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Speaker spike feet?

I recently acquired a nice older hifi system with Aerial Acoustics 7B tower speakers.I am not an audiophile. The speakers have heavy iron bases on them but there are no feet of any sort on these bases. I emailed the owner/designer at Aerial and he sent me a schematic of the bases which show that they originally had spike feet. He said he could provide the spikes at minimal cost. I was afraid to ask what minimal meant since I seem to remember that these bases cost $400 when new. (I'm still getting accustomed to what things cost in the audiophile world.)

I am wondering if I really need the spikes. These speakers sit on a carpeted floor with hardwood on typical joist construction floor. They sound quite good to me but if spikes would help in any way and I can get them cheap then I will do so.

I'll ask Aerial how much theirs cost but I'm pretty sure that stainless steel tripod (for photography) spikes will fit the 3/8-16 threads in these bases. The cost would be about $40 for those. Maybe the actual Aerial ones wouldn't cost any more but they are longer and look very sharp which makes me wonder about floor/carpet damage since these speakers weigh around 110 pounds each.
n80
deecee's avatar
deecee
105 posts
 
I have a pair of Aerial 7s (the model just prior to yours) and I used these since I managed to score an excellent deal on pricing (way back when):

http://starsoundtechnologies.com/

Differences were subtle but there. Mostly in cleaning up the midrange a touch; slightly more detail.

Worth it for me because I got them for cheap however one should expect diminishing returns.

Note they are a PAIN to move, so try to get the speakers set in position PRIOR to using the spikes (Aerials are relatively heavy!)

Good Luck & Happy Listening!
DeeCee
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
8,040 posts
 
deecee is correct. You would definitely notice the difference between ordinary spikes and these brass ones from Starsound, but of bourse, there is a considerable price difference.
n80 OP
2,125 posts
 
I am going to make my own this afternoon. I'll use stainless steel which is what the original ones were.

This way I'll be able to fine tune each one myself. ;-)
n80 OP
2,125 posts
 
Done. Total cost $8.00 plus 1 hour of work in the shop. There is a picture below. I could feel when they ’popped’ through the carpet mat into the hardwood.

Special triple alloy composition. Extremely high tensile strength. Precisely tuned for this specific set of speakers, the carpet they rest on and the hardwood underneath. ;-o

Do the speakers sound better? I don’t know. Certainly nothing major. Maybe a little sharper and tighter at lower volume? I don’t know. But, for $8.00 they're up off the carpet.

https://images.nikonians.org/galleries/data/3564/IMG_1028.jpg
nicktheknife
194 posts
 
n80,  nice job on those spikes!


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