Shocked removed spikes, used blue tack, what other non spike footer

I have carpet and underlay over a timber floor and for many years had my speakers on quite large spikes to cut through to the timber.

I though it sounded ok but when I bought new speakers last year the speaker manufacturer recommended I decouple the speakers from the floor by placing a slab of granite on top of the carpet and the speakers on the slabs. I had never realised how bad the bass had been or how much it had muddied the midrange.

It’s really easy to try. I initially just used a large clay paver from the garden and the improvement was instant.  Granite does look better. Two of my audio buddies were equally impressed and have done the same with similar results.

@cheeg, a friend of ours has a pair of beautiful Eltax Symphony floorstanding loudspeakers (part of a 5:1 system) stood on a double (?) layer of carpet. 

Of course we tut-tutted and muttered a few comments about what the reviewers would say about speakers that wobbled when touched. But guess what? They sounded good, far better than you'd guess by just looking.

Later on another friend stood his floor standing Kef 55s on two slate tiles, no spikes. He's convinced that that they sound better, and I am too. Just a touch more organic and less harsh.

Perhaps they a touch less sharp and precise, but the trade off is worth it for a more relaxing listening experience.

 

I've always used spikes and this has peaked my interest.  My Nola Boxers sit atop  24" sand filled stands with blu tack in each corner of the stands top plate. the stands are spiked through thick carpet to a concrete slab. I don't have any furniture movers but I have rubberized 3" squares that I'm going to replace the spikes with. should be interesting.

What drew my interest to remove spikes was Music Direct sent me a catalog of just loudspeakers displayed. The Revel Performa F228Be $1000.00 towers has no spikes just a plastic or rubber base surrounding the speaker, in fact all there speakers displayed had no spikes. I had some Joseph Audio towers it had a base with small screws holding it on with spikes then mounted to base maybe best of both worlds, I don't know. I never knew what an impact spikes make. We spend all this money on cables, platforms, cartridges, tubes to bring out the best and then to find spikes in my system leaned everything out. I still feel in need to find a happy medium between blue tak and spikes, system feel like it lost a little air, even with that loss I'm enjoying things more with blue tak. I always heard if you have carpet you have to pierce through to get to get best sound,sounds like that's could be up for debate also.