Anyone try decoupling speakers from the room?


Just wondering if anyone else has suspended their speakers. My first attempt was with an old pair of infinity's which I placed on top of a bicycle tube. I was wondering if manufacturers would design a speaker with this in mind? My main purpose is to keep the floor from resonating, IMHO it works well.
pedrillo
I recently purchased some polycrystal amp stands here on the 'gon, with the intention of moving from a multi-shelf rack between my speakers (Gallo Ref 3's) to having the components on the amp stands (still in between the speakers, but taking up much less vertical real estate; my hope was that the soundstaging might improve). At any rate, it didn't work as well as I had hoped--the soundstaging didn't improve (I think because my rack was already pretty short, and it was behind the speakers, not exactly between them), cable management became a pain, and the WAF wasn't there--so I put each of my Gallos on a stand.

I was amazed at the difference, the bass became so much clearer and fuller, which led the mids and highs to sound better, as well. I know that a lot of people use after-market stands for these speakers, as they think that they're a bit too short, and that the bases aren't big enough to effectively dissipate energy. I'm not sure that I got much of an improvement because they were raised higher, but I do think that decoupling them from the floor was absolutely the right move for me to make. BTW, my listening room is carpet over suspended wooden floors, and it's a fairly old house, so there's a lot of give in those floor beams.

I'd love to try out some after-market stands designed specifically for the Gallos, but they're all pretty pricey. Besides that, my fiance really seems to like the look of the Gallos set on top of the polycrystal stands, so I'm in no hurry to change it.
I wonder what Bobby P. would think of your setup. My guess is that he would be horrified.
I use Symposium Ultra platforms under my 3 way speakers (even though I have carpet over a concrete floor on grade). I prefer it to spikes. The bass is tighter and clearer and the midrange is more focused. Also worked better with my old Vandy 2CIs (with in this case Svelte platforms).
9rw,
The speakers are a product of a genius, I believe that by me trying a different approach is an attempt to make them more synergistic to my room and not any attempt at changing them. I use Bobby's bam and the speaker itself is not modified. It's too bad some are close-minded.
Concrete floor=spikes.
Suspended wood floor=decoupling.

A generalization, but probably true in most cases.

I have suspended wood floors under carpet and spiking sounds very bad vs. decoupling.