How do you feel about a wheeled dolly permanently under large floorstanding speakers?

Thanks everyone for your comments and ideas. I'm going to try a couple different approaches. For sure you gave me confidence that I can make it work for my room.

I have wondered for years why no company has engineered this solution yet. You design an adjustable platform that has wheels that activate with a foot push fulcrum. You wheel into place then deactivate the wheels up and out of the way to then have the spikes support the speaker. You could also incorporate isolation materials into the base.

https://www.amazon.com/Skelang-Adjustable-Installing-Equipment-Bookshelves/dp/B07YDGZTF8/ref=asc_df_...

Replace those adjustable feet with spikes

DougS +1

I too have spent big money isolating speakers to no outstanding results


~ 5 years ago, I tried Harbor Freight dollys (which have rubber casters) just to move and position speakers and heavy components.

I have heard no good reason to remove them

I would get a two wheel dolly put some foam pipe insulation on it so you don't scratch the speakers then you can move them as needed. No spikes until you find a spot where the speakers sing to you. 

No problem. Do not use MDF. Screws do not hold well in MDF. Use cabinet grade plywood. Double up around the periphery (1.5" thick) and under the wheels. Use medium hard wheels 2 fixed and 2 with swivels
and brakes like this https://shop.servicecaster.com/Solid-Polyurethane-Wheel-Caster-p/scc-30cs420-spur-tlb.htm 
You can make them better looking by making skirts out of a hardwood that extend almost down to the floor. If you are on thick carpet I would give it 1/2" clearance. If solid floor or a tight weave carpet 1/8" will do. Then you will not see the wheels. Put the steering wheels with the brakes at the back and do not put a shirt there so you can toe the brakes. 
I would never recommend this for subwoofers. Most of them would slowly walk across the floor even with the brakes on. 

An option if you want something ready made for the task.

http://speakerfeet.com/LP_Caster.html

I've used these for a friends system.  Cut two bamboo cutting boards to size, attached to dolly with Grab-It construction adhesive for a solid top surface, placed his Aerial 10t on them.

https://www.amazon.com/JzNova-Heavy-Metal-Wheels-Square/dp/B083D2JRNN/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=2VI3V52T0...=

Spikes are much better for bass and imaging.

capnr,


I was in a similar situation.


I used to have my listening room in a configuration where it was easy to place any loudspeaker relative to my listening sofa.   But then I had to flip the position of the listening sofa 180 degrees in order to set up a projection system as well.  This meant that 2 channel listening speakers had to be placed well out from the screen wall (which I'd want to do anyways - speakers tend to sound best pulled out), but that now put them partially in the way of the room opening.  In other words, the bigger the speakers, the more they obstructed getting in an out of the room, blocking the entrance-way.


But I just didn't want to give up my jones for big speakers and a big sonic presentation.  So I still went ahead and bought big Thiel 3.7 speakers.   I figured that I'd slipped mostly in to watching movies, somewhat less music listening, so if I liked the sound of the big Thiels I'd devise a way of moving them in and out of the room easily.  So in to the room for music listening...and I might be in that phase for a week, but back out when I'm more in home theater mode.


They sounded absolutely glorious in their designated position and I wanted to keep them.   I went about testing and devising every possible way of moving them around under the sun:  hand dolly, I built an MDF platform with castors just as you envisioned, tried castors directly in to the speaker, tried the Herbies gliders, you name it.   In the end, for my purposes, nothing proved convenient or easy enough to get them in and out of the room with ease.  But a part of the problem is that my listening room has a big shag rug that I love, which makes moving around on wheels more of a chore.   But in any case, even doing a platform with very big castor wheels just kind of sucked.
.

Eventually I sold the big Thiels.


And I downsized slightly to the Thiel 2.7s which were just slim enough to not impede the entrance-way, and which also fit the room better aesthetically. 



Still, I have the issue that I use a separate home theater system in the same room, so the L/C/R home theater speakers take the space along the screen wall.   The two channel speakers sit out front of those.  This also means I want to not block the large projection screen image with the two channel speakers.   So I sometimes need to shift them a bit (my projection screen has a masking system that changes the image size, sometimes going really big and wide for widescreen movies).  



Right now the Thiels have the Herbie gliders underneath instead of spikes, which makes them easy to shift on the carpet.  And there seems to be no bad (or good) sonic consequences to using those gliders.


I then bought a pair of Joseph Audio Perspective speakers (keeping the Thiels because I love the Thiels too), which are even smaller, slimmer floorstanders but which sound as big as the Thiels.   They solve the ergonomics in the room quite well, and so long as I keep them spread wide enough apart I don't have to move them very often (they are on their own outrigger support stands, which use a sort of blunt almost-spike at the bottom.  I may substitute herbie gliders at some point).


That said, as I am always interested in trying new speakers, I may some day try the Devore O/96 speakers in my place, which are quite squat and wide.   Though they are not deep and therefore present no problem for getting in and out of the room where they'd be placed, they are wide which means they will potentially block more of the projected image.Which means I'd have to be able to shift them easily in and out of placefor certain movies - not out of the room, just a foot or so either way.So I envision actually putting those ones on a wheeled base (because I wouldn't have to get them in and out of the room).   If I ever go for that.


But the point another person brought up is certainly important.  Just playing yet again with positioning of my Joseph speakers reminds me of how the sound can alter via the most minute adjustments.  So ideally I want a position where I'm not moving the speakers much. 


Oh, and the way I deal with having several sets of speakers:

I also have stand mounted speakers I love (Spendor and smaller Thiel monitors) and those are super easy to lift in and out of the room.  I may set a pair up and listen to them for a week or two.

For the floorstanding Thiel and Joseph speakers, I use a small, convenient hand dolly.  I've covered the dolly with thick felt pads (furniture moving pads) so there is no point of contact of any hard, potentially scratch inducing surfaces on the dolly.   The speakers are pretty easy to roll in and out of the room with the dolly.   But it's not something I want to do often, so a set of speakers will tend to end up in the room for a month or several months.

Cheers.

I have found the Herbies gliders to allow easy movement and to be better sonically than spiking my stands directly to the floor.  I have 70lb. speaker stands with bookshelf speakers blue tacked to the stand, so the weight is similar to what you are dealing with.  The stands have spikes on them that rest in the cup of the Herbies Gliders.  I can easily slide the speakers around as needed.  They are reasonably affordable, so they would be worth a try.  My guess is they would be better sonically than anything with wheels.  But I'd try both and do a comparison.  Good luck! 

Hello,
I remember a Darko video with his Klipsch speakers on casters even though he said they worked best up close to the wall. One thing is the casters can make noise unless they have really good ball bearings like on rollerblade wheels. The caster wheels might make a knocking sound the floor from the bass. You might want to try roller blade wheels. They sell kits for office chairs. You might raise the speaker to offset the tweeters and make them too high. If this does raise them too high try to build a back to front slant to get the tweeters back to your listening position. If you are not using spikes the try floor gliders mentioned above. Magic MoversThe ones made out of Teflon are easier to move. You might raise your speakers by 1/4 of an inch. Plus they have foam to help with vibration 
Here is another option:
https://www.wish.com/product/5e63a859e74d652d42d3515b?from_ad=goog_shopping&_display_country_cod...

It is very easy to "duck walk" a large heavy pair of tower speakers. I am of average strength for my age.

I have wondered for years why no company has engineered this solution yet. You design an adjustable platform that has wheels that activate with a foot push fulcrum. You wheel into place then deactivate the wheels up and out of the way to then have the spikes support the speaker. You could also incorporate isolation materials into the base.
Really think about this there are people paying 10’s of thousands of $ for a speaker cable. I think there would be a huge market for this. Do you want to wrestle and duck walk a $100.000 Speaker around your room?

The lower the mass of the speaker the greater the need for stiff and stable mounting.

Thus the mobility vs stability thing, has to be qualified.

Speaker mass vs stability is at the core of the ’quality audio’ equation.

Proac super tablettes on 24-28" stands...all on 20-50 pound wheeled dollies.. is probably not a good idea, as is 900lb speakers with spikes, where test positioning is largely an impossibility..

There’s some contention in the middle, sure. Self choice might be a good thing to call it.

bob540, I did not seek a specialty audio product, just as I did not seek a high end rack for my gear. I have made choices where to allocate the funds, and I prefer to allocate them in the actual power and audio chain. Note, however, that I am doing digital source only, and would likely have a different perspective if I did analogue. 

I say this to give you some perspective on my advice. I use rubber hockey pucks under speakers occasionally for the same reason; cheap, effective, and allows quick changes which I do continuously. Were the speakers anchored to one spot always, I would probably use spikes. But, it's not practical for moving about. 

I would look for spikes used for large furniture, such as big cabinets. Maybe check with a furniture store, or an office store. It's pretty easy to get larger, black ones with wider/double wheels. Mine have the twin wheels per caster with a gap between (like dual wheels on a pickup truck), and they are more than 1" wide so as to roll on the carpet easier. I think I got the casters I put on the Vapor Audio Joule White speakers at Home Depot. Tried to get better quality ones among the selections. They came with longer threaded posts than I was searching for; no problem, I added washers to close the gap, and frankly, the speakers are better sounding with the extra inch or so of elevation as it lifted the soundstage very nicely. 

For the large, 175 pound amps I put on modified furniture dollies, they had solid hard rubber casters built in perhaps close to 1" thick. I can push the amps around pretty easily, even though the flooring is thick pad with thick berber carpeting. So, 60 pounds should be quite easy with wide casters, no issues. Except, watch out if the speakers are taller and thinner! You don't want them tipping when moving. Sitting still, no problem, but have a good handle on them while moving, because if they are narrow, they will tilt most likely as you move them on carpeting! 

Take a spike along, and match up the thread. Take your pick on size of caster, and how long the threaded post to insert. There are only so many sizes of posts with specific wheels, so you have to be somewhat flexible. It's not hard. 

Agree with much of what has been said.

--You can easily and discretely mark the preferred listening spot on the vinyl floor
--Would pick the heaviest/highest quality casters you can find.  I have seen some that have a rubber contact surface that will not mare your floor and be smooth rolling.  Locking casters would be best in my mind.
--I would not be thrilled with drilling my speakers.  Would make an mdf or plywood base 1 1/2" thick with a nice wood skirt.  I think it would look good and perform well for you

@douglas_schroeder, can you recommend, with a link preferably, the type of casters you are referring to?  I have thicker carpet over concrete slab and currently use spikes, but I would love to have an easy way to move my 60 pound speaker towers.  The casters would need to be wide enough to not dig into the carpeting, making them more difficult to move.  If the casters would screw into the same threaded openings on the bottom of the speakers, that would be ideal.

Handtruck

Mine are permanent, but it is easy to arrange a non-permanent trial or easily removed solution. I could remove my skirt and wheels, I cannot imagine wanting to.

I do exactly as you describe, wheels to the rescue.

my speakers are quite heavy, but 60-80 lbs is a lot, heavy enough for wheels IMO. Go to Home Depot, pick up an 80 lb bag of concrete, walk the length of the aisle. Put it on the floor, try to push it with your foot. I’ve done spikes/wheels, nothing lost by wheels, much flexibility gained.

the advantages of easy toe-in modification for two listeners important as well as ’parking’ them. Luckily I have a wood floor with a grid, alternate symmetrical location marks easy.

3 wheels (2 front, 1 rear center), always avoids wobble, more weight per wheel than 4. (more below). Not swivels, too much easy movement, you can slip/slide sideways as straight rolling wheels slowly roll forward.

four alternate positions

a. ideal for listening, out, away from rear and side walls, toed in to pre-defined angle,
b. toed in further when/for two chairs and a small center table. either chair closer to one speaker but other speaker aimed more directly, volumes equal enough to preserve imaging for two.
c. half way ’back’ lower volume listening, more room to get around.
d. fully ’parked’ in the corners when needed/desired, in your case also WAF.
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rear ’slightly short’ corner blocks, to prevent tipping.

3 wheels is unstable, I put two rear corner blocks, 1/4" shorter than the rear center wheel. any tip is ’caught’ quickly by the corner block, but when in position the blocks do not touch the floor.

therefore a rectangular dolly can be modified, move one of it’s rear wheels to the center, and add some ’slightly short’ rear corner blocks/

a triangular dolly will have no place to attach corner blocks, so you need to attach a rectangular platform to the top of the triangular dolly.
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skirt

a skirt around the rolling platform can be built to conceal the wheels.
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tilt speakers back slightly?

Add a block above the two front wheels to raise the speaker’s front up (situation varies of course). After forward location and toe-in is essentially solved, listen, then try a temporary block,

a. time alignment of drivers (highs travel faster than lows) (also WAF involved)
b. aim tweeter’s narrower sound waves directly to ear height of listening position
c. non-parallel initial and reflected sound waves to floor, ceiling, and reflections off rear wall will be more diffuse. toe-in avoids this for side walls.

Mine: a matching wood skirt, 3 permanent wheels, rear anti-tilt corner blocks, and front lift.

Wheels: mine: enough surface to avoid marking the wood floor, but the smaller the contact surface, the more weight/contact area, and
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office chairs, professionally ordered, offer two types of casters:

hard wheels on carpet/soft surfaces. slightly soft surface wheel on hard floor material.

Note: you don’t need to get perfect wheels to get started if you set it up to change them later if you find something preferable.

With regard to ozzy62’s comments concerning maintaining precise placement (to 1/4 inch!)... I always wonder when I read such advice - how does one maintain, let alone reproduce such precise head positioning? 

Herbie’s are great, work very well with lots of options for just about any setup.

caper, yes, absolutely, casters on the bottom of the speakers in place of the spikes. It works beautifully!

Note, it will probably yield a superior result to spikes; as I said, the (often) additional elevation of the soundstage is considered by the ear to be advantageous. You don’t even need locking casters - unless you have a downhill slope to your floor! ;)

Here’s another reason to consider casters; you can probably alter the front baffle slope to improve the speaker. The Vapor Audio Joule White speakers I have do not have perfectly even height of the casters - I intentionally altered their height. The rear casters have two additional washers, which lift the rear of the speaker slightly, adding a hair more forward baffle slope, and imo give the speaker even better sound. Of course, it’s completely adjustable, as one can add or remove washers to suit. Imo, that is a far more important adjustment than whether the speaker sits on a spike or on casters.

With casters you can quickly, efficiently, check whatever placement you wish, and I encourage you to not waste time. You do not need days or weeks to move the speakers to your preferred location. Move them several times in a day if you wish. You will dial in a much preferred result quickly. There is no advantage to wasting your life on it. If you want, change it back, etc. Take a piece of tape and make a mark or two for preferred locations. It’s simple.

Absolutely, use a lock washer for the caster to cinch down. Select a robust caster, and don’t be chintzy about it. On wood floors be careful, as the weight of the speaker on the caster as it moves can put a running compression line in the wood! You do not want a thin wheeled caster, but one with more width to distribute the pressure so you won’t get damage. Note casters that can handle higher weight, and still have width to be ok on delicate floors. There, I just saved your flooring. :)

What size threads are the spike inserts in your speakers?  If they are in the 1/4-5/16 range you should be able to find suitable casters that can bolt with locking  nuts directly to the installed inserts.  
You do not want a caster to break off in the moving process!

 I had a pair of Green Mountain Diamanté’s that I fitted with casters in the manner I described.  I was satisfied with the results.

Douglas, to confirm.... you are suggesting I mount castors directly to the bottom of the speakers? I hadn't considered that but like the idea. Locking castors, easy to play with positioning and they won't move once locked. I wonder how thick the bottom of a typical speaker enclosure is... don't want to create a problem putting in screws.

Thanks everyone. The listening area will have an area rug, but the rest of the floor is vinyl plank over concrete. Spikes are a non-starter, as they will go right through the vinyl. Okay if they never move, but no way I can walk the speakers on spikes, making holes all along the way.

When you suggest castors on the speakers, I assume you mean attached directly to the bottom of the speaker. I can do that and like the idea.

Thanks for the tip on Herbbies gliders. Never heard of them but might work. I'll look into it.
Rex

You could use herbbie's gliders that spike to the glider and are easy to move.

Here is something no one has mentioned. Most high quality speakers require pretty precise positioning. Sometimes even a 1/4" can be the difference between good and great. Are you willing to settle knowing you won't replicate that perfect position every time? I know I'm not.

Oz

Why not?  Try it and see.  My Ohm F5 speakers use locking castors.  Great for moving things until locked in and sonically no issue. 

I've taken a standard wooden dolly pocked the casters outside the cabinet. The actual cabinet was only raised 2". The base was 1 1/2 thick with 1/2" under, to clear.. I did a couple sets through the years.. An afternoon collecting stuff.... 1 2 X 4 sheet 3/4 mdf a dolly from Harbor Northern, Carr, or Granger.... some screws, wood glue, sandpaper, primer and paint.. To stop it from rolling, just roll two of the casters on a piece of carpet.. Mine were usually a bit heavier, 3-500 lbs..

I also did a 5th wheel set up, two wheels in the back and a single, handle with a single wheel in the front. The handle was easy to remove just tip it back and uncouple, the pin/handle/caster out of the pocket on the front of the base. It won't move and easy to position..

Regards

You are making a simple problem into a complex one by thinking of a mobile platform. I strongly suggest you do not use a mobile platform, but simply put them on casters. I have used a few speaker systems on casters and they are wonderful for ease of positioning. 

People may insist that spikes are necessary to elicit the best performance. While that may be true, I have not found it to be the case. I have used many speakers that have spikes, and frankly, the speakers that have had casters performed better with casters, largely due to the elevation of the speaker raising the sound stage. In addition, there are literally dozens of potential advancements to systems, and almost never are all of them employed. Imo, spikes are among the least important of the changes that can be made to audio systems. While they can confer a change, it pales in comparison to what is done with power and signal paths. (I am not interested in arguing my advice with anyone here. If you disagree, great, do things your way.) 

A tangential point; most people randomly pick a position for a speaker system. With casters, you can experiment MUCH more with it, and most likely find a far better result. I would never put a big speaker on a separate, mobile stand, as it is far less stable, too. Talk about introducing unwanted vibrations! Casters would be far better in that regard. 

In real world system building you make the changes necessary to live with the system - or else you won't use the system as much, and or have trouble with the spouse. 

Further thoughts ... Use spikes and when you need to roll them, "walk them" one corner at a time onto a mobile platform to roll.

I would use spikes if you have carpet and when you do want to move them, you can "walk them" by picking up three corners and pivoting around the fourth corner.   80 lbs is about what my speakers weigh and that works perfectly fine for me.   The thing is that the cabinets on full range speakers move a greater distance than the tweeter dome moves, so the sound is blurred significantly.   Putting them on wheels will only make things a lot worse.    If you don't have carpet, you can use a number of items to put under the spikes to protect a wood floor or use feet especially designed for sensitive flooring.   Do check out IsoAccoustics feet, the concept is sound and they are the only audio company of which I am aware that went to a NRTL to verify their claims - that is impressive in itself.  I'm using spikes on carpet which is over concrete embedded 6 inches in the earth , so I am not totally convinced those super feet would help my speakers.   Maybe?