Is Spiking Necesarry?

@gdhal   Wow!  Just finished reading your review.  Very comprehensive and detailed.  I liked how you kept updating as it reveals how your continuing listening experiences matured your overall view of the References and their sonic/cost benefit relative to the T Ones.

I went through a similar experience upgrading from Vandersteen 3A Signatures to the Treo CTs.  The cool thing for me is that although the Treos are sleeker in appearance, there is a greater verisimilitude relative to the Model 3's.  Since I still have both Vandy 2wq subs., the deep bass hasn't changed.  If I didn't have the subs. I would have needed to jump to the Quatros which are too pricey.  The Treo CTs are so much cleaner and precise at all frequencies.  They provoked me to go from very large high quality copper speaker cables to all silver cables so I could realize all that the carbon tweeters of the Treo CTs are able to deliver.  Awesome!

Now back to your situation.  After looking at the pic of your setup, and reading about the relatively narrow room, the choice of any Golden Ear tower speaker was smart as they are slim widthwise.  I'm so glad to hear that all went well.

@hifiman5 

Thank you.

True story.

I have this old Jamo Sub200. Cheapo but pretty decent for the price. Using for HT only. Bought it used. It does good things but when the Hz goes low and loud, it would rattle/distort.

I removed its plastic feet. Put them on it is own screws and put felt pad under the screws. No more rattle/distortion. I cannot believe. I am very surprised how a simple trick fixed the problem.

I am sure spikes would work too (maybe better) if simple screws work.

I stopped using speaker spikes years ago when I found that simple and inexpensive Vibrapods (I've had suspended wood floors in listening rooms for many decades) keep the energy from the speaker from going into the floor and coming back into the speaker…many modern high end speakers have adopted something like this…also custom feet with some sort of suspension/damping can also accomplish this but at a far higher cost than Vibrapods. Currently (and with my previous speakers) my speakers are on butcher blocks with "pods" between the blocks and the speakers…works for me.

I stopped using speaker spikes years ago when I found that simple and inexpensive Vibrapods.....

I would consider Vibrapods "spikes", albeit loosely defined. They appear similar to the Herbies Gliders.