Coupling/Decoupling Electronics

If you think the 1" from the wall was big, wait till you hear the image focus improve when the speakers are precisely equidistant and symmetrical.

Please note I said precisely. Not within 1/4". Not within 1/16". Precisely equidistant and symmetrical.  

Don’t electronics produce their own vibration? 

Sure they do. Lots of it. Not just the obvious moving parts either. Every component is chock full of alternating currents and fields of constantly varying strength. Signal fields push and pull against themselves resulting in all kinds of physical vibrations. 

Then once those vibrations do get created, the amp or whatever is vibrating on its own, some of that goes down into the shelf or whatever and so now that is vibrating. Vibrations never just flow off into infinity, they always reach a point where they reflect or refract back, and this results in ringing. Beautifully demonstrated with speakers and a seismograph in the Townshend video, but the same applies to everything. 

Shouldn’t that energy inside the boxes be passed off, as speaker energy is passed off by spikes?

So, we just answered that one: speaker energy is NOT passed off by spikes! Watch the video. Couldn't be more obvious. 

What happens is, the speaker is really no different than anything else, they are the same only more so. If the speaker is on springs then it vibrates, but only the drivers and cabinet, not the floor, etc. Because of this its vibrations die down faster and there is no ringing. Sounds are clean and clear. Unbelievably so. Without springs, does not really matter what cone or spike, all they can do is tune the character of the ringing but never eliminate it. Watch the video! Or better yet, try Townshend Podiums and hear for yourself.

There are a lot of variables, but not so much so that a blanket statement cannot be made. Springs will achieve far greater sound quality performance, both per dollar and in absolute terms, compared to cones, spikes, etc. Springs are so much better that for just $30 you can have a set of Nobsound that will perform better under more components than anything else you can find for ten times the price.  

Springs are so good in absolute terms that if you pay for really well engineered ones like Townshend Pods and Podiums they perform so well you will have a hard time finding better at any price. Not saying you won't or can't. Saying it won't be easy.

Just a few remarks to hopefully finalize this discussion. The effects of speaker spikes seems relatively straightforward but it really is remarkable how often it’s misunderstood. The effects of spikes is to couple the speaker to the floor on which it stands, the theory being that the energy produced by the speaker travels down through the spike into the floor, which being a much larger, usually stronger material than the speaker, can dissipate it more easily than the speaker alone. Thus we see the real nuts, I mean the strongly motivated audiophiles trying to drill down and plant their spikes in a concrete floor. 

Concrete regards a little buzzing from a speaker to be a minor annoyance, like a fly buzzing around. The concrete makes short work of speaker energy. (Citations omitted because it’s late but they would fill many pages.)


As to the equipment, the consensus seems to be that energy is produced and that the best way to handle it is to isolate the component with pads, springs, or whatever. That’s what I was planning to do. I wonder, though, whether I’ll hit the same problem common to people who tried to isolate speakers. They found that the cushioning and the ability to shed energy by rocking back and forth on the pads caused the music to sound lifeless Particularly in the upper registers, if I remember correctly. 

Well, there’s always something to worry about. I’ll know the answer when I try inserting some (not cheap) sorbothane pads.

They found that the cushioning and the ability to shed energy by rocking back and forth on the pads caused the music to sound lifeless Particularly in the upper registers, if I remember correctly.

Cushioning is exactly what you're doing if you use Sorbethane, it's too soft and pliable. I suppose there may be some benefit by placing it under the stock footers, but there's no benefit when placed directly under the chassis. 
Hard substances such as ceramic DH Cones or BDR Cones will drain vibration.
For decoupling look at Herbies Tenderfeet which are much harder than Sorbethane and rubber. Energy is absorbed and will not be shared with the component like the above materials.
Isoacoustics are excellent at decoupling horizontally and vertically.
@millercarbon can recommend a set of effective springs.

Go to the forum archives and search the many threads on isolation.

Sorbothane hemi-spheres under my Tannoy Berkeley's (4x 50 duro for 35kg) enhanced the bass / mid-bass of my speakers. 

That in itself seemed to marginally clear up the entire frequency range.

As far as I could tell there were only gains, no losses.

Springs might be even better, but are not really practical in their current domestic location.