot to justify castors IMHO.
 
Eyebroughty said:
Never been fully convinced of spikes, but that is just my personal opinion.
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I share these doubts, particularly where a floorstander is relatively lightweight and you can't guarantee good contact with the solid floor underneath carpet. I've found that my PMC gb1s work better when blu-taced to a slab of slate which 'floats' on the carpet, rather than trying to persuade their spikes to penetrate the relatively thick foam underlay. Spikes were fine when they were used on a solid stone slab floor, however. So what works bests depends on the context ...?
 
Hope this isn't OT, but what about the number of spikes? 4 have to be absolutely perfectly set whereas 3 will always balance without wobble, but was wondering if anyone had tried just the front 2 as that would balance and should be enought to keep the speaker steady? :confused:
 
I used to use 2 pairs of beaks on my arros but never got round to Claws. Dunno if the beaks did anything but were great as conversation starters.

I shall start off using left-over Mana spikes into brass pucks, previously epoxied to teflon buttons a la Herbie. If they don´t work I rather fancy copying Barry Diament hip-joints or whatever he calls them but can´t find a suitable receptacle for the marbles. He suggest egg cups but people don´t eat boiled eggs with soldiers in Spain - hence the scarcity.
 
Chris said:
I used to use 2 pairs of beaks on my arros but never got round to Claws. Dunno if the beaks did anything but were great as conversation starters.

I shall start off using left-over Mana spikes into brass pucks, previously epoxied to teflon buttons a la Herbie. If they don´t work I rather fancy copying Barry Diament hip-joints or whatever he calls them but can´t find a suitable receptacle for the marbles. He suggest egg cups but people don´t eat boiled eggs with soldiers in Spain - hence the scarcity.
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I had some hip-joints made to put under my speakers, in fact I had enough made to put under everything whilst the guy was making them.

The problem with the speakers (PMC GB 1i's) was they were very unstable and the slightest knock made it very likely that they would fall over so I went back to conventional spikes.

If anyone wants some hip-joints I have spares, but they were very expensive to produce.
 
Yes, anything which stops the beasts rocking will be fine. As for spikes, never have been convinced, and they damage the floor. I suppose there is one other factor, that different fet will slightly change the height of the speaker, which could have an audible effect.
 
As most things go in this audio world, a lot depends on the speaker,,environment, and your own ears. I have used casters to good effect, but mainly on speakers that had drivers that radiated more upwards/vertical motion versus typical dynamic forward facing drivers. These speakers were Ohm Acoustics semi-omnis, Direct Acoustics SS2's that are a cheaper/simpler Shahinian Arc like speaker.

I will soon take delivery of another somewhat odd speaker, the Larsen Model 4, and the US distributor recommends the use of SD Feet, some sort of compliant isolation feet, more of the sorbothane type substance, or close. I will see how this works under this type of speaker.

I think most of it comes down to a couple things, stability as well as sonics, and on the sonics side can be just a mixed bag, so try what you can and see. Trouble with some of these types of products is they can be expensive for just a trial, so see if you can get loaners or try before buy type of thing! Tim
 
flatpopely said:
Have you tried blind listening with castors and spikes?
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Difficult to do, as it takes an amount of time to change from castors to spikes and back again. Also, if I'm doing it on my own, I can't do it blind. However, with my Meridians, they supplied both spikes and castors and there was no difference I could perceive either way.

With my previous Meridian M2s, which were stand-mounts, I could hear no difference between spiked stands and the same stands with spikes removed.

I've never been able to hear any difference with an loudspeaker with how it's mounted, what sort of stand, or whether it's on a "proper" 'speaker standor just resting on a kitchen stool. What I've found does matter is the loudspeaker's height and orientation, but how that's achieved doesn't.

Interesting that in studios, some loudspeakers are soffit mounted on resiliant supports, some are hung from the ceiling, some are just placed on the console bridge. I really don't see that the support matters very much if at all.

S.
 
Just make a dolly with cheap castors and give it a try.

My Shahinian Obelisks have castors and they are great as I store the Obs out of the way against a wall and pull em out for a listen. SWMBO loves it because she can move them to dust behind........

As Serge said height is more important especially for bass.

Cheers,

DV
 
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