Speaker spikes, and laminate floors

[Bob Santos]

I am about to re-setup my HT after renovations to the room my HT is in. The new floor is a laminate floor ( like Pergo ).
I have spikes on my sub, and main speakers. I need to figure a way to protect the floor from the spikes.
I saw somewhere hardwood floor protectors for spikes advertised recently, but forgot where I saw it
I am thinking possibly of cutting little pieces of 1/8" plywood to put under the spikes.
If you guy's have any other ideas I would love to hear them.

Thanks

[SiliGoose]

Is removing the spikes out of the question?
If you tell me you can hear a difference between spikes and no spikes I'm gonna scream

...and be careful with those spikes. I leaned my 80 lb. BP-30 foreward to fix the speaker wire (terminals are under the speaker) and the speaker slipped from my grip. The spike cut through my toe nail. I barely stopped the full weight of the speaker from putting the entire spike through my big toe!!




-Sili

[Andrew Pratt]

how about a four cent solution? ie just put a penny under each spike...that's what a lot of people do in your situation.

[Bob Santos]

Sili, I have had the spikes on my speakers since I got them. I do have the feet that came with them still. I may give them a try.
I've always had a thing for spikes though. I really like the way they look. Just one of those things I guess.
Thats something about the toe nail I will definately be careful.
Thanks for the warning.

Andrew,, Thats a great idea !!
Do you thing due to the higher cost I would get better performance from a nickle, dime or quater? Anything past a quater may be approaching the point of diminishing returns
Plus Susan B. Anthony dollars are pretty hard to come by now a days. I do have some of those new gold dollars. I wonder if they will give me a warmer sound than the copper penny ?

Sili, If I could hear the difference between coins I'll join you in the screaming

[Lex]

Pennies would scratch or indent a wood surface. Anything will slide on wood. Is this wood? I was unsure about what the surface is.

How about furniture feet? Some are carpeted on the back side, some glass, I have seen many kinds of these over the years.

Congrats on the room coming together!

Oh, I can beat that toenail story, I broke my little toe, laying it out at 180 degrees when I snagged it on an Infinity Kappa 7.1 while walking briskly by it. ouch.

Lex

[Andrew Pratt]

if your're afraid the pennies will scratch the floor get some of the plastic chair feet with felt on the bottom...though if you are going to do that you might as well just put the old feet back on and put felt under those instead.

[David Meek]

Felted pennies are good, if you make sure you put the spike in same location on each penny. Abe's head is a raised surface and if any of the spikes are on it and the others are on the lower portion, your speaker will rock slightly.

I know, I know, my wife tells me I'm anal retentive, too!




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[Burke Strickland]

Aren't the spikes supposed to mechanically "couple" the speaker to the floor (by pushing through carpet and actually make contact with the hard floor surface underneath) to reduce unwanted cabinet resonances, etcetera? And isn't "protecting" the floor by resting the spikes on something else defeating that "direct" coupling? If the hard floor surface is exposed, not covered with carpet, then standard feet would actually have more surface area to "couple" with the floor than the point of a spike, whether the spike were directly scratching the floor :>) or cupped in a "floor protector" or resting on Abe's face. :>).

IOW -- at that point using the spikes is not an acoustic assist, but just an aesthetic choice -- how the speakers "look" (and frankly, I think a huge box sitting on pointy things on top of pennies looks... well, "not logical" ) :>) Bottom line, using the speaker's regular feet on a hard surface floor rather than spikes makes more sense to me.

Burke

[Bob Santos]

Ok... The spikes are history. I'm gonna put the regular feet that also came with the speakers back on.

Sili, I'll let you know if I hear a difference

Actually I've replaced just about every piece of gear while I had it down for the past two months. So things should sound quite different when it's all put together. Hopefully for the better !!

Lex, The floor is a laminate. It looks like wood, feels like wood,
but isn't. Unfortunately it seems very reflective. My daughter was checking the echo earlier today by yodelling. The room yodels back
.
Unfortunately the wife gets to pic the decour, and I get to pick the audio equipment. So I now have a bunch of good equipment in a acoustical nightmare of a room. At least I think it will be. Hopefully not.

Thanks for the help once again guy's.
especially thanks for the HT equipment battle scar stories

[David Meek]

a huge box sitting on pointy things on top of pennies looks...

Oh now wait a minute there Mr. Smartypants! : Not all of us are fortunate enough to have Maggie 3.6s sitting in our rooms. Now those are "huge boxes" (okay huge in 2 dimensions anyway ).




David - HTGuide flunky
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[Burke Strickland]

Bob -

For such a really "live" room, you might need to persuade the "decor committee" :>) to put down some area rugs and mount some wall hangings in strategic places to help attenuate the echoes.

Good luck!

Burke

[ton1313]

check out www.superspikes.com very nice product.

[David Meek]

Nice URL. That's it, make me spend more money.




David - HTGuide flunky
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[Burke Strickland]

That's it, make me spend more money.

Should we alert the SWAT team to rescue you fom the dude with a gun to your head demanding money? :>)

Burke

[David Meek]

Absolutely! In fact they've got the EastTex freeway closed for a police action right now. Give 'em a call Burke, they're close to the office. Actually, spending money hasn't been a problem. It's the accounting for it later to Jenice that hurts!




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[Sonnie Parker]

If you tell me you can hear a difference between spikes and no spikes I'm gonna scream

Okay Sili, don't scream, cause I don't know that anyone can hear a difference but I'll mention this story for what it may be worth.

I called Velodyne when I got my HGS-15 in to ask them about why they did not include spikes with the sub and what they would recommend. I spoke with one of the owners (partners, whatever) who is also one of their service technicians (small group of guys). He got into telling me how they were all scientist, etc. I have no reason to doubt him so I'm still believing what he said. He explained that they don't recommend using spikes and one of the reasons was because they claim that they had actually measured loss of low end response from using spikes. He stated put it slap dab on the floor. I never tried it with spikes so I can't verify it, but I did have a few others (audiophiles, so to speak) say it made sense to them.

Sorry to learn of your toe accident though....sounds like it might have hurt just a widdle bit. Did you scream then? 8O






SONNIE

Cedar Creek Cinema

DVD Collection

BFD Comprehensive Setup Guide

[Lex]

I talked to those folks about becoming a dealer, but so far, no package as he said I would receive via email. Thought it might be nice to add a few accessories over time.

Lex