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Thread: Floor Spikes

  1. #1
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    Floor Spikes

    I'm fairly new to the home audio game, and I started off with some Athena FS 1's. They were well within my budget and outperformed the 1000 dollar polks and JBL's. The only problem is, I bought them open box. I got home and a few weeks later, I had them upside down noticing screw holes. They were supposed to have floor spikes! How important are these on a thin carpet floor. I can easily have some made as I have many friends in machine shops. Is it really going to make a difference in sound I hear, and what the rest of my family always complains about? Thanks

  2. #2
    Forum Regular Florian's Avatar
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    Yup good isolation is very important! Try to get some from Athena or let your buddy build some.

    .Flo
    Lots of music but not enough time for it all

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    Quote Originally Posted by calegrant
    I'm fairly new to the home audio game, and I started off with some Athena FS 1's. They were well within my budget and outperformed the 1000 dollar polks and JBL's. The only problem is, I bought them open box. I got home and a few weeks later, I had them upside down noticing screw holes. They were supposed to have floor spikes! How important are these on a thin carpet floor. I can easily have some made as I have many friends in machine shops. Is it really going to make a difference in sound I hear, and what the rest of my family always complains about? Thanks
    You might notice them making a small sound difference, you might not. They're not terribly expensive. You can buy generic ones to fit the hole size in your cabinets here:
    http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage....ctGroup_ID=139

    Scroll down a bit and you'll find the cheaper ones. I usually see 3/8" used, sometimes 1/2".

    Or you could go to a hardware store and buy those little plastic bumpers for $2 and accomplish 90% of the same function for a lot less money.

  4. #4
    Kam
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    What's the theory for behind how/why floor spikes are supposed to work? I would guess (just pure guessing here) that the more surface area of the bottom of the speaker is touching the ground, the better the bass response would be? as in the same theory of putting a sub in a corner to get a better bass response vs. in the middle of the room. How do floor spikes help out the sound of a speaker if its elevating the speaker up off that surface?

    (thanks as always for all the great info)
    /create

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by calegrant
    I'm fairly new to the home audio game, and I started off with some Athena FS 1's. They were well within my budget and outperformed the 1000 dollar polks and JBL's. The only problem is, I bought them open box. I got home and a few weeks later, I had them upside down noticing screw holes. They were supposed to have floor spikes! How important are these on a thin carpet floor. I can easily have some made as I have many friends in machine shops. Is it really going to make a difference in sound I hear, and what the rest of my family always complains about? Thanks
    I'm learning lots in these forums!! Inbetween blowing up my last speakers and getting decent replacements I bought some budget tower speakers by Bench marketed by Lidl UK. I never did bother putting the floor spikes on them, they were very high and narrow, and when one day the inevitable happened and I knocked one over, fortunately only making a small chip in the veneer, everybody said that I should have put the floor spikes on them, that the floor spikes were to give speakers stability and stop them falling over. I never dreamed that not using could affect quality!

  6. #6
    Forum Regular Woochifer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kam
    What's the theory for behind how/why floor spikes are supposed to work? I would guess (just pure guessing here) that the more surface area of the bottom of the speaker is touching the ground, the better the bass response would be? as in the same theory of putting a sub in a corner to get a better bass response vs. in the middle of the room. How do floor spikes help out the sound of a speaker if its elevating the speaker up off that surface?

    (thanks as always for all the great info)
    Floor spikes simply decouple the speaker cabinet from the floor. Cabinets with a lot of resonance can mechanically transfer that reverberation through the floor and create all kinds of distortions, since the floor itself will also have acoustical properties. Anything that can reduce the contact area between the floor and the speaker will limit the effect that this kind of reverberation can have. I don't know how huge the effect is with carpeting, but with wood floors and/or suspended floors, floor spikes help to clean up the low frequencies and tighten up the sound overall.

    The theory of putting a sub in the corner to maximize the bass response has to do with sound waves using the walls for reinforcement IN FREE SPACE. The subwoofer does not mechanically couple with the walls or the floor to create the extra bass. Rather, the sound waves emanating from the driver are getting amplified and reinforced by interacting with one another in the corner.

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    Kam
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    Quote Originally Posted by Woochifer
    Floor spikes simply decouple the speaker cabinet from the floor. Cabinets with a lot of resonance can mechanically transfer that reverberation through the floor and create all kinds of distortions, since the floor itself will also have acoustical properties. Anything that can reduce the contact area between the floor and the speaker will limit the effect that this kind of reverberation can have. I don't know how huge the effect is with carpeting, but with wood floors and/or suspended floors, floor spikes help to clean up the low frequencies and tighten up the sound overall.

    The theory of putting a sub in the corner to maximize the bass response has to do with sound waves using the walls for reinforcement IN FREE SPACE. The subwoofer does not mechanically couple with the walls or the floor to create the extra bass. Rather, the sound waves emanating from the driver are getting amplified and reinforced by interacting with one another in the corner.
    ahhhhhhhhh... (light bulbs going off) got it. great and clear as always. thanks!!
    /create

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