Living on a Concrete Slab!

[heeman]

Back in 1999, we moved to this house, which we love, however found it very, very weird to live on a concrete slab.

Both of us grew up in the Northeastern US and had basements, so our living area was a finished floor over sub-floor resting on joists. Not the case here in Deep South Texas.

So, here is my question.

I have Paradigm Studio 60's in the HT. They have gold feet with spikes, that go through the carpet and rest on the concrete.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing, or simply does it matter? Well, it is actually a pain in the ass when I try to adjust the speaker position for symmetry.

So, if I remove the gold feet and the spikes completely, will it have any negative effect on the sound?

Thanks again for all of you valuable input!

:music-rockout: :music-rockout:

 

[Botch]

I have a basement, with wooden floor covered with carpet; have left the spikes off.

On a concrete floor, though, hmmm. I seriously doubt even 20-year-old ears could hear the difference (probably not even on my wooden floor) so I'd go no spikes, for easy adjustment and no possibility of carpet damage.

 

[Flint]

Spikes are bad. Isolation is superior. Use foam like Auralex isopads or rubber.

 

[Zing]

I believe the spikes are for isolation/decoupling, which you would need if you were placing the speakers on a bare wooden floor over a basement. I have to think concrete is inert enough that there's no gain to using spikes. So I say, if you want to take them off, go for it.

 

[heeman]

I will remove the spikes and gold feet and place the speakers directly on the carpet which is over the best padding that I could buy. This will make it much easier to position the speakers.

Thanks!

 

[Haywood]

I will remove the spikes and gold feet and place the speakers directly on the carpet which is over the best padding that I could buy. This will make it much easier to position the speakers.

Thanks!

That will likely make your stands unstable and tippy. I wouldn't do it.

 

[Flint]

Spike couple the speaker cabinets to the floor. They force a tight physical connection between the floor and the cabinet and vibrations in the cabinet is transferred to the more dense floor which reflect them back into the cabinet. This leads to an increase in cabinet noise and losses which add to distortions and noise in the room.

True isolation comes from soft materials like foam, rubber, springs or pliable materials like sorbothane. Vibrations in a cabinet placed on an isolation material will be mostly absorbed by the material rather than reflected and amplified back into the cabinet. This is a good thing.

NEVER refer to spikes as "isolation" devices. That is exactly the opposite of what they do.

 

[Haywood]

Spike couple the speaker cabinets to the floor. They force a tight physical connection between the floor and the cabinet and vibrations in the cabinet is transferred to the more dense floor which reflect them back into the cabinet. This leads to an increase in cabinet noise and losses which add to distortions and noise in the room.

True isolation comes from soft materials like foam, rubber, springs or pliable materials like sorbothane. Vibrations in a cabinet placed on an isolation material will be mostly absorbed by the material rather than reflected and amplified back into the cabinet. This is a good thing.

NEVER refer to spikes as "isolation" devices. That is exactly the opposite of what they do.

This is true, but I use them because they keep my tall narrow speakers on my tall narrow speaker stands from falling over.

 

[Flint]

make the stands stable with spike, isolate the speakers from the stands with rubber or foam.

 

[Haywood]

make the stands stable with spike, isolate the speakers from the stands with rubber or foam.

I have rubber pads between the speakers and the stands. I forgot about that.

 

[heeman]

Spikes and feet have been removed.

Yes, the towers are much more likely to tip over, however our HT is off limits to the creatures that live with us, therefore this should not be a problem.

With the thick carpet and foam rubber pad, everything that Flint pointed out should now be taken care of.

And now the speakers are very, very easy to re-position...........sounds like I will be experimenting with speaker positioning in the the very near future!