Speaker Spikes - do the shake test

Everyone by now knows that speaker spikes improve the sound. The theory is that the tweeter excursion is so short, that any speaker cabinet front to back movement creates Doppler / intermodulation distortion. That movement can exceeed, by many times, the excursion of the tweeter. So, the effect is most pronounced up top and then towards the bottom most frequencies. Or so they say.

I have some C4 series II speakers that come with four “spikes” in the plinths. But, the people in Denmark seem to think we all have hardwood floors. The so-called spikes are dull “lugs" that really are meant to sit into four small aluminum floor bot dots, for any better term for them. Many have speakers on carpet, and the so-called spikes sitting on those four round aluminum discs still are pretty wobbly on carpet.

Last week, I pulled all eight of the spikes (not nearly sharp enough, with a 30 degree rounded tip, to be called a spike) and had the guys in the machine shop at work lath them to 60-degree POINTS!

OK, re-installed and speakers leveled (four point level is a pain). WOW, now they are stable as a rock when you push and tug on them. What was NOT expected, was that the BASS response is significantly better. Not that bass is easy to do, but the contribution to the C4’s bass that spikes that are now planted into the concrete floor and under the carpet is amazing. The bass can now place a black dot on a white background as needed. Everything isn’t a shade of gray in the bass. I always felt that the C4’s weakness was bass definition, but the weakness is that Dynaudio doesn’t supply two sets of spikes, those for hard surfaces and those for carpet. That’s too bad, as the supplied spikes don’t cut it on carpet. My spikes are now good enough to pierce down below the carpet and rest on the concrete. But, real spikes should be like half-inch ten-penny nails that don’t chew-up the carper as much as my 60-degree spikes. But, I can’t find this spikes for the C4’s.

If you are like me and haven’t given your speakers the shake test, go do it! If they wobble around any at all see what you can do to fix it. The rewards are well worth as close to free upgrade as I’ve ever done. Don’t think for a second that it seems, “good enough”. If they move around, it isn’t.