Subwoofer Feets

[teledynepost]

Yo, where can I buy some? The ones that came with my Velodyne CHT-15 are not sticky anymore. I have just moved to a house with hardwood floors; previously it had been on carpet so I had not been using them. They must be too old.

I just need rubber feet that stick on the bottom--

Thanks.

Edit: Oh, and to save anyone from looking anything up, the sub is about 75lbs. i saw 'IsoNode' feet in this Audio Advisor website but they say on their website the large ones are for 42lbs. Seems like it was geared more towards components too.

Edit 2: While I'm at it, is it a better idea to keep spikes on my tower speakers and get some sort of round pad absorber things so it doesn't scratch the floor? Or use the rubber feet that came with them. Any websites on the technical aspects of speaker isolation?

[JoeE SP9]

For protecting hardwood floors pennies under spikes work just fine. Nickels are good for heavier speakers. If you wish to splurge use dimes for lighter speakers. Quarters are good for the heavier ones. I use 3 hockey pucks under each of my subs. They work fine and they are cheap enough to experiment with.:cool: .

[hermanv]

I've never tried the coins under spikes idea, how do you stop the coins from sliding on the hardwood floor? I'm not talking a lot of sliding, but it seems like the vibration from a subwoofer would make them move. Like I said I've never tried it maybe it works great.

I've wondered the same thing about these little pre-dimpled brass commercial disks you put under spikes. If they had rubber or Sorbathane on the flat face, then I'd understand, but they seem to be polished metal.

Spikes are intended to litterally dig into the floor to absolutely prevent front to back or side to side movement. That's how they tighten up the bass, it forces the driver cone to move instead of allowing the opposite reaction from the driver frame and cabinet.

Then I wonder why spikes and coins would be better than just setting the subwoofer on the floor, I'm not argueing that the coins don't work, I just don't understand quite how they could.

[JoeE SP9]

My ESL's came with spikes and I have had pennies under them to protect my floors from the beginning. The pennies are deeply dimpled and dig into the floor. My speakers don't slide even when I try to slide them. My subwoofers are DIY's and I never got around to drilling the necessary holes to install spikes. That's why I use the hockey pucks. They look cool too.:cool:

[Woochifer]

I've never tried the coins under spikes idea, how do you stop the coins from sliding on the hardwood floor? I'm not talking a lot of sliding, but it seems like the vibration from a subwoofer would make them move. Like I said I've never tried it maybe it works great.

I've wondered the same thing about these little pre-dimpled brass commercial disks you put under spikes. If they had rubber or Sorbathane on the flat face, then I'd understand, but they seem to be polished metal.

Spikes are intended to litterally dig into the floor to absolutely prevent front to back or side to side movement. That's how they tighten up the bass, it forces the driver cone to move instead of allowing the opposite reaction from the driver frame and cabinet.

Then I wonder why spikes and coins would be better than just setting the subwoofer on the floor, I'm not argueing that the coins don't work, I just don't understand quite how they could.

The answer to all your inquiries is simply that the spikes and coins approach minimize the amount of surface area contact between the subwoofer and the floor, while providing a blunt enough surface to prevent damage to the floors. I've used the coins approach before on my speaker stands, and they don't go anywhere.

The difference in sound quality between putting the subwoofer on the floor and using spikes and coins depends on how large a flat surface the subwoofer would put on the floor. The more surface area contact, the more susceptible to transmitting mechanical vibration from the cabinet through the floor. If the subwoofer or speaker does not have some sort of pedestal underneath, then there's a lot of contact with the floor. Anything that keeps the speakers from sitting flat against a wood floor will help reduce the amount of reverberation that the floor picks up. My old roommate some cut-up cardboard tubing to elevate his speakers off the floor, and guess what, the amount of noise that got transmitted through the floor into my room was greatly reduced.

With my subwoofer, I simply use 1.5" diameter rubber feet (the kind you find at a hardware store and would put underneath chairs or furniture) with the open side down, and that solidly anchors the sub onto the floor.

[hermanv]

Oh goody, we disagree :) .

Rubber feet isolate cabinet vibrations from the floor because they flex. Spikes on the other hand couple vibrations into the floor because they can't flex and once having dug into the flooring material also can not move in either x or y plane.

The two devices work in opposite ways to control vibration, one is the equivalent of bolting the cabinet to the floor (spikes) and one is the equivalent of holding the cabinet just above the floor (rubber feet). i.e. One shorts vibrations to ground(floor) and one isolates the vibration source from the floor.

If the floor is a drumhead, particularly if it resonant at the lower subwoofer frequencies, then rigid coupling is often a bad idea. On the other hand, given a concrete slab the spikes will probably make the subwoofer perform at it's best.

ps. In spite of any number of advertisments, spikes are not mechanical diodes, energy will flow both ways with equal resistance or lack of it (right up to the point where the vibration is strong enough to lift the cabinet and separate the spike from the floor.)

[teledynepost]

All right well any sites that sell rubber feet? The sub does not have sppikes on it.

[Woochifer]

All right well any sites that sell rubber feet? The sub does not have sppikes on it.

You can go with the Vibrapods, which are available at Audio Advisor and many independent audio stores. Or simply stop by the local hardware store and look where they stock the floor protectors and furniture casters. The rubber feet that I use on my subwoofer typically sell for less than $3 for a set of four. I also use them with my surround speaker stands because our wood floor has a slight slope and any repositioning requires resetting the height on the spikes. Not exactly easy to do because the stands weigh 65 lbs. each, and the rubber feet are more forgiving with the slope on the floor.